Setting up Maya
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- This page gives instructions for setting up Autodesk Maya. For Autodesk 3ds Max, see Setting up 3ds Max.
- We recommend following the video tutorials first: Art Video Tutorials.
- The current version of the art pipeline in the cloud supports the previous 3 versions of Maya.
- Please make sure you've run the Art Depot Installer from your account page.
- Then download the HeroEngine Art Pipeline and place it in C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot
- You will now have a directory structure that looks like C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline
Maya.env
Navigate to your Maya Environment file:
Vista / Win7 Users:
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\maya\20xx-x64
There should be a maya.env file in this directory. Open it in a text editor.
Alternatively, you can also use the getenv MAYA_APP_DIR; mel command in the mel script editor to see where your env file is. If you have multiple versions of Maya, go into the version of Maya you are setting this up for.
Copy the lines of code below and paste them into the Maya.env file.
MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH = C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline\MELScripts\Maya2014.0 PYTHONPATH = C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline\MELScripts\Maya2014.0 MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH = C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline\Exporter\Maya2014.0_64bit XBMLANGPATH = C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline\MELScripts\HE_Tools_Icons HeroEngine_Root = C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline
- CHANGE the year in each line to your version of Maya: 2013, 2014, etc
- For Running 32-bit versions of Maya 2013 or older, use this line for the MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH:
MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH = C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline\Exporter\Maya20xx.0
Note: If you need multiple paths to run your own custom scripts from different locations, then add the paths to the end with a ; between the path names without any spaces.
In the example code, "C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\..." was used, however, if you didn't use the art depot installer, or if your team is using a networked or shared art depot, your root path can be different. Network paths are acceptable here as well for one central location of the tools.
userSetup.mel
Maya loads scripts at startup from a userSetup.mel file. Maya will only run the first userSetup.mel that it finds, so if you already have a userSetup.mel file specified you will need to copy the code from your userSetup.mel file to the one provided in the art pipeline.
If you have not already setup a userSetup.mel file for other scripts or plugins, you can skip this step.
shelf_HeroTools.mel
The last thing is to Start Maya and then load the HeroTools shelf.
Navigate to: C:\HeroEngine\ArtDepot\HeroEngineArtPipeline\MELScripts\Maya20xx.0\ and load shelf_HeroTools.mel
- HeroTools Maya Shelf
Maya Preferences Settings
Maya defaults to Film (24 fps) for animation which is not what real time applications, such as Hero Engine, uses. To change this setting, go to Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences
In the Preferences window go to Settings in the Categories column on the left and confirm and/or change the following settings:
World Coordinate System
- Up axis: Y
Working Units
- Linear: centimeter
- Angular: degrees
- Time: NTSC (30 fps)
Note: Other Linear working units can be used, however Hero Tools such as the SRB Tools and Asset Tools are written for centimeter.
