Maya and Fusion Import

Hi guys im new to maya but i wanted to integrate 3D in Live footage, hut i have no idea how are there any videos or references you recommend

Also how to i import a maya file to fusion, i try to drag and drop it but it didn't show so i guess i did something wrong

Please let me know
Thank you and have a wonderful day

Hi.

You have to decide if you are trying to import just the camera motion from Maya, or if you want to access geometry too.

For camera motion data, add a Camera3D node to your Fusion comp using the Tools > 3D > Camera3D menu item.

When you select the Camera3D node, at the bottom of the node controls window is an "Import Camera..." button. Clicking this button will show a "Select Scene File" dialog.

Camera3D Node Controls

fusion-camera3d-node-import-camera.png (57.88 KiB) Viewed 4402 times

In the new dialog window, if you click on the options menu labeled "All Supported Files" you will see a list of the supported formats that can be loaded as a camera. Maya ASCII .ma scenes are the only Maya scene type you can load.

Supported Files

fusion-camera3d-node-supported-files.png (12.56 KiB) Viewed 4402 times

If you want to import animated geometry from your Maya scene into Fusion your best option is to export an FBX or Alembic file from Maya. This will also allow you to load in keyframed camera data as well.

When you export FBX files from Maya you may have to use an older FBX version be able to load the file correctly in Fusion.

The correct import method to use for loading the geometry in Fusion is to use the File > Import menu to select either the "FBX Scene" or "Alembic Scene" menu options.

Fusion Import Menu

fusion-import-menu.png (71.37 KiB) Viewed 4402 times

If you manually add the geometry to your Fusion comp by placing the nodes in the scene using the Tools > 3D > FBX Mesh3D or Tools > 3D > Alembic Mesh 3D menu approach the hierarchy of the models will be flattened on import to a single mesh.

Thank you so much

I was wondering why does it only acceot FBX and Alembic

Is there a reason to why other formats might not work?

You can also import several other formats through the FBXMesh3D tool (which probably ought to be renamed since it's the usual way to import most mesh formats but not the best way for FBX). I haven't experimented extensively with it, but I know it does just fine with OBJ and Collada (.dae) files.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the reason they are named that way is to indicate which "blackbox" importer library is used to do the heavy lifting behind the scenes. The FBX Mesh 3D node loads the mesh types that are supported by the Autodesk FBX SDK, and the Alembic .abc format loading is provided by the Alembic SDK.

The nodes were likely kept separate as the two different geometry loading SDK libraries would have exposed slightly different features to the programmer so the control UIs for the nodes and the back-end Fusion plugin implementations were not identical.

Here is a screenshot of the FBX Mesh 3D format list:

FBX Mesh 3D All Types

FBX-Mesh-3D.png (37.22 KiB) Viewed 4368 times

That's all well and good for those who see and work with the SDKs, but it's confusing as heck for the users!