Export 3D Camera from After Effects to Maya

[Mstleger]

A few different ways to go here-
AE does not export camera data to Maya. So you could start working in Maya, and do all your camera animation there. You could then import that into AE (search the cow, there is a good tutorial for this). Then, it’s a simple matter of finishing the work in AE. As for exporting raw data, you can certainly copy and paste keyframes from AE to a text document, which is useful for some things, but I don’t believe this will paste properly in Maya. As you will see in the tutorial on the cow, there are a few bugs.

Another way to complete your project would be to render out your layers and texture them on flat planes in maya, and do all your camera animation and your final render right there. The camera and light controls in Maya are far superior than those in AE.

If the motion is simple, you could do a render from AE and set it as your background image in maya. Then, do a rough match move by eye. It’s not exact, but if areas of contact are obscured by foreground objects, it’s a cheap and easy fake to get the job done.

Good luck and have fun! Post your results and let us know how you did it.

[Mylenium]

No, unfortunately there is no built-in way of doing that. I agree with mstleger that it would be wiser to start off in Maya and only after that transfer your animation to AE. If that is no option for whatever reason, you should look into scripting. It would be quite possible to get out data from AE in a way that it could be read by the many MEL scripts for mocap or by Maya’s own ASCII import directly. I’m not really able to help you much since I no longer use Maya, but I’m sure you can find something on that topic. Perhaps ask at AEhancers if someone would assist you with your script…

Mylenium

[Pour Myl

[Jerome Thelia]

coincidentally, I’m working on a similar same problem. I need to get a camera move from AE into Lightwave, render a 3D environment, then get it back into AE for final compositing. The advice above makes a lot of sense. In addition, I’m rendering out a grid out of AE, tracking it in PFtrack and exporting camera data to LW. You might consider that too, depending on what you’re doing. Good luck.

[Jerry Chalupnik]

I did a google search for this topic and this thread came up. If there is another thread that addresses this issue, please lead me there! 🙂

With new software available for AE like Foundry’s Camera Tracker, having the ability to export camera data directly from AE into Maya would be a huge advantage. Especially because most 3D tracking apps are outrageously priced for the lowly little freelancer. Any tips to maintain full camera settings from AE to Maya? I know there is a plugin available that allows you to export camera data through a script, but when brought into Maya, the camera settings are default, and not the same as the AE camera. So the motion is correct, but the focal length, Aperture equivalent and other settings don’t appear to be carrying over. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time!

-JJ

[Mickey Ndubuka]

Ive been searching for the same thing. Trying to get from After effects into maya after tracking with The Foundry’s camera tracker. If anyone can shed light on this please do.

Thanks in advance

[Jerry Chalupnik]

So far, this is the best I have found. It is an AE script that will export camera and null data into Maya or Max. But unfortunately it doesn’t keep all the camera settings. So I have yet to get it to work correctly after bringing a Maya render back into AE to test the transfer. I plan on doing extensive tests with this eventually, and hopefully post a tutorial.

JJ Chalupnik

Freelance Director
3D Artist/Animator
Blog Portfolio:
http://www.jjchalupnik.com

[Jerry Chalupnik]

Oops. Forgot the link. Sorry about that. Here is the script.

https://www.motion-graphics-exchange.com/after-effects/AE3D-Export-Maya-Max-and-Lightwave/4bff8b4034916

Cheers,
JJ

JJ Chalupnik

Freelance Director
3D Artist/Animator
Blog Portfolio:
http://www.jjchalupnik.com

[Stephen Westerfield]

If you figure this script out please please share. I used it with the AE camera keyframes selected and it seemed to export fine. The Camera in Maya felt like it was using the same settings. It seems like something is getting lost during the rendering phase with maya. AE camera tracker is the first tracker I’ve used and had success with. Gonna suck if it can’t be used for 3d compositing rather than just 2d.

In the meantime, can anybody point me to a foolproof maya matchmover tut that shows the entire workflow from matchmover to maya. I’ve yet to export camera data that works correctly in maya and renders out right to AE.