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Maya USD Workflow

Getting started with AYON USD integration in Autodesk Maya

Maya addon - 0.1.6

Core Addon - 0.1.3

USD Addon - 0.1.2

Publishing a model​

Any contribution to an asset structure should be within the default root primitive. In AYON, that defaults to the asset's folder name.

So for folder path /asset/characters/hero that root name is hero.

The Creator allows to create that asset structure for you by enabling the Create Asset Structure checkbox. Then select your geometry, create and it will directly be conveniently parented to the required hierarchy.

Create Asset Structure

The Create Asset Structure checkbox will create a root group {asset} and child group geo. The root group is namespaced with the variant so that you can easily publish multiple variants from one scene without having naming conflicts on that root node's name which must match the current folder name exactly.

So when working in /asset/characters/hero it will create for variant modelMain:

modelMain:hero/
    geo/

Note: If the Use Selection checkbox was also enabled then any active selection will be reparented to that geo group.

After publishing this asset contribution you will have generated three products:

The AYON asset contribution workflow automates the generation of the layers for you.

Above we published a usdMain product, which had USD contributions enabled and targeted the product usdAsset with the department layer model.

So it generated:

  • The target usdAsset product.
  • The department layer for the usdAsset, specifically usdAsset_{layer} -> usdAsset_model.
  • The usdMain product is added into that department layer, so the usdMain product is in the usdAsset_model layer.

Generating the asset structure:

usdAsset               (target product)
  - usdAsset_model     (department layer)
    - usdMain          (product of the instance)

If you were to publish multiple products at once, say we would generate usdModelMain and usdModelDamaged. It would then generate:

usdAsset               (target product)
  - usdAsset_model     (department layer)
    - usdModelMain
    - usdModelDamaged

The USD Contributions are additive and will on each contribution populate and update the target product, like the usdAsset.

Loading USD products​

You can load USD products back to Maya into Maya USD Proxy Shapes.

Looking for different loaders?

Different Loaders are being implemented, like referencing the data as regular maya geometry or "referencing" directly into an existing Maya USD Proxy.

See: https://github.com/ynput/ayon-maya/pull/61

TODO
  • Explain LookdevX look workflow to publish a look layer with asset contribution
  • Explain general shot workflow in Maya
  • Explain Rig -> Animation workflow to publish animations for shot workflows.