Pipeline to convert Max Vray to Maya Vray

[Ivo Bakker]

Hi all,

Since we use a lot of models from libraries like Evermotion, Design Connected, Maxtree etc we always had the problem that most of the libraries are in Max with Vray format. For Maya you mostly have to use fbx or OBJ and have to rebuild the shaders again.
In our studio we made a pipeline to convert Max Vray models to Maya Vray. It took a very long time, but now we are able to convert a lot of models. Which saves us a lot of time.

We are investigating of other people are interested in using this pipeline commercially and if it is worth to set it up a website.

I have a few questions:
- Are you interested in this conversion?
- What volume do you think about?
- What would be a reasonable price per model for you?

We are able to convert the following now:
Materials:
Max Standard material => Vray Material
Vray Material
Vray Light Material
Vray Fast SSS2
Vray Fast sss => Vray Material
Vray Car Paint Material
Vray Hair Material
Vray 2 Sided Material
Vray Blend Material
Blend Material => Vray Blend Material

Nodes:
Bitmap
Vray Color
Vertex Color
Color Correct
Falloff
Mix
Gradient
Gradient Ramp
Vray Normal
Normalbump => Vray Normal
Output
Noise
Smoke
Vray Multisubtex
Vray HDRI
Composite

Modifiers:
Vray Displacement
Turbosmooth
Vray Fur

Lights:
Vray Light
Vray Sun Light
Vray IES Light

Scene:
Vray Cameras
Vray Render Settings

The system has some known limitation. But when a model is made in the right way with a logical material network most of them will convert.

We would like to do a trial. If some people can sent one or two models to test we can test of the pipeline works in the right way and you can see the result.

Please let me know.
Thank you.

Ivo

[stezza]

I have to say that this works just fine for me I have to use max 2018 & Maya 2018, but once converted I continue to Maya 2020.
https://www.3dtoall.com/products/maxtomaya/

[francomanko]

are they still supporting that, i keep emailing but get no response

[stezza]

They support Maya 2020 so still current. Been exporting Maxtree to Maya today and it's so fast and easy.

[francomanko]

i dont like the way that it bakes textures though..

[stezza]

Yes it is odd why they bake the textures out but in my case all leaf textures in the max model are 3k! and during the conversion the baked maps are re saved and scaled down to 1k which is a benefit in this case.
If you want to re connect to the original texture file you still can, and for a 2 button operation its still a fast conversion process, I can live with that.

[opcode]

I'd be interested in something like this if it was easy to use and created clean shader networks and clean conversions. It would be great to be able to get very similar renders with little additional work.

[Ivo Bakker]

I'd be interested in something like this if it was easy to use and created clean shader networks and clean conversions. It would be great to be able to get very similar renders with little additional work.

The conversion rebuilds the network completely. So in most cases you get exact the same shader in Maya as you had in Max. Only when the nodes are supported and the network is build in a normal way.
If you want to we can do a test model.

[TheScope]

[SIZE=14px]

I have a few questions:
- Are you interested in this conversion?

Yes.

- What volume do you think about?

We have a large amount of Evermotion Collections and other commercial models. We usually select the assets we want to use for a scene and convert those. But it would be preferable to convert them all in the end so we could add them to our library.

- What would be a reasonable price per model for you?

Do you plan to offer this as a "pay per conversion" where you upload the model to a website and then download the converted model?
I am not sure if this would work. I would guess that it is not allowed to upload commercial models to a third party website.
Best for us would be to buy or rent the conversion software.
A reasonable price would be something that is below the cost of converting them by hand. Right now we either use MayToMaya or import the FBX and convert shaders with a script.

Florian

[waaazoo]

Yes, I think that such a tool would be useful for a lot of people if it works well. I know a bunch of people, working with Maya, who would love to be able to convert Max/vray models for Maya.

[Karol.Osinski]

Amazing idea guys. I would love to see it in action! We are archviz studio working in Maya but as you can expect we reshade from the scratch bought models on daily basis. I looked for different solutions but was never fully satisfied with anything .

Shading models from the scratch is good as an exercise for newcomers but then it becomes really boring task.

Is your tool able to convert even the complex multi node shaders one to one, let's say a complex velvet setup? Because even vray scene converter creates all sort of funky nodes :/ ..

btw Pay per conversion is a bad business model for these days in my opinion.

[Ivo Bakker]

Good to know there are some more archviz studios out the using Maya.

Within the given nodes it should convert everything in the right way and make a duplicate of the shading network like it was in Max. It has a few limitation. Especially because some people sometimes make strange shader networks which you would not expect.

Can you sent me a model to test? I can test the pipeline and show you what we can do.

What would be a better business model in your opinion?

[Karol.Osinski]

Indeed, sometimes I find very overly complicated shading networks in the models bought on 3dsky.org. I believe some people do it purely to add complexity to the model's shader therefore increasing his chance to sell the model as "Pro" (?)...

Sure, let me just find a moment this friday once we done with the deadlines and I would gladly send over a material or two.

Well...I believe fixed price plugin is what people would love the most in this case.

[Karol.Osinski]

I suggest looking through the forum for the similar thread about max to maya workflow. Maybe you could find some interesting insights there.

[Alexx31]

Hi,
of course hundreds of people would be interested.
MaxToMaya is not bad (and I recommend it as there is alternative for geometry etc.) but especially with shaders it’s not perfect. It needs mostly to bake textures and limited to 2k. I have used it only a few times so far.
Any solution that can keep the original maps connected and is able to split a multi/submaterial into a proper maya shader node tree, would be a game changer. (It must be actually possible, because the workflow is clear)
And if you sell it, please make a difference between big companies and small indie users Thanks