anya.ohmai
Does anyone know of a way to export a rigged character from maya to blender (or vice versa) without losing weight information?
Santa Bunny
ANYA THE NEIGHBOURS ARE AT IT AGAAAAIN
Santa Bunny
and no, sorry :s
anya.ohmai
OMG BURN THEM WITH FIRE
anya.ohmai
Santa Bunny
: that was for ur neighbor not tyr's response btw lol
Santa Bunny
anya.ohmai
: lol 
anya.ohmai
Grixdale: yes I thought as much it's why blender folks have issues with maitreya and slink on maya right?
anya.ohmai
I found one person who successfully did it but they had to do some c# coding to transfer bones and weights. So I thought MAYBE THERE IS A WAY
anya.ohmai
Sands: blender does but the fbx versions of blender and maya are apparently different and doesn't export with bone weights accurately
anya.ohmai
I've always tried fbx from blender to maya but it's been failing anytime there's rigs
Allegory
I assume for some reason daes don't work either?
anya.ohmai
Allegory
: the last time I tried dae which was like 1 year ago lol I remember I couldn't get it to respond in maya... but I'm actually going to try to see if that works again tonight, crossing all my fingers
Allegory
I know some versions of blender used to not be able to import daes too. I just stopped trying to import them, so it might be an issue on both sides
Allegory
(Which might have been a broken importer and not entirely blender-blender's fault. But it's not a thing I need to do, so I dunno where it stands really)
Allegory
Google says complicated dumb shit: 
How to import a rig and animation from maya?
Allegory
Though that is shape key stuff MAYBE that's part of the issue with fitmesh?
Allegory
And speaking of shape keys- have you removed those in blender before exporting and then re add in maya? Shape keys in regards to fitmesh are a weird largely non portable bit of fuckery.
Allegory
You don't need them, you just need weights to transfer and then reattach those with the way you usually attach a new rig. Even blender to blender shape keys can screw things up
anya.ohmai
Allegory
: I saw that same page too and it's hella complicated - heck even other answers all said it's hella complicated lol! But thank you for the shape keys tip I'm gonna see if I can export a rig done by Avastar without the shape keys as well as non avastar to see if that works
anya.ohmai
I saw that Cathy foil managed to get the Avastar bento rig into maya for mayastar so there has to be a way around this even if not perfect
Allegory
anya.ohmai
: in Avastar, switch it from Fitted rigging to Classic. when i move them around in files, i also unhook them from the avastar rig entirely- but switch it off of Fitted rigging first, otherwise the shape keys stay and fuck everything up.
anya.ohmai
Ah ok! What if I did empty??
anya.ohmai
Oh wait nvm that's the auto rig option lol
Allegory
hahah yeah.
Allegory
it's in the avastar toolset thing, where you switch it to use the fitted bones or not. make sure you KEEP the weights when you switch, do not let it change them.
anya.ohmai
Ah ok! Gotcha! Ugh. I seriously hope this works cause it would suck so bad to have to go without maya for this 
Allegory
(the apply sliders thing so you can adjust your rig also nukes the shape keys, i believe, but i tend to do it the other way)
Allegory
bare bones, you just need something that will transfer the weight info (along with shape and uv, obviously). i personally would do a test with the weights intact but not connected to any sort of armature (as well as no shape keys) and see if that helped?
Allegory
(i don't know if export formats will keep weights without an associated armature WITH those weights though. so that may be one of the stumbling blocks)
anya.ohmai
I'm also gonna try from maya to blender in dae I found a thread where Gaia mentioned it's possible after 2.65! So that might be a possible work flow option too
Allegory
obj is even supposed to respect weights/vertex groups apparently- but the blender importer, at least, doesn't actually do it. which doesn't help any of the problem =p
anya.ohmai
[Collada] Importing a Rigged Mesh from Maya ooooo just found this post too
Fearyfox(Reyn)
Someone once told me, when I asked for their body's rig, that while you could port FROM Blender to Maya, he couldn't do it the other way around? I don't know, don't have the money for maya...
anya.ohmai
I think all my life I've only managed to do blender to maya once and I don't recall what I did? It was broken but not by a lot as I'm breaking it now lol
Kiddo
I did export the TMP body from Maya to use it on Blender and managed to have the weights but I need to redo the process cause I don't remember what I did