Tutorial: Accessing Maya tools This tutorial walks you through the steps needed to access the Maya Lumberyard Tools for exporting art assets from Maya to Lumberyard. At the end of the tutorial, you will know how to access the Lumberyard Tools and be familiar with the UI. You will learn how to do the following: Access the Maya Lumberyard Tools Breakdown the Maya Lumberyard Tools UI Understand the Lumberyard Geometry Export options Understand the Lumberyard Material Export options Understand the Lumberyard Animation Export options Review Lumberyard Tools additional options and settings Prerequisites You must have the following before starting this tutorial: Lumberyard 1.6.0.0 or later installed Autodesk Maya 2014 or later versions Lumberyard Maya plugin and exporter installed through Setup Assistant Step 1: Accessing the Maya Lumberyard Tools The Maya Lumberyard Tools are what allow users to export art assets from Maya, and the tools are simple to navigate and access within Maya. To access the Maya Lumberyard Tools 1. Run the version of Maya that you have installed on your system and for which you have installed the Lumberyard tools and plug-in. 2. Once Maya has launched, you should see a Lumberyard shelf that has been added to your existing set of shelves. 3. Click on the Lumberyard shelf tab, and you should see just a single icon on the shelf that is the Lumberyard beaver. This is the Lumberyard Tools button.
4. Click on the Lumberyard Tools button to launch the UI for the tools. You have successfully accessed the Maya Lumberyard Tools. Next, we will go over UI for the tools. Step 2: Breakdown the Maya Lumberyard Tools UI In order to properly export assets we must first understand what the different sections of the interface can do for us. Let s breakdown the UI section by section and see what it can do. Overview of the Maya Lumberyard Tools UI 1. Main Bar Contains options for all tools and settings as well as access to help documentation 2. Geometry Export All meshes and skeletons will be exported here. Also contains options for exporting Vertex Color, 8 Weights and Merge Nodes. 3. Material Export Export options for Materials and Sub- Materials associated with a piece of geometry 4. Animation Export Export animations associated with a selected skeleton, character or object. Also contains the Animation Manager for deeper control over animation exports 5. Export All Exports Geometry, Materials and Animations based on selections and settings defined in previous sections.
Step 3: Maya Lumberyard Tools Geometry UI The Maya Lumberyard Tool has several sections used to export various aspects of your artwork. We will breakdown each section individually starting with the Geometry Export Section. Overview of the Maya Lumberyard Tools Geometry Export UI 1. Main Export Window Lists any existing meshes or skeletons selected for export. 2. Selection Buttons The Add Selected button adds selected geometry to the export window. This selects meshes from the Geometry window. The Explorer View button opens the export path in Windows Explorer. 3. Export Path Set a custom export path for the selected assets. If left on <default>, it will export the assets in the same directory the Maya file is currently located in. 4. Advanced Options Contains options for additional control over the selected geometry. a. Merge Nodes Compiles all geometry from different nodes into a single node. b. 8 Weights (Skin Only) Click to support up to 8 joints per vertex weight. Default supports up to 4 joints per vertex weight. c. Vertex Color Check to export Vertex Color data. d. 32 Bit Vertex Precision Check when a mesh has over 68k polys. e. Custom Path Used to define a custom export path. 5. Export Geometry Exports any object in the Export Window with its box checked for export. Step 4: Maya Lumberyard Tools Materials UI The Maya Lumberyard Tool has several sections used to export various aspects of your artwork. Next, we will breakdown the Material Export section. Overview of the Maya Lumberyard Tools Material Export UI 1. Main Export Window Lists any material groups with sub-materials ready for export. 2. Hypershade Opens the Hypershade window for the selected material. 3. Add Group Will create an empty material group if no object is selected in Maya. Will add mat groups with submaterials of a selected object in Maya. 4. Add Material Adds selected material(s) to the selected material group in the export list. 5. Export Path - Set a custom export path for the selected assets. If left on <default>, it will export the assets in the same directory the Maya file is currently located in. 6. Advanced Options Contains options for additional control over the selected material. f. Custom Path Used to define a custom export path. 7. Export Materials Exports any Materials in the Export Window with its box checked for export.
Step 5: Maya Lumberyard Tools Animation UI The Maya Lumberyard Tool has several sections used to export various aspects of your artwork. Next, we will breakdown the Animation Export section. Overview of the Maya Lumberyard Tools Material Export UI 1. Main Export Window Lists any animations that have been set up for exporting. 2. Animation Manager Launches the Animation Manager window used to adjust all of the information related to exporting a given animation. (See Below) 3. Export Animations Will export any Animations in the Export Window with its box checked for export. Overview of the Animation Manager 1. <> Button - Will auto-fill the Start and End frame boxes based on the current timeline. 2. Start - for setting the start frame of the animation. 3. End - for setting the end frame of the animation. 4. Name - for setting the name of the animation. 5. Root Node - for the root joint or joint you want to use as the root for the animation data. If you use the + button next to the Root Node text field, it will add your selected joint to the Root Node field. 6. Animation Layers - for selecting which animation layers to include for the animation data. 7. Export Path - for assigning the location of where the animation needs to be exported to. 8. + Button - Add a new animation to the Animation Manager. 9. X Button - Will remove the animation in the Animation Manager. This option will not display unless there is an animation in the window, and replaces the original spot of the + button. Step 6: Lumberyard Tools additional options and settings The Lumberyard Tools menu bar contains additional options and settings under the Tools, Options and Help menus. Overview of the Maya Lumberyard Tools Menu
Overview of the Maya Lumberyard Options Menu 1. Add Scene Root - Creates a scene node that re-orients exported nodes relative to the displayed orientation. 2. Move Origin to Pivot - Sets a selected object's transform as an offset from the origin. If the Center Pivots check box is enabled, it will also center the pivot of the selected object. 3. Zero Joint Rotations - Removes any rotations on the selected joint and sets the value to zero. 4. Add Attributes - Exposes Lumberyard variables to joints and materials. 5. User Defined Properties - Opens a dialog box to add custom properties that is most commonly used for assigning a defined collision shape (sphere, box, or capsule) to override the existing collision mesh shape. 6. Polygon Check - Checks for degenerate faces. 7. Prepare Alembic Materials - Slightly modifies a scene to work around limitations in the Maya Alembic Exporter by changing the scene's shading engines and shading groups to enable the export of faceset information, which is used for the transport of the material assignments. 8. Export Selected to Alembic - Exports geometry caches that allow storing and playing arbitrarily animated geometry. 9. Joint Proxy Editor (Experimental) - Opens the Lumberyard Proxy Tool, which is used to create physics proxies for characters to be physicalized. 10. Validator - Runs the validation process. 1. Remove Name Spaces Toggle for enabling or disabling the removal of namespaces on asset names if you re using referencing in Maya. Overview of the Maya Lumberyard Help Menu Online Documentation Link to the online documentation for the Maya Lumberyard Tools. You have successfully accessed the Maya Lumberyard Tools and have an understanding of the UI to export assets from Maya. Please refer to other tutorials in the related section for next steps on how to get different art assets from Maya to Lumberyard.
Related tasks and tutorials Now that you familiar with the Maya Lumberyard Tools, you can learn how to export art assets: Tutorial: Exporting static mesh (Maya) Tutorial: Exporting characters (Maya) Tutorial: Exporting animation (Maya) We d love to hear from you! Head to our Tutorial Discussion forum to share any feedback you have, including what you do or don t like about our tutorials or new content you d like to see in the near future.