HoloSuite Maya Tools¶
Note
This is the reference documentation for the HoloSuite Maya Tools.
For a step by step guide to editing skinweights in Maya, refer to the HoloSuite Maya Tools Skinning Example document.
HoloEdit comes bundled with the HoloSuite Maya shelf, a toolset of scripts for use with Autodesk Maya 2020.
Overview¶
The HoloSuite Maya Module provides several convenient scripts for editing rigging and animation for Volumetric Video.
Installation¶
HoloEdit Maya Module is located in your HoloEdit Install Directory, under the ‘Tools/Maya’ subdirectory. To install, update the contents of the “HoloSuite_Module_Path.mod” file to point to the path of your tools/maya directory, then copy that .mod file to your Maya Modules Directory.
The default path, C:\Tools\maya\HoloSuite should be replaced with the directory containing the scripts, for example, C:\Users\Owner\HoloSuite-2021.1\tools\maya.
If you don’t know your Maya Modules Directory, you can run the mel command getenv MAYA_MODULE_PATH in the Mel Command Line in maya and copy the first path returned.
Once the .mod file has been updated and moved into your Modules directory, you can restart maya to initialize the scripts.
Note
This toolset was updated with HoloEdit 2021.1, so if you have a prior version installed you may need to delete your existing shelf and reload maya after performing these steps.
HoloSuite Shelf¶
After installation, the HoloSuite Shelf will appear after launching Maya.
The shelf contains multiple tools for editing Volumetric Video exported from HoloEdit in Maya, with a focus on tools for rigging and animation.
HoloEdit Maya Workflow¶
The Maya Workflow Export in HoloEdit exports one .fbx per clip plus one .png texture per frame. Typically when working in maya you can import that .fbx file directly into maya. This FBX contains keyframed visibility per frame, plus materials to display each corresponding texture per frame. Be sure to turn on “Hardware Texturing” in Maya to display your textures.
HoloEdit Maya files contain two groups:
Frames, with one keyed mesh per frame, and Skeleton, containing the skeleton present in the exported HoloEdit Composition (if applicable.)
Skin weighting present in the exported HoloEdit Composition is applied per frame.
Warning
For proper export back to HoloEdit, you should ensure that your Playback speed in Maya is set to 30fps.
Tools¶
Batch OBJ Import¶
The batch OBJ Import script is used to import .obj mesh sequences, like the ones produced by the “meshes” export in HoloEdit, into Maya as animations for easy editing, with one mesh visible per frame.
The imported meshes will be added to the “Frames” group with visibility keyed per frame.
To use this tool, press the ObjImp button on the HoloSuite Shelf to open the Select Frames Folder browser. Choose a directory containing a mesh sequence of volumetric video to import. If there are corresponding png textures present the textures will be imported and automatically applied per frame.
FBX Import¶
The FBX Import script is used to import fbx skeleton sequences, like the ones produced from the HoloEdit “Animation” Export, into maya as a single animated skeleton.
To use the FBX Import script, press the FBXimp button on the HoloSuite Shelf to bring up the Additional Jitter Removal Filter window.
Here, you can specify a filtering strength (lower is stronger) to be applied on import or press the “Skip Smoothing” button to apply no filtering.
After choosing “Run” or “Skip Smoothing”, a Select FBX Skeleton(s) Directory file browser will open that you can use to select the directory containing your FBX files.
Note
If matching OBJ meshes are present in the Frames group, the corresponding mesh will be automatically skinned to the animated skeleton each frame.
Generate Skin Weights¶
The Generate Skin Weights script is used to generate automatic skinning between the rig in Skeleton group and the individual frames in the Frames group.
This tool provides a good starting point if you intend to paint skin weights from scratch.
Important
If you’re importing an FBX from HoloEdit’s Maya Workflow Export, you may need to remove the existing skinning by deleting the history of the meshes in Frames.
Note
We recommend running the “Merge Vertices” script (see below) before generating skin weights for easier painting.
FBX Export¶
The FBX Export script is used to export your edited fbx skeleton sequence in a format that can be imported back into HoloEdit. FBX files will be exported to a path of your choosing.
To export your skeleton as a single animated fbx, use Maya’s existing FBX export options for baked animation.
Important
This button will not work without a Frames group produced from the OBJ Import script or a HoloEdit .fbx export present.
Add Prop¶
The ‘Add Props’ tool allows you to create individual joints with the ‘Create Joint Tool’ in Maya that are have them be automatically re-parented and added as a skin weight influence to each imported Meshes.
Use Maya’s ‘Create Joints’ tool to place joints inside the static props in the scene. Don’t adjust their place in the hierarchy unless absolutely needed.
Run the AdProp tool, which will take any joints outside of the Skeleton hierarchy and properly organize them and add them as influences in the skinweight list
After adding your cutom joint, you can use the Transfer Skin Weights workflow described below to skin your prop to the join with 100% weight.
Important
This button will not work without a Frames group produced from the OBJ Import script or a HoloEdit .fbx export present.
Merge Vertices¶
This will apply an operation to merge vertices with the same position to every frame in your sequence. This is recommended to be run before importing skeletonization and adding skinning.
Important
This button will not work without a Frames group produced from the OBJ Import script present.
Transfer Skin Weights¶
The Transfer Skin Weights tool can be used to copy the skin weights from one frame onto a series of subsequent frames in your clip. This way, you can manually paint skin weights on far fewer frames than using traditional methods.
To use the Transfer Skin Weights tool, press the SkinWtT button on the HoloSuite Shelf to bring up the Frame Range to bake window. Enter a start and end frame for the transfer operation.
When you press the “run” button, the Skin Weights from the start frame will be copied to each subsequent frame in the sequence until the specified end frame. For frames in the same Stabilized Segment, the skin weights will be transferred by UV space and should accurately conform to the motions of the actor.
When crossing to a new segment, the skin weights are transferred in world space, and may see some loss in precision.
Important
This button will not work without a Frames group produced from the OBJ Import script present.
OBJ Export¶
The OBJ Export script is used to export your edited obj sequence back into a mesh sequence format for import back into HoloEdit. Any skeletal deformation will be baked into each frame before OBJ export. To use the OBJ Export script, press the ObjExp button on the HoloSuite Shelf to open the Select Export Folder browser, then specify an export folder and press “Save”.
Important
This button will not work without a Frames group produced from the OBJ Import script present.