Sorry to reply to my own note, but I've had a look at the viewCallbackTest example plugin http://me.autodesk.jp/wam/maya/docs/Maya2009/API/view_callback_test_8cpp-example.htmland it seems I should be able to do everything I need to do with the Maya API.
I built the example but when I install the plugin I get the error "Error: does not match the current architecture" - presumably this is because I'm using the 30-day trial version (at least according to this discussion thread https://collada.org/public_forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1022&sid=51f6f06403a8a8b76f177593e8254145&start=30 ) Can anyone confirm that this is in fact the case? Steve On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Steve Wart <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm very new to Maya, but I've been reassured that what we have been asked > to do is possible. Hopefully someone here can help point us in the right > direction. > > We have an external camera which is going to be sending location, pan, tilt > and zoom data over the network. We would like to use this data to manipulate > a camera in Maya in real-time and render the results on the screen. This > will be used to preview a video signal combined with the rendered image. > > There is no need to save the rendered results to a file, in fact, if that > will slow us down, we would prefer to avoid it altogether. We are thinking > it might be better in fact to send the video signal directly to tape, > although we need to save the animation keyframe data so we can do a final > render for post-production. > > We have some simple test harnesses in python and C++ that can read the > location and timecode data from the network, and I've managed to move the > camera around on the screen using another script. One problem I'm having is > that the script process seems to be running in the same thread as the GUI, > so it hangs until it has finished processing all commands. > > Is it possible to have a script running in the background that continually > updates the camera attributes, progresses an animation according to the > timecode data in my script, and renders the resulting image in real-time? It > doesn't need to be a high-quality render. I've searched through heaps of > tutorials, but there seems to be little about driving animation in > real-time. > > Also, I am hoping it would be possible to texture a video frame from the > camera within each animation frame, I suppose in an orthographic projection > in front of the rendered model. I can get the frame data from the video > signal, but is it possible with the C++ API to interact with the frame > buffer in Maya during the render? > > Hopefully my description isn't too confusing. If you have any suggestions > as to a high-level approach (or warnings about specific technical pitfalls), > I'd love to hear them. > > Thanks, > Steve > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Yours, Maya-Python Club Team. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
