topic Re: Xgen freaks out after Alembic replacement in Maya Dynamics Forum

Xgen freaks out after Alembic replacement

timdan — Thu, 11 May 2017 23:41:46 GMT

Ok, so I got XGen working pretty alight with an animated animal paw, and then we updated the animation, replaced the alembic (which has the exact same geo as the original alembic), and now the hair doesn't render, and the grooming data no longer shows up.

Ideas?

Re: Xgen freaks out after Alembic replacement

faline.custodio.da.silva — Mon, 15 May 2017 13:33:21 GMT

Hi @timdan

Can you send me the scene file and alembic file in a private message? I'd be happy to take a look and see what's going wrong here.

Which renderer are you using?

Re: Xgen freaks out after Alembic replacement

Michael_Todd — Tue, 16 May 2017 18:07:13 GMT

Is the geo in the cache named the same as the original? If not, that will be a problem.

if the geo is the same, could you not use a blend shape to the new cache. That way you don't have to worry about naming issues.

All you'd have to do is update the blend shape target and output the Patches for Batch rendering. If the cache is just for the geo that XGen is bound to, you could just copy and rename it for the patch output then you wouldn't have to output the patches for batch rendering when if the animation changes.

Cheers

Re: Xgen freaks out after Alembic replacement

timdan — Tue, 16 May 2017 18:12:54 GMT

That's an interesting solution, but feels more complicated than it needs to be also. Not exactly sure how to blend shape a whole animation onto a new piece of geo.

Re: Xgen freaks out after Alembic replacement

timdan — Tue, 16 May 2017 18:14:57 GMT

I'm not sure I can send you files due to an NDA we have in place, but I was able to salvage the project by opening up a previous May scene that was references the same updated alembic, so something happened in the newer version upon saving. This is why we iterate!

Still wish I knew what went wrong. 😕

Re: Xgen freaks out after Alembic replacement

Michael_Todd — Tue, 16 May 2017 20:28:05 GMT

What version of XGen is involved here? Interactive or core Xgen?

Also, if the geo for the scalp is the same as in the cache, you could actually just reference the Alembic Cache and create a blendshape with the referenced cache geo as the target. So long as the topology doesn't change, any changes to the referenced cache will be picked up in the groom scene.

Cheers