Illustrator

[Gary Jaeger]

Oh my god. Am I the only one who dreads importing Illustrator art into Maya? Why is this so hard. I end up endlessly trying different Illustrator formats. Currently I can’t even get a square to import.

// Error: line 0: Command illustratorCurves failed. Open Script Editor for details. //

I get a million of those. Or if I try the bevel I get the bevel error. If I try Import I, Maya opens… fcheck??

Gary Jaeger // Core Studio
249 Princeton Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
650 728 7060
http://corestudio.com

[▒░ tccin3d ░▒]

1. Make a rounded square (more advanced than regular)

2. Expand (it is cool to expand)

3. Save as .ai without compression

4. Import (use New York accent when saying import in your mind).

-it should work.. if not try changing nibs on your wacom pen..  it worked for me.

*some of these steps are important some are not.

On Sun, Sep 28, 2014 at 6:08 AM, Gary Jaeger <ga...@corestudio.com> wrote:

Oh my god. Am I the only one who dreads importing Illustrator art into Maya? Why is this so hard. I end up endlessly trying different Illustrator formats. Currently I can't even get a square to import.

// Error: line 0: Command illustratorCurves failed. Open Script Editor for details. //

I get a million of those. Or if I try the bevel I get the bevel error. If I try Import I, Maya opens... fcheck??

Gary Jaeger // Core Studio
249 Princeton Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
650 728 7060
http://corestudio.com

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[Anthony Tan]

Dumb suggestion possibly, but have made it non-PDF compatible (i.e.
untick the tickbox). It'll possibly be doing fun stuff like embedding
fonts etc that'll be sending maya for a spin.

(It doesn't help you i know, but I can get squares out of illustrator
and into maya without too much grief)

On Sun, Sep 28, 2014, at 02:08 PM, Gary Jaeger wrote:
> Oh my god. Am I the only one who dreads importing Illustrator art into
> Maya? Why is this so hard. I end up endlessly trying different
> Illustrator formats. Currently I can't even get a square to import.
>
> // Error: line 0: Command illustratorCurves failed. Open Script Editor
> for details. //
>
> I get a million of those. Or if I try the bevel I get the bevel error. If

> I try Import I, Maya opens... fcheck??

>
> Gary Jaeger // Core Studio
> 249 Princeton Avenue
> Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
> 650 728 7060
> http://corestudio.com
>

[Sid]

LOLing so hard at this thread right now. So true, this really shouldn't be as hard as it is!

[matt estela]

Way back we used zaxworks invigorator (dumbest name in the world) when it was a maya plugin. When they discontinued the maya version, we kept an old version of maya lying around, purely so we could run invgorator for importin and bevelling illustrator files, nothing else came close. I don't miss motion graphics, but I miss that plugin.

As others have said, I remember last time I suffered through bevel plus, we had to grit our teeth and go through all the options on illustrator export until we found one maya was happy with. Going back several versions of illustrator compatibility, stripping out any extra special sauce from the illustrator file itself, the pdf compatibility thing Anthony mentioned sounds like a good tip. 

Beyond that yeah, it's horrible Gary, I feel your pain. :)

If time is of the essence, grab a 30 day demo of cinema4d and mesh it in there, then bring it to maya. Its built in illustrator support is good, but the cineversity artsmart plugin is distressingly good, does in seconds what'd take you hours in maya.

http://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/cv-artsmart    (the voiceover is horrible, you've been warned)

[matt estela]

Egads, I just watched the artsmart v2 video at the above link. It'll cause you physical pain if you've ever done logo animation, it looks so freakin useful...

[Daniel Jay]

Strange, but I never had any problems importing Illustrator art into
Maya. I just save out of Illustrator as the earliest version it lets
you. Obviously you can't import the latest features of Illustrator
directly into Maya, but for me it's just the vector lines I need.
Works every time.

[mark palkoski]

I seem to remember that it only liked certain versions of ai files.
Version 8 or up to cs3. No pdf compatibility.
I also convert text to outlines. Then reduce cvs to only necessary as some fonts have far to many cvs when converted.

To many will screw up your bevels.

But it has always been a pain, hence Zaxworks back in the day.

[Gary Jaeger]

Yeah, we do the same dance. Older version of .ai, no compression, no pdf, compound path make release, make outlines, ad infinitum. Like others, sometimes it works and sometimes not.

And Matt, we do have a couple copies of C4D and that plug in actually. But sometimes you’re moving fast and just. want. it. to. work.

Gary Jaeger // Core Studio
249 Princeton Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
650 728 7060
http://corestudio.com

[Phinnaeus OConnor]

Illustrator 8 format always worked for me but just tried it in Maya 2015 and it brings in transforms and curves but nothing visible in the viewport :(

Tried it in 2014 and it works fine, could be a 2015 bug?

P


Phinnaeus O'Connor Ltd
3D Animation for TV and Film



https://vimeo.com/user5376333/videos





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On Sun, 28/9/14, Daniel Jay <lo...@danieljay.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: [maya_he3d] Illustrator
To: maya...@googlegroups.com
Date: Sunday, 28 September, 2014, 15:00

[SEQUENZ | Lars Gerstenmaier]

AI 8 works for me (AI Mac -> Maya 2015 Ext1 PC), but neither CS5, CS6 nor CC17 (AI CC 2014).

Attached the working AI 8 file (for testing only).

[Ian Waters]

As far as I’m aware, Adobe changed the AI format after version 8 to be PDF based (AI files, like many of Adobe’s file formats is just a flavour of PDF).

As has been pointed out:

1. Expand.
2. Outline.
3. Add anchor points to get a smooth curve.
4. Save as .ai version 8 or below.

Works every time for us.

I’ve been investigating writing an AI importer for Maya (it’s a big job), SVG however seems a lot more attainable.

Best,
Ian

--
Ian Waters
Animator/ Developer
http://about.me/ianw

On 29 Sep 2014, at 09:10, SEQUENZ | Lars Gerstenmaier <gerste...@sequenz.com> wrote:

>
> AI 8 works for me (AI Mac -> Maya 2015 Ext1 PC), but neither CS5, CS6 nor CC17 (AI CC 2014).
>
> Attached the working AI 8 file (for testing only).
>
>
>
>
>

> ---
> SEQUENZ, Berlin I con...@sequenz.com I +49 - 30 - 610 739 61 | www.sequenz.com

> <sequenz_AI8_test.ai>--

[Phinnaeus OConnor]

Yep worked on 2015 here at work (Centos 6.3)

P

Phinnaeus O'Connor Ltd
3D Animation for TV and Film



https://vimeo.com/user5376333/videos





--------------------------------------------

On Mon, 29/9/14, SEQUENZ | Lars Gerstenmaier <gerste...@sequenz.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: [maya_he3d] Illustrator
To: maya...@googlegroups.com

Date: Monday, 29 September, 2014, 9:10

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

[stephenkmann]

we always do the v8 ai file.   ,. 

However, It would be nice to get this updated... I think there is a posting for it on Small Annoying Things..     I suggest voting that up..

http://mayafeedback.autodesk.com/forums/160514-ideas-for-maya-forum/suggestions/3621660-better-adobe-illustrator-import

random tip, you can highlight selections in photoshop, then save as working curves, and export paths as illustrator . which import cleanly into maya

-=s

stephe...@gmail.com
http://smannimation.blogspot.com/
http://nymayausersgroup.blogspot.com/
http://smann3d.blogspot.com/

[Andres Weber]

We go a step further and save as Illustrator 3 (sometimes 8) after expanding/outlining all curves.  Usually doesn't have any issues whatsoever.

[EdoAlf]

A little script I've found incredibly useful is called CloseAllPaths, by William Park. Assuming you have everything expanded, the text is outlined and you are saving in AI8 (or newer format with the goodies turned off), there still can be problems with complex artwork and open paths. Just load the script and it will find and close everything for you. Link: http://www.williammpark.utvinternet.com/scripts.zip

In case you've never used scripts in AI before, file>scrips>other scrips, or CTRL+F12

[EdoAlf]

On a side note, Maya's script editor usually tells you what's the problem in your AI file.

El sábado, 27 de septiembre de 2014 23:38:50 UTC-4:30, Gary Jaeger escribió:

[SEQUENZ | Lars Gerstenmaier]

Thanks, Eduardo. 

Side note: In the newest AI-version there is a new tool called "Curvature Tool", which lets you create and edited path much more intuitively. And the „Join Tool“ to join paths easily. 

---

SEQUENZ, Berlin I con...@sequenz.com I +49 - 30 - 610 739 61 | www.sequenz.com