.Mov files and video reference

[Anonymous]

 Hello everyone, first time poster here, I'm having a huge issue with importing video reference into Maya. I can't seem to get any movement from any file I try to put on to an image plane. I've imported .mov, .avi, and even tried to set it as an image sequence and nothing is working. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[kelly_hynes]

Hi There,

Are you able to play the movie files on your computer outside of Maya?

What version of Maya are you using?

Kelly

[kirbysteele]

Hey Kelly,

One thing that is very important if you do the image sequence texture is the naming of the files. The format has to be name of the files, a period, the number of the image, a period, then the image format. It would look like imagename.0001.jpg

[Anonymous]

Yes, I am able to play them outside of Maya, I am using Maya 2017 Windows
64.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've made sure when I tried to use an image sequence to use the correct naming convention. Although when I try to use an image sequence, with the "use image sequence" box ticked, I slide the animation slider and it says its changing images, but no change in the view.

[kirbysteele]

Probably a silly question, is the texture toggle active in the panel view?

[Anonymous]

Yes, that is on but still nothing.

[Anonymous]

If it's any help to say, I've tried various different videos that all work on my PC when played in various different formats. None of them will play on an image plane in Maya though.

[kirbysteele]

Can you zip up a folder that contains the scene you're working on and also the image sequence that you want to use in the scene so that I can take a look?

[t_chanma · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

Can you try this alternative? 

1. Create a poly plane and face it towards the camera. 
2. Assign it a new Lambert and assign a Movie node to the Color field. 
3. Load your video (with Use Image Sequence turned on). 

Does this yield any better results?  If so, then you can parent constrain the plane to the camera to get the same effect as a reference plane.

[Anonymous]

This actually worked, Thank you so much!

[amey.mehta96]

I tried everything but still, it's not showing video reference. I'm using Autodesk Maya 2020. Please help.

[amey.mehta96]

I tried everything but still, it's not showing video reference. I'm using Autodesk Maya 2020. Please help.

[kelly_hynes]

Hello,

Can you try exporting to an image sequence and then using those images instead of the .mov.  Are you using Cached Playback?

Kelly

[kirbysteele]

Hello, I found this tutorial and it is quite straight forward for getting a mov file referenced into a scene. It is worth a shot since it should only take a few minutes to try.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=import+mov+as+reference+maya#kpvalbx=_vT75YcauK...

[amey.mehta96]

Yes, but when I import an image and turned on Image sequence, then the
sequence doesn't run smoothly

[amey.mehta96]

I have checked that also but it doesn't show video. Only outline plane is
showing.

[stuff]

Hi Anonymous,
There's a great plugin called Gizmify Media Plane. It can read any video file format directly (mp4, avi, mkv, mov, etc.) on to a plane in the viewport.
It can also read the video file in 24fps even if it's 30fps... and a bunch more features.

No need to export image sequences, no Quicktime needed. Also it can read image sequences with any frame number padding... 🙂
Hope that helps.