Hey guys, I am wondering what are the rules for material naming in maya…

I have an OBJ level subnet digital asset containing a material named default_clay. This material is assigned to an object in the scene via a material SOP

When going in maya, the material assigned to my object is still called phong#

Does the houdini engine handle the material naming like it does the object naming? and if not, is it possible to add it?

(in the short term, I can probably rename it with my script, but was wondering if this was managed already before I did my thing)

thank you!

BTW it also looks like there is a bug on the material handling? synching assets updates when geos are added or removed, but does NOT update if materials are added or removed

i.e. if I start my asset in a state that has no material, it seem to stay that way even when I sync. Only a reload seems to fix this issue

grayOlorin
When going in maya, the material assigned to my object is still called phong#

Does the houdini engine handle the material naming like it does the object naming? and if not, is it possible to add it?

The Maya plugin doesn't name the materials in any way. It should be possible to name the phong materials according to the Houdini material name though. There'll probably still be a number appended to the end.

That would be great! Is it possible for it to also sync properly? ideally materials would behave just like meshes

thank you!

I've put in a change for naming the Maya materials after the SHOP node. It should be in tomorrow's build (13.0.664).

grayOlorin
That would be great! Is it possible for it to also sync properly? ideally materials would behave just like meshes

thank you!

I was able to reproduce the add/remove material problem. We've put in a temporary fix for now. This means sync'ing should correctly assign/unassign the Maya material. It'll be in tomorrow's build (13.0.664). The proper fix would be more efficient, but it's going to take more time to get done. The proper fix shouldn't have any impact on the user anyway.

This is phenomenal Andrew! going to for sure pick up this update. Thank you!

BTW I imagine this is in 14 as well right?

grayOlorin
This is phenomenal Andrew! going to for sure pick up this update. Thank you!

BTW I imagine this is in 14 as well right?

Yup, it'll be in 14.0.221. The daily builds for 14.0 aren't available yet though, but they should be available soon.

I have an OBJ level subnet digital asset containing a material named default_clay. This material is assigned to an object in the scene via a material SOP

How specifically are you assigning the material in Houdini so it passes through to Maya as a unique material? I tried replicating your workflow above by adding materials to groups in a material SOP and I can see the material in Houdini but when the otl loads in Maya it assigns initialShadingGroup to all geometry, it seems to not be bringing any materials along.

Are there specific parameters I need to watch out for? Currently my geometry has vertex normals and UVs, does that play a factor? Is there something with using a SHOP network inside the HDA vs the /shop material palette? (I tried both ways with no luck). Essentially I'd like to create material groups that pass from the HDA to Maya so I can easily assign new materials to selected material groups defined by the HDA.

Is your digital asset a SOP type or an OBJ type? I believe it has to be Obj type for it to work. Give it a whirl

Ah, the digital asset is a SOP type so that may be the issue. I will test this evening, thanks!