Maya/Toxik Interoperability and 3D Limitations

Importing Maya Files
Chapter 10, Maya/Toxik 3D Interop

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Transformation Attributes

The Toxik 3D workflow lets you import Maya scenes into Toxik. The following tables show which Maya node attributes are brought over to Toxik (indicated by an "S" for supported) and whether the attributes can be edited (indicated by a "E") in Toxik or whether it's recalculated into some other attributes or Toxik paradigms.

If some Maya attributes are not listed here, then they are not supported by the current Maya/Toxik interoperability workflow, such as transformation limits, drawing overrides (normal, reference, template, color, etc.), ghosting information, depth of field, and motion blur.

Transformation Attributes

Group	Attributes	S	E	Comments
Transform	Translate	X	X
	Rotate	X	X
	Scale	X	X
	Shear
	Rotate Order	X		Recalculated in Toxik transform. Expressions set on those will interfere with the recalculation process.
	Rotate Axis	X
	Inherits Transform
Pivots	Rotate Pivot	X		Recalculated in Toxik transform. Expressions set on those will interfere with the recalculation process.
	Scale Pivot	X
	Display Rotate Pivot
	Display Scale Pivot
Object Display	Visibility	X	X	In Toxik, it affects only Axis visibility (not whole hierarchy).

Locator

Group	Attributes	S	E	Comments
Local Transform	Position	X	X
	Scale	X	X
Object Display	Visibility	X	X

Camera

Group	Attributes	S	E	Comments
Camera Attributes	Controls (Aim, Aim-Up)	X		Only free cameras in Toxik.
	Focal Length (Horizontal Angle of View)	X	X
	Camera Scale
	Auto Clip Planes
	Near Clip Plane	X	X
	Far Clip Plane	X	X

Film Back	Film Gate Presets	X	X
	Camera Aperture	X	X
	Film Aspect Ratio	X	X
	Lens Squeeze Ratio	X	X
Film Fit On Resolution Gate	Film Fit Mode	X	X
	Film Fit Offset	X	X
	Film Offset	X	X
Film Back 2D Transform	Pre Scale
	Film Translate
	Film Roll Pivot
	Film Roll Value
	Film Roll Order
	Post Scale
Output Settings	Renderable	X		Camera is imported if renderable.
	Mask	X		Mask of the "render" (current) camera translates to Alpha channel in Reaction output format. Affects all cameras.
	Depth			Image Z channel not supported in Toxik.
Environment	Background Color
Display Options	Display Film Gate
	Display Resolution Gate		X	Player setting.
	Display Field Chart
	Display Safe Action
	Display Safe Title		X	Player setting.
	Display Film Pivot		X	Player setting.
	Display Film Origin
	Overscan
OrthographicView	Orthographic Mode	X	X
	Orthographic Width			Can not be set in Toxik. Orthographic height is always 100 and width is set according to output pixel aspect ratio.
Object Display	Visibility	X	X

Camera Image Plane

Once imported into Toxik, a Maya image plane loses part of its relationship with its camera. It is imported as a normal plane layer parented to the camera transformation, but it does not rescale itself automatically when its depth or the camera view frustum changes.

Group	Attributes	S	E	Comments
Image Plane Attributes	Display Mode (RGB, RGBA, A, Luminance, etc.)
	Color Gain
	Color Offset
	Alpha Gain
	Attached to Camera vs. Fixed			Always attached to camera.
	Type			Always Image File (Texture not supported).
	Image Name	X	X	In Image Import node feeding the Reaction source.
	Use Image Sequence	X		Can be controlled through Image Import node mark in/out.
	Frame Offset	X	X	In Image Import node feeding the Reaction source.
Placement	Fit Mode			Always "To Size".
	Size	X		Recalculated into plane layer transformation according to Depth and camera Focal Length.
	Offset
	Depth	X		Recalculated into plane layer transformation.
	Rotate	X		Recalculated into plane layer transformation.
	Squeeze Correction	X		Recalculated into plane layer transformation (inverse of camera Lens Squeeze Ratio).
Placement Extras	Coverage Width			Could be translated into a chain of Toxik Crop and Resize nodes at the Reaction source.
	Coverage Height
	Coverage Origin
	Center			Irrelevant since Fixed camera image plane is not supported.
	Width
	Height

Current Limitations

The following list outlines the current limitations for Maya/Toxik 3D interopability:

The format of the imported Toxik composition (and the Reaction node) is based on the render settings of the Maya render camera (which is always the first renderable camera encountered).
The start/end of the imported Toxik composition is set to the Maya scene min/max time and the mark in/out of the composition is set to the Maya animation start/end time.
Maya animation curves are recalculated into a Toxik animation with one keyframe at each frame.
Maya expressions are not translated into Toxik expressions. Importing an expression-driven Maya attribute results in undefined behavior. Expressions on Transform nodes are most likely to cause problems.
Maya node instances are supported. However, they are converted to a set of unrelated duplicate nodes in Toxik.
The camera image plane distance, its size on aperture, the camera focal length and the horizontal scale are all animatable values in Maya, so ideally, the plane layer transformation in Toxik should be animated as well. This is not supported yet.
Image plane type is animatable in Maya. This cannot be supported in Toxik.
Image plane frame offset is animatable in Maya, but the Toxik Import node Time Offset is not.
Image plane size is animatable in Maya. This is not supported in by the interop script.
Image plane depth is animatable in Maya. Depth cannot be animated in Toxik.
Image plane squeeze correction is animatable in Maya. This is not supported in by the interop script.
The image plane offset values which controls how much the center of the image plane is offset from the centre of the viewing frustum of the camera (offsetX, offsetY) are not supported by the interop script.
The camera image plane layer cannot be created correctly if it doesn't have access to the image files associated with it, because we need to know the image resolution to scale the plane layer in Reaction. Also, the Image Import tool cannot store the path of an image sequence that doesn't exist.
Parameters that modify the camera image plane pixels are not supported; colorGain, colorOffset, alphaGain, displayMode (A, RGB, RGBA). This could be implemented in Toxik through various tools nodes after the footage import node.
Parameters that control the amount of the source image that is used in the camera image plane are not supported; coverageX, coverageY, coverageOriginX, coverageOriginY. This could be implemented in Toxik through resize and crop nodes after the footage import node.
Fixed camera plane not supported.
Toxik does not support the Z channel. It is configured through the 'depth' camera shape node attribute in Maya.
Node names are converted to ASCII.
Unicode image plane file sequences and Unicode render layer files cannot be imported.
Once the Maya camera image plane is imported in Toxik, it is no longer a "camera" image plane (one that automatically rescales itself to fit the camera view), just a simple image plane parented by the camera and properly scaled for the current depth of the plane.