Yes that is Softimage to Softimage, but it would also apply from Maya to Softimage, you can also get Crate for Maya, the only consideration you must have is your naming, and the paths inside the alembic file, with crate you are able to flatten the hierarchy and avoid exporting the parent name so you end up with an alembic file which only contains your mesh objects in it, so then you can apply it relative to any model or container you want.
For example you have this in maya GroupName - Mesh1 - Mesh2 You end up with an alembic file which only contains the meshes. - Mesh1 - Mesh2 Then with crate you can select to which container to apply it and you just have to worry about your mesh names. ModelName - Mesh1 - Mesh2 We have some tools to avoid doing this manually for several assets, but if you keep the same container names in both Maya and Softimage you can export one alembic file for diferent assets which include the container name. On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Morten Bartholdy <x...@colorshopvfx.dk> wrote: > I take it this is a Softimage to Softimage workflow where the rigging > and animation an notably the alembic export happens from Soft, via Crate!? > > > The workflow makes good sense and is what I hoped to hear, but I am > not quite sure how to implement it so I apply Maya alembic animation to a > Softimage referenced model. I have little experience with alembic workflow > as I am on 2013SP1 so I have just recently picked up Crate for use in > production. > > > MB > > > > > Den 13. april 2015 kl. 11:57 skrev Oscar Juarez <tridi.animei...@gmail.com>: > > > What we do with Crate is we have a rigged asset and a render asset, the > render asset is reading the geometry from an alembic file and we load as a > referenced model into the lighting scenes, then we apply the alembic cache > to that, Crate is smart enough to do point cache or transform cache, so > even if it's a lot of points and they are not deforming they should save > the only transformations and caches should be small if you do a pure cache > file. > > So you have two levels of referencing, softimage reference model which > will hold the objects and shaders, and the alembic files which hold the > transforms, point caches and geometries. I've had scenes where I have even > changed the geometry completely of an asset as long as your naming is > consistent everything should work. > > On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Morten Bartholdy < x...@colorshopvfx.dk > > wrote: > > Hi there - I am used to ref model workflow where I have a master scene > with the shaded and rigged model which then refs in to a number of shots > where it is animated. Now I am importing alembic shots from Maya where the > same vehicle with a gazillion parts has been animated. It is a rigid thing > with hinges and rotating parts so we are not pointcaching. > > > Is there a clever workflow which will allow me to shade and texture > this thing once and use for each alembic shot, or will I have to possibly > script grouping of parts and subsequent shading and texturing per shot? How > do you guys handle such a scenario? > > > Thanks > > Morten > > > > > > > >