Unity and Maya FBX - Poor animation tools and import

AmazingSparckman · August 2013

I am new to unity so far I can tell Unity is almost useless at importing animations from Maya.

FBX files - set to legacy - sometime work and sometimes they just don't...

So I go in Maya and animate a simple primitive
delete non-deformer history
bake the animation

export as FBX

import to Unity...
the animation seems to work on the preview.

oh wait... if you don't set RIG to legacy the animation just don't work. okay
I set to legacy ... ooo now it just appears LOL

what a terrible game engine - sucks at something so basic .. importing animation.

AmazingSparckman · August 2013

Okay here is a tip for anyone who runs in the same problem.

When you export FBX objects to Unity and they have animations
such as... EXAMPLE.

a door opening

You need to export at least two items or the animation will not play.
actually the object will completely disappear.

just FYI.

tgraupmann · August 2013

I rely on sprite animations - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/search/SKStudio

Since my modeling/animation skillz fall into the category of "TimArt", which has a special meaning for some.

I can use Modo to animate, but I haven't tried exporting in FBX to see if they appear properly in Unity.

AmazingSparckman · August 2013

I mean me too I am not this big time animator but I think unity still has a long way to go.

I mean, a spinning crystal won't animate in unity. It will... if a second object is exported with it.

give it try, animate a box .. just make it spin.. export the FBX -
import it in unity and set rig as Legacy
loop the animation

and Boom it disappears on the screen. when you run the game.

Go back to Maya and ad an extra object to the animation

do the same process...( import and all )

and BOOMM it works fine.

Now, for me as a first time user of unity, I think it's a flaw... i could be wrong...
please correct me if I am wrong. Or there is another way to import single animated objects into
unity.

I tried importing characters with bones and it seems to work fine. So doesn't seem to be an issue.

tgraupmann · August 2013

I think what you say is a Unity bug. I would create a small repro project and submit as a Unity bug. A simple project with the model and a script to play the animation. It helps if you also include screenshots or a video of the issue. And then shoot it off to the Unity beta list. That's the best way to get things fixed.

Volcanic-Penguin · August 2013

I use Maya and Unity and you don't have to export as FBX, I just use the .mb files.

But yes I do think there is an issue with if you are animating a single object maya file with no joints etc because I think Unity then interprets that object as the root and then the animation doesn't get recognized because the object doesn't animate relative to itself or something like that. I think in Maya you can select the object and make a parent to it (select the object and press p I think) and then animate the child object and Unity will have no problem with it.

Another pitfall to look out for is having "Apply Root Motion" checked on the Animator component, depending on what the root is of your animation it can cause the object to jump to position 0,0,0. I don't remember the details but if you google it you'll find out.

Killa_Maaki · August 2013

Odd, I don't have this problem with other modeling packages (even with FBX)

KonajuGames · August 2013

Importing FBX into XNA has always been a bit temperamental as well, especially when it comes to animations. So it's not only Unity.

I believe if you add the .mb file to the Unity project, it loads up Maya in the background to do the export itself.

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