Core Questions———————————

1) Maya has many animation types* (keyframe, path, motion capture, etc) and I’m curious which are supported when workflowing to Away3D?

2) As for materials and mapping, what mapping types are supported when exporting from Maya and importing into Prefab3D and/or Away3D?

Background———————————

I’m trying to find out what animation types and material/mapping types are supported in Away3D when workflowing from Maya 2013 (to Prefab3D if necessary) to Away3D. I’d like to use the AWD2 format.

Ideally our 3D artist could animate (with workflowing to Away3D in mind) and map objects/scenes which could be saved as AWD2. From there I could load these files in (and their respective materials and animation info) from which I could access via code and and add interactivity. For example letting the user interact with the scene triggering animations on command.

Additional Questions———————————

3) Of the supported animation types can they be saved in an AWD2 file?

4) From what I understand, just color materials and texture materials are transferable, Is this correct?

5) Our 3D artist utilizes shaders often, is there a way for this to translate to Away3D?

* Maya Animation Types http://download.autodesk.com/global/docs/maya2013/en_us/index.html?url=files/Animation_Basics_Animation_in_Maya.htm,topicNumber=d30e216216

From files Away3d can load vertex animation as md2 files, Skeleton animations in dae, awd2 and md5 formats.
Using third party file formats & their respective exporters, you can load sour files for vertexanimation and sea3d for skeleton.
Prefab can convert skeleton anims to vertexanimations from dae, md5 or awd2 to AS3 and md2.
awd2 does not support vertexanimation in its specs 2.0. Does support only diffuse map. Prefab export to awd with skeleton and diffuse material.
Prefab can export to as3 anything you can do in Prefab except skeleton anim (on the todo)

You can for static models load ac, obj, 3ds, awd1, awd2, dxf, dae.
ac, obj, 3ds, awd1, awd2, dae can have diffuse per mesh.

scenebased animations are on the todo + imports

All materials & methods except for Prefab’s AS3’s and sea3d exports, must be coded by hand. Awd 2.1 will probably support this as well.

Path animations are also possible, you only need to export and serialize your data for the path animator class.

Thank you so much for the insight! Very helpful. If you could clarify two things that’d be awesome:

1) When you say…

scenebased animations are on the todo + imports

... what exactly do you mean? Does this mean keyframed scene animations not just skeletal?

2) And when you say…

Awd 2.1 will probably support this as well.

... are you suggesting that materials and methods will be defined in the 2.1 spec? Or that 2.1 and 2.0 will be the same in this regard? ETA on 2.1?

Thanks again for your help (and Prefab3D ).

1: yes, for instance a mesh gets a transform over time. timeline anim…

2: I do not work on it, but that should be the case yes. Eta is on roadmap published on this very site.

Sweet! Look forward to AWD2.1 for sure. I’ve read the roadmap but didn’t see the explicit “AWD2.1” mention (and it didn’t show up anywhere in the site search) but based on what you’ve said and re-reading the roadmap it looks as though in May you’ll introduce it along with Away Builder 1.0 and Away3D 4.1 Beta. Look forward to it, thanks again for the quick responses.