Live link with Maya - get curves not working

The_Distiller · November 18, 2018, 11:43pm

I have a very simple test setup with a skinned mesh in Maya 2018 which has three bones and a blendshape named biceps. Getting the root transform values works but I’m getting zip for curve data. I wonder if anyone had any luck getting curve data successfully transferred? Thanks!

AyanMiru · November 19, 2018, 6:31am

I’ve had the same issue, and it looks things didn’t change since:

The source code still contains that chunk of test code (Line 372):

https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/blob/release/Engine/Source/Programs/MayaLiveLinkPlugin/MayaLiveLinkPlugin.cpp

What I ended up doing at that time is creating maya python script that creates new joint tree with a joint for each blendshape on our character. then I import this tree and link their transforms to blendshapes in Engine.
Here is the script:

github.com

Miru302/RandomScripts/blob/master/CreateBlendShapeTransforms.py

# by Ayan Azimkulov "Miru302"
import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.mel as mel


# Global Vars
# blendShapeNodeName should be the blendshape node that gets the final inputs to drive face blendshapes.
blendShapeNodeName = "BSName"
suffixName = "_" + "MLLsubject"
rootName = "face" + suffixName

AdditionalBSNames = []


def GetCamera():
    cameras = cmds.ls(cameras=True, long=0)
    defaultCameras = [u'frontShape', u'perspShape', u'sideShape', u'topShape']

    for d in defaultCameras:
        cameras.remove(d)

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Today I would use MotionBuilder livelink. I’ve checked and streaming blendshapes (and other AnimCurves) from it are working fine. The MoBu LiveLink plugin is here:

The_Distiller · November 19, 2018, 3:32pm

Thanks for your insight and workaround! Switching to MotionBuilder is not really an option for us though due to our pipeline. It would be nice to get some official word on this issue and if Epic intends to make the Maya plugin fully functional in the future.