+Petar Stamenkovic Not just you, count me in... Trying since 2 days to have any texture rendered in XGEN without luck. Doing exactly the same procedure as in the different tutorials but is not working. Texture maps are visible in the preview, but will not render...auch... With Maya 2015 (no fking SP installed because the IT guy is to busy since 1 year...)
For those (like me) who could not figure out why maya was failing to export the selection as an archive: I have two drives: Local disc with Windows and a TB drive will all of my files. I was unable to export an archive if the maya file was saved on the TB drive. To solve this, save the maya file on your local disc (ie desktop) and export it to the local disc (ie the xgen folder on the local disc), and BAM, you can now export archives like normal! (but it is a funky work around though)
so can we get the shading part to work in 2017? Because i find mash a lot slower and can't handle the amount of detail Xgen can. And in 2017 I haven't been able to get the cubes to be the color of the bitmap I use. It's either just grey or every single cube gets the entire bitmap which results in an even worse result
please help me , i use maya vray 2015,,, everything works good but when I render the primitive colors is invisible ,,, its been a long time that i have this error .
Xgen in maya 2015 is very buggy, almost impossible to deal with. It works , then, you save the file, you pray to God, open the file: it doesn't render or it doesn't work at all. Any indications that it will work better in m 2016?
Do you have any tips for rendering this with V-Ray? I am able to get my texture map to affect the primitives' heights but I can't seem to affect the primitives' colors. Getting the colors to show up in the preview is easy enough, but the output is another story. I'm using Maya 2015 with V-Ray 3.0. Thanks!!!
Unfortunately those were Mental Ray specific variables, so the setup would be different. Actually, as of Maya 2017, you can achieve a very similar effect using MASH rather than XGen. ua-cam.com/video/CFFtjSulCsk/v-deo.html It's much easier to animate and shade with MASH too, since you can just use keyframes and ordinary shaders.
Is there any other way we can render the colors in 2017 with arnold or maya renderer? Because with MASH I find my computer struggling to get the same amount of detail as Xgen. I have more experience with MASH, but xgen was my solution to the fact that MASH can't handle the amount of cubes i want. So any xgen rendering solutions?
Hello, I was wondering if it was possible to have an impact on xgen user created archives with maya dynamics? For example, can I affect xgen cube primitives with Maya fields? I would really appreciate if you could let me know. Thank you.
Nice tutorial! I'm using maya 2016 with mental ray but it's not rendering the texture at all. And I can't see in the viewport either...can you help me?
3:04 No me aparece el archivo que guarde como ''cube_prim'', hice todo bien pero me quede en este punto. I have Windows 8.1 and my maya is 2016 to students HELPPP
great tuturial - I'm having some problems though; adding the archieves file - maya doeesn't recognize that there is a file in the folder(the archieve file that is created is a text file, and maya only looks for .xarc files - any idea as how to fix this?(i'm on a PC)
+guldhaar I know it is 6 months old but if anyone still got this problem: You can rename the textfile correctly if you open it and try save as. Then you put the whole new Filename in quotoation marks like this "newextension.xarc". I dont know if maya will recognize the file, but at least it is no text document anymore ;-)
+guldhaar having the same problem. win 7 maya 15. tried resaving text file w/ extension .xarc and it is still not recognized in maya as such a file. Will try maya 2016 sp3 shortly.
Hi, I'm trying to follow the tutorial and I have a problem. When I'm trying to export the cube to an archive it exports a .log file. I'm following step by step the tutorial. I'm completely lost! Please help!
I would try opening that .log file in a text editor and seeing what it says. Usually Maya outputs that if it ran into a problem exporting, and the log file will give you a clue as to what went wrong. Unfortunately it's difficult for me to make a judgement from here without any information to go on.
Maya Learning Channel this is the message that has the output log that creates, I don't know what does it mean :S Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2015/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgen.mel line 464: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'tracking' # Traceback (most recent call last): # File "", line 1, in # AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'tracking' [ 0.00%] splitByShadingGroups [u'cube_prim_GEO'] [ 0.00%] getSGsFromObj( cube_prim_GEO ) returned [u'initialShadingGroup'] [ 0.00%] abcExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/abc/cube_prim.abc [ 0.00%] abcExport -uvWrite -frameRange 1.000000 1.000000 -worldSpace -root |cube_prim_GEO -file "C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/abc/cube_prim.abc" [ 0.00%] miExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/mi/cube_prim [ 0.00%] miExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/mi/cube_prim_cube_prim_GEO.mi [ 8.33%] materialExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/materials/cube_prim.ma File contains unknown nodes or data. To preserve this information, the current file type cannot be changed. [ 8.33%] done in 2.866 sec C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/
Ignacio F.M. I have same problem too. when I click the export button I couldn't see many cubes on my screen just like what the lecture performer did. I did exactly what he did. can't see them. I guess some setting is the problem for the circumstances.
When I tried to apply a colored version of the same topographical map to get a nice rendered color but arnold did not render the color of the map what is the problem help
hello again - now for some reason ot works fine....now I have another problem, trying to render out an animation.....rendering one frame works fine, but using the batch render for animation and all I get is a lot of copies of the first frame.....the cubes doesn't grow. Any idea why?
Hmm, are you sure you set the frame range properly? There were some known issues with batch rendering XGen in Maya 2014. In another tutorial we show you how to use the script "int $i; for ($i = 1; $i
Hi, and thanks for the reply - I got it working, the patches from xgen had to be exported - that did the trick. And again thanks for a great tutorial - keep 'em coming
Thanks for this tutorial It would be great if it worked, but if you look in the AREA and other forums you will see that at least on a Mac system you cannot create the .xarc file only a .log file that says: /bin/sh: mayapy: command not found If you know any solution it would be great (I think you are using a Windows system, right?
I am told this is likely due to incompatible python libraries and is generally user machine specific. Updating these libraries and making sure you're on the most recent versions of Maya and OSX may help.
Here's a more specific fix you can try: In your file manager, go to: plug-ins\xgen\scripts\xgenm\xmaya\xgmArchiveExportBatchUI.py Find lines: # Create a new process mayapy_args = ["mayapy", "\""+os.environ['XGEN_LOCATION'] + "scripts/xgenm/xmaya/xgmArchiveExportBatch.py" + "\"", \ Change it to: # Create a new process mayapy = os.path.join( os.environ['MAYA_LOCATION'], "bin", "mayapy" ) mayapy_args = [ mayapy, "\""+os.environ['XGEN_LOCATION'] + "scripts/xgenm/xmaya/xgmArchiveExportBatch.py" + "\"", \
Maya Learning Channel Haven't heard anyone with a mac to get Xgen work properly. It's just crashes Maya. those lines only give me a syntax error. Is it possible to post the whole replaced code? # Create a new process mayapy_args = ["mayapy", "\""+os.environ['XGEN_LOCATION'] + "scripts/xgenm/xmaya/xgmArchiveExportBatch.py" + "\"", \ strLODMode, strLODLo, strLODMed, \ str(self.startFrame), str(self.endFrame), destArchiveName, destDir, sourceFilenames, batch_script_paths, batch_plugins ]
Maya Learning Channel tried this fix to no avail. Seems to problem is only on OSX Yosemite? Hopefully this will be fixed in the next SP :) Looking forward to trying this out at some point.
+G Quelch There have been some changes to XGen since this video was made. Consult the Maya Documentation for new methods of coloring primitives, or try this method outlined in our hair tutorial (except rather than ramps, assign a file) ua-cam.com/video/OTJv4Wo4WCM/v-deo.html
Hey everytime I 'Create selection' at 3:11 my mac opens python, then python becomes unresponsive and quits. does that effect my archived scene? I don't see python opening in the tutorial.
That definitely sounds like some kind of bug. I would try reporting it. Alternatively, if you have Maya 2017 or newer, I would consider trying to do this effect with MASH instead (it's much easier). ua-cam.com/video/7GQK29ctz0A/v-deo.html
When I render with arnold no color on output but in view-port everything is OK.even when i use maya software render no problem at all.what's wrong with arnold?
Hi have you been able to solve it somehow? The only things i've managed to get on my screen are either grey cubes or cubes with the bitmap stretched over every single one of them.
Hi Elias, Did you manage to solve this problem. I am struggling so much in the last week :( Please if you found a solution to this problem share it here. I will appreciate it!
Could you please help us with the problem of exporting xacr , just exports log file, been searching all internet for a way around or a fix and it seems there is a lot o guys with this problem
Scrtknight Did you see my response to Sunithaya below? I am being told that this is generally a problem with incompatible Python libraries (specifically in Yosemite, but possibly beyond that). I would try updating them as well as making sure you have all Maya SPs installed.
Unfortunately I don't know what the compatibility is like in Keyshot. Although XGen can be used with renderers other than mentalray and Arnold, it takes some integration code.
Maya Learning Channel ah OK I'll have to do some digging around. keyshot has a direct plugin with maya but as previously mentioned it only exports the plane and a single cube. is there a way to turn the instances into actual exportable geometry Wether it be .object or .fbx?
Unfortunately that is only possible with spline primitives at the moment. help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-33279585-C22F-4E3E-880F-6EFD3D0BFA9A
Is it just me, or is Maya working really hard to make simple things as difficult and as artist/user unfriendly as possible?
+Petar Stamenkovic Not just you, count me in... Trying since 2 days to have any texture rendered in XGEN without luck. Doing exactly the same procedure as in the different tutorials but is not working. Texture maps are visible in the preview, but will not render...auch...
With Maya 2015 (no fking SP installed because the IT guy is to busy since 1 year...)
but after some practice you will enjoy it keep going
For those (like me) who could not figure out why maya was failing to export the selection as an archive:
I have two drives: Local disc with Windows and a TB drive will all of my files. I was unable to export an archive if the maya file was saved on the TB drive. To solve this, save the maya file on your local disc (ie desktop) and export it to the local disc (ie the xgen folder on the local disc), and BAM, you can now export archives like normal! (but it is a funky work around though)
SUPER SENSACIONAL TUTORIAL !!!
FELICITACIONES !!!
¿EXISTE LA FORMA DE QUE LO HAGAN TAMBIÉN EN MAYA 2016?
Great topological tutorial for Xgen.
I am struggling to get the color map attached to the shader. I wish the video explained that part in more detail.
did you ever figure this out or have another tut to point too? This one glosses over it so quick .
there's no ''xgmr:geoshader'' under my base_GEO_topology_art (in topology_collection), any help?
so can we get the shading part to work in 2017? Because i find mash a lot slower and can't handle the amount of detail Xgen can. And in 2017 I haven't been able to get the cubes to be the color of the bitmap I use. It's either just grey or every single cube gets the entire bitmap which results in an even worse result
Im using 2018 and I find hard to get thru this tutorial due to all of the changes. Do you know of any more contemporary topology art tutorials??
please help me , i use maya vray 2015,,, everything works good but when I render the primitive colors is invisible ,,, its been a long time that i have this error .
Xgen in maya 2015 is very buggy, almost impossible to deal with.
It works , then, you save the file, you pray to God, open the file:
it doesn't render or it doesn't work at all.
Any indications that it will work better in m
2016?
Do you have any tips for rendering this with V-Ray? I am able to get my texture map to affect the primitives' heights but I can't seem to affect the primitives' colors. Getting the colors to show up in the preview is easy enough, but the output is another story. I'm using Maya 2015 with V-Ray 3.0. Thanks!!!
I am unable to get the root_color part at the end to work. Using maya 2017. is it a different set up with Arnold?
Unfortunately those were Mental Ray specific variables, so the setup would be different. Actually, as of Maya 2017, you can achieve a very similar effect using MASH rather than XGen. ua-cam.com/video/CFFtjSulCsk/v-deo.html
It's much easier to animate and shade with MASH too, since you can just use keyframes and ordinary shaders.
If you end up recreating this using MASH, use this procedure to render the vertex colors in Arnold: ua-cam.com/video/MMugi0100mM/v-deo.html
Is there any other way we can render the colors in 2017 with arnold or maya renderer? Because with MASH I find my computer struggling to get the same amount of detail as Xgen. I have more experience with MASH, but xgen was my solution to the fact that MASH can't handle the amount of cubes i want. So any xgen rendering solutions?
not working on maya 15 with SP 6, on PC win 7. Generating log file but no xarc file.
Hello,
I was wondering if it was possible to have an impact on xgen user created archives with maya dynamics? For example, can I affect xgen cube primitives with Maya fields?
I would really appreciate if you could let me know.
Thank you.
Nice tutorial!
I'm using maya 2016 with mental ray but it's not rendering the texture at all. And I can't see in the viewport either...can you help me?
3:04 No me aparece el archivo que guarde como ''cube_prim'', hice todo bien pero me quede en este punto.
I have Windows 8.1 and my maya is 2016 to students
HELPPP
Very cool! Thanks.
I’ve been playing around with xgen and I am wondering if there is a way to map a texture image sequence to xgen attributes.
great tuturial - I'm having some problems though; adding the archieves file - maya doeesn't recognize that there is a file in the folder(the archieve file that is created is a text file, and maya only looks for .xarc files - any idea as how to fix this?(i'm on a PC)
Strange, it should never save as a .txt file. Did you try just renaming the file to .xarc extension?
Maya Learning Channel yup - doesn't help, it is listed as a text document in the folder, very strange
Maya Learning Channel i'm having the same problem....
+guldhaar I know it is 6 months old but if anyone still got this problem: You can rename the textfile correctly if you open it and try save as. Then you put the whole new Filename in quotoation marks like this "newextension.xarc". I dont know if maya will recognize the file, but at least it is no text document anymore ;-)
+guldhaar having the same problem. win 7 maya 15. tried resaving text file w/ extension .xarc and it is still not recognized in maya as such a file. Will try maya 2016 sp3 shortly.
Cool! Except it does'nt work with Yosemite and Maya 2015 SP5.
mayapy: command not found
phreakii Have you checked that the plugin is loaded in the plugin manage?
+Übermatik having the same problem, also Yosemite and Maya 2015
maya sure is annoying
please i need a tutorial on how to download archives for xgen
Hi, I'm trying to follow the tutorial and I have a problem. When I'm trying to export the cube to an archive it exports a .log file. I'm following step by step the tutorial. I'm completely lost! Please help!
Are you on Mac? There have been documented issues with that operating system with some possible solutions in the comments below.
No, I'm in windows and Maya 2015.
I would try opening that .log file in a text editor and seeing what it says. Usually Maya outputs that if it ran into a problem exporting, and the log file will give you a clue as to what went wrong. Unfortunately it's difficult for me to make a judgement from here without any information to go on.
Maya Learning Channel this is the message that has the output log that creates, I don't know what does it mean :S
Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2015/plug-ins/xgen/scripts/xgen.mel line 464: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'tracking'
# Traceback (most recent call last):
# File "", line 1, in
# AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'tracking'
[ 0.00%] splitByShadingGroups [u'cube_prim_GEO']
[ 0.00%] getSGsFromObj( cube_prim_GEO ) returned [u'initialShadingGroup']
[ 0.00%] abcExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/abc/cube_prim.abc
[ 0.00%] abcExport -uvWrite -frameRange 1.000000 1.000000 -worldSpace -root |cube_prim_GEO -file "C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/abc/cube_prim.abc"
[ 0.00%] miExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/mi/cube_prim
[ 0.00%] miExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/mi/cube_prim_cube_prim_GEO.mi
[ 8.33%] materialExport C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/materials/cube_prim.ma
File contains unknown nodes or data. To preserve this information, the current file type cannot be changed.
[ 8.33%] done in 2.866 sec C:/Users/Ignacio/Documents/maya/projects/XGen_Topology/xgen/archives/
Ignacio F.M. I have same problem too.
when I click the export button I couldn't see many cubes on my screen just like what the lecture performer did.
I did exactly what he did. can't see them. I guess some setting is the problem for the circumstances.
When I tried to apply a colored version of the same topographical map
to get a nice rendered color but arnold did not render the color of the map what is the problem help
Did you apply an Arnold shader to the primitives? This tutorial was made before Arnold was included with Maya, so that step was left out.
i cannot add the topology file into maya it doesn't show up anywhere i export it and i cannot drag it in. please help
What file format are you exporting it as? Try a simple JPG.
hello again - now for some reason ot works fine....now I have another problem, trying to render out an animation.....rendering one frame works fine, but using the batch render for animation and all I get is a lot of copies of the first frame.....the cubes doesn't grow. Any idea why?
Hmm, are you sure you set the frame range properly? There were some known issues with batch rendering XGen in Maya 2014. In another tutorial we show you how to use the script "int $i;
for ($i = 1; $i
Hi, and thanks for the reply - I got it working, the patches from xgen had to be exported - that did the trick.
And again thanks for a great tutorial - keep 'em coming
Thanks for this tutorial
It would be great if it worked, but if you look in the AREA and other forums you will see that at least on a Mac system you cannot create the .xarc file only a .log file that says: /bin/sh: mayapy: command not found
If you know any solution it would be great (I think you are using a Windows system, right?
I am told this is likely due to incompatible python libraries and is generally user machine specific. Updating these libraries and making sure you're on the most recent versions of Maya and OSX may help.
Here's a more specific fix you can try:
In your file manager, go to:
plug-ins\xgen\scripts\xgenm\xmaya\xgmArchiveExportBatchUI.py
Find lines:
# Create a new process
mayapy_args = ["mayapy", "\""+os.environ['XGEN_LOCATION'] + "scripts/xgenm/xmaya/xgmArchiveExportBatch.py" + "\"", \
Change it to:
# Create a new process
mayapy = os.path.join( os.environ['MAYA_LOCATION'], "bin", "mayapy" )
mayapy_args = [ mayapy, "\""+os.environ['XGEN_LOCATION'] + "scripts/xgenm/xmaya/xgmArchiveExportBatch.py" + "\"", \
Maya Learning Channel Haven't heard anyone with a mac to get Xgen work properly. It's just crashes Maya.
those lines only give me a syntax error. Is it possible to post the whole replaced code?
# Create a new process
mayapy_args = ["mayapy", "\""+os.environ['XGEN_LOCATION'] + "scripts/xgenm/xmaya/xgmArchiveExportBatch.py" + "\"", \
strLODMode, strLODLo, strLODMed, \
str(self.startFrame), str(self.endFrame), destArchiveName, destDir, sourceFilenames, batch_script_paths, batch_plugins ]
Maya Learning Channel
tried this fix to no avail. Seems to problem is only on OSX Yosemite? Hopefully this will be fixed in the next SP :) Looking forward to trying this out at some point.
havent hade the time to try. to much at work :)
My render still comes out as the default maya colour, what happens in the cut towards the end when you are applying the texture?
+G Quelch There have been some changes to XGen since this video was made. Consult the Maya Documentation for new methods of coloring primitives, or try this method outlined in our hair tutorial (except rather than ramps, assign a file) ua-cam.com/video/OTJv4Wo4WCM/v-deo.html
Hey everytime I 'Create selection' at 3:11 my mac opens python, then python becomes unresponsive and quits. does that effect my archived scene? I don't see python opening in the tutorial.
That definitely sounds like some kind of bug. I would try reporting it. Alternatively, if you have Maya 2017 or newer, I would consider trying to do this effect with MASH instead (it's much easier). ua-cam.com/video/7GQK29ctz0A/v-deo.html
When I render with arnold no color on output but in view-port everything is OK.even when i use maya software render no problem at all.what's wrong with arnold?
Hi have you been able to solve it somehow? The only things i've managed to get on my screen are either grey cubes or cubes with the bitmap stretched over every single one of them.
Hi Elias, Did you manage to solve this problem. I am struggling so much in the last week :(
Please if you found a solution to this problem share it here. I will appreciate it!
Could you please help us with the problem of exporting xacr , just exports log file, been searching all internet for a way around or a fix and it seems there is a lot o guys with this problem
Scrtknight Did you see my response to Sunithaya below? I am being told that this is generally a problem with incompatible Python libraries (specifically in Yosemite, but possibly beyond that). I would try updating them as well as making sure you have all Maya SPs installed.
Maya Learning Channel No i didn't ,sorry, i updated my software and the Sp6 Fixed that, Thanks, and the tutorial is awesome
Gotta have some decent ram I tried this with 8gb of ram on my laptop and it was slow as f**** even when I reduced the density to .05...
when i try to export this all i get is the plane and the cube. any ideas on where i'm going wrong?
Where are you trying to export it to? It probably won't work outside of Maya.
Maya Learning Channel I was trying to export to keyshot
Unfortunately I don't know what the compatibility is like in Keyshot. Although XGen can be used with renderers other than mentalray and Arnold, it takes some integration code.
Maya Learning Channel ah OK I'll have to do some digging around. keyshot has a direct plugin with maya but as previously mentioned it only exports the plane and a single cube. is there a way to turn the instances into actual exportable geometry Wether it be .object or .fbx?
Unfortunately that is only possible with spline primitives at the moment. help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-33279585-C22F-4E3E-880F-6EFD3D0BFA9A
i cant find my "cube_Prim.xarc" data when im using the local destination folder.
forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-315761.html
vary nice dude.. :) thanx
how did you get the 3d paint tool, i have maya 2019 and it isn't on the xgen list
Did you create a new Map first as shown at 3:58? Because the 3D paint tool will only appear once you've done that.
Yes
@@sabrinaflipse7732 Hmm, try this then: Go to the Rendering Menu Set and then select Texturing > 3D Paint Tool.
thank you sharing this
#maya #xgen
Thank you!
thank you
topographical
Awesome!!
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This workflow is trash.