FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions or Issues

I do not see my model on loading the asset

On Load warning message "Unresolved Reference Path" shows

Since you're publishing into the asset structure make sure your data is inside the expected default primitive path for that asset, where the default primitive is always {folder[name]} so your data should be inside /{folder[name]}/... so that the data resides inside the default primitive path.

This is wrong: ⚠️

/geo/marble
/materials/material1

This is correct: 🏆

/hero
    /geo/marble
    /materials/material1

You are lacking the default primitive it expects.

What are all these publisher options, like Target Product?

Some technical details explained by @MustafaJafar

USD Publish Settings explained

Initialize as asset vs shot

As explained in Getting Started

• Asset Layer supports:
  • Load/unload the asset
  • Have different layers to hold data from different departments
  • Allow each layer to have switchable variants
• Shot Layer only combines different layers from different departments.

Here's an example of the generated asset and shot structure by AYON USD publish plugins.

• USD Asset Structure

  # USD Asset
  {target-product}.usda
    └── Xform {folder[name]}
          ├── inherits __class__/{folder[name]}
          └── payload ./payload.usda  # Relative path
  
  payload.usda
    └── mata data
          └── sublayers
                └── {target-product_department-name}.usda:ARGS:{layer-id}, {order}

• USD Shot Structure

  # USD Shot
  {target-product}.usda
    └── mata data
          └── sublayers
                └── {target-product_department-name}.usda:ARGS:{layer-id}, {order}

Available Department Layers

Please, be aware that we currently do not provide validators to confirm if the content you intend to publish matches your selected layer. As it stands, layers function as labels with a predetermined order. For example, the model layer will consistently be evaluated before the material layer.

Layers order:

• Asset layers
  • model: 100
  • assembly: 150
  • groom: 175
  • look: 200
  • rig: 300
• Shot layers
  • layout: 200
  • animation: 300
  • simulation: 400
  • fx: 500
  • lighting: 600

USD Different publish options

Let's focus on 4 interesting settings + 1 computed value by the publisher.

1. target-product which is a user editable text.
2. target-product_department-name which is a selection from a drop down list.
3. variant-set-name which is by default is set to {layer} which evaluates to the selected item in the drop down list in Num2
4. variant-name which is by default is set to {variant} as the arrow in the screenshot points.
5. product-name which what we have by default from the publisher for any publish instance.

Publish a separate layer

By disabling Enable toggle. USD publish plugins will skip the USD contribution and publish a single layer. and, it doesn't affect the version in the latest published target-product or target-product_department-name.

Resultant Products:

• Product: product-name

  {product-name}.usd
  # It can be any usd hierarchy.
  Publishing Asset contribution with Variant

tip

When choosing shot instead of asset, the resultant Product: target-product will follow the same shot structure mentioned earlier.

Resultant Products:

• Product: target-product (2 layers)

  # USD Asset
  {target-product}.usda
    └── Xform {folder[name]}
          ├── inherits __class__/{folder[name]}
          └── payload ./payload.usda  # Relative path
  
  payload.usda
    └── mata data
          └── sublayers
                └── {target-product_department-name}.usda:ARGS:{layer-id}, {order}

• Product: target-product_department-name

  # USD Asset Layer
  {target-product_department-name}.usda
    └── Xform {folder[name]}
          ├── Variant Sets -> ["{variant-set-name}"]
          └── Variant Set "{variant-set-name}"
                └── Variant {variant-name}
                      ├── reference -> {product-name}
                      └── custom data
                            ├── ayon_order
                            └── ayon_uri -> AYON URI for the published AYON USD product variant

• Product: {product-name}

  # USD product
  {product-name}.usd
  # It can be any hierarchy.

Publishing Asset contribution with no Variant

tip

When choosing shot instead of asset, the resultant Product: target-product will follow the same shot structure mentioned earlier.

Resultant Products:

• Product: target-product (2 layers)

  # USD Asset
  {target-product}.usda
    └── Xform {folder[name]}
          ├── inherits __class__/{folder[name]}
          └── payload ./payload.usda  # Relative path
  
  payload.usda
    └── mata data
          └── sublayers
                └── {target-product_department-name}.usda:ARGS:{layer-id}, {order}

• Product: target-product_department-name

  # USD Asset Layer
  {target-product_department-name}.usda
    └── mata data
          └── sublayers
                └── {product-name}.usda:ARGS:{layer-id}

• Product: {product-name}

  # USD product
  {product-name}.usd
  # It can be any hierarchy.

We need to manually rename primitive paths the whole time?

We use reference so we can manually enter the primitive path, but i don't think that should be the way to go, they should all be connected and work without renaming and further input.

You should not need to manually rename all referenced primitive paths for assets

Using the AYON USD Contribution Workflow manual 're-assigning' all the time for assets should be redundant for the majority of the workflow. (Preferably this should never be needed, but some sections like animation from shot layers may still fall outside of that scope.)

1. Use the AYON USD Contribution workflow where the asset build is built automatically from single product contributions into the root primitive.
2. Load the usdAsset - avoid using the individual layers. You should not need to load those individually since they are all in the main asset.

Now, in a shot based workflow you just load the asset and since e.g. Maya animation caches are not already overlaid over a USD asset structure that is one of the moments where you will need to define the path you're overlaying to.

That's usually like:

1. Reference the usdAsset into your shot's structure, e.g.

/asset/hero

Which may result in e.g. an asset with model and look:

/asset/
    hero/    <- the `usdAsset` reference is here
        geo/..
        mtl/..

(The "hero" is the prim where you have the reference to the usdAsset)

You need to make sure that anything you want to layer on top of your asset comes in with the same hierarchy, so an animation cache preferably also has the structure:

hero/
    geo/..

With the animated geometry only.

That you can then also reference on top of /asset/hero in the shot structure which makes your referenced asset (that already has materials) move because just the geometries are being overridden.

Keep in mind the layer strength - referencing lower in the hierarchy means a stronger opinion!

It's usually important to reference on the same root prim of the asset, because as soon as you e.g. reference over asset/hero/geo instead your reference is lower in hierarchy than any reference on a higher prim like asset/hero and hence will ALWAYS be the stronger opinion.