Maya export process

[LaithArkham]

Hey all,

 

So as this tutorial (about the Denethor dragon model) mentions, if one wanted to get skeletal animations into Oblivion via Maya, they'd have to export the animated rig to Max first, then export to nif from there. (Presumably the process is similar if one wished to do other things that the Maya nif exporter can't do, such as make custom collision for new models, instead of re-using existing collision in the game.)

 

This particular tutorial involves 3ds Max, but my question is, could a different package like Blender or Milkshape replace Max in this process? Has anyone tried that successfully?

[Ghogiel]

That tutorial is so old Fred Flintstone wrote it. Might worth noting that the Maya plugin has been worked on since then. Not sure if it can export skeleton though..

 

Blender can export skeletons. So in that case you can use blender in place of max. And the same goes for everything Blender nif plugin supports you can use in place of max.

[LaithArkham]

While I'm sure others around here would know better than me, from what I've gathered the newer versions of the Maya plugin are simply the same plugin, re-compiled from the source code, to be usable with recent versions of Maya (e.g. 2011, 2012).

My Maya version is 2008, so unless there have been actual new features added to the plugin's capabilities, a recompiled plugin shouldn't be necessary for me.

 

Good to hear about Blender though. Unless someone wants to jump in and tell me that Milkshape is a better choice, exporting via Blender is probably the route I'll take.