Hello, I am new to this forum and have a pressing question I would like to ask the community.

I have been working in Maya since 2009. I went to school for Game Arts and got my degree over a year ago. Problem is, given several mishaps in my education, I never learn how to put the things I created in Maya into a game engine. Everything I every made was for Maya only. I am working, but according to my boss none of my assets from Maya as usable in Unity. They tell me that errors are occurring, the lighting isn't hitting the object correctly, ect.

Now, I am watching videos and other lessons to learn Unity and use its tools along side Maya. Namely, I want to build, unwrap, and texture the assets and props in Maya, then transfer them over to Unity where the scene and lighting will be in the game.

My question is, how do I know if my assets are usable in Unity and if they are errors should I fix them in Unity or Maya? I am obviously missing something since my boss keep telling me that my stuff is no good.

Can you import them into Unity yourself and look at the error messages?

My question is, how do I know if my assets are usable in Unity

Run your assets through their pipeline into Unity and check for yourself. Every company must have some way for artists to check their work in-game. If yours does not, then it is not an actual company, but an incredible simulation.

if they are errors should I fix them in Unity or Maya?

You should always fix the source data. it is obviously not acceptable for you push bad source data to source control, fix values afterwards, and then have to refix the data again when they ask you to change the model later.

I am obviously missing something since my boss keep telling me that my stuff is no good.

He or she needs also to tell you clearly and in-detail why your data is not good.

Screenshots would help. And again, it is 100% vital that you be able to test your assets in the game.

L. Spiro

Sounds like two communications problems. One between you and your boss, the other between the two pieces of software.

For the software, there are error messages. They mean things. Read the exact error messages and try to correct them. If you don't understand them, copy the exact error messages and we can help decypher them.

For the human communications, you need to both understand what you are trying to accomplish, and make sure you both understand your roles. It may be that your boss expects more than you are currently able, or that you expect more of your boss than he is currently able; it may be that your boss lacks the skill to communicate with you, it may be you lack the skill to communicate with your boss. Unfortunately that one cannot be resolved by copy and pasting error messages.

Wow, didn't expect so much response this time of night.

On my first projects, I knew what the errors were. On my third, I did put it into Unity and at least to my eyes it is fine, no errors messages or stuff like that. The only changes I see from Maya to Unity is that the faces have a diagonal lines where none were in Maya. Granted, some modification are needed, but I see nothing so broken that its glaring. The only major grip my boss gave me was that damage wasn't realistic, which I have been working on and he did say I was getting better before taking the project from me without telling me what happened, only that there were too many errors for it to be usable. And I never saw them put my assets in the game engine, this is all online with people from across the world, and they never gave me access to it. I know at first Maya's ma didn't translate well, kept turning my modelings into jaggies pieces of crap, before I turn them into fdx files. To my knowledge, they used a mix of Unity and 3D Max to look over my work before giving me feedback. I honestly don't know if the files got corrupted or I did something wrong in Maya.

I am novice, so I know I made (some times stupid) mistakes and correct them when it is told to me. Since I am still learning I knew growing pains were involve. But it feels like I am shooting in the dark since I have no clue how my stuff actually looks to them except in the screen shots they send me. I also never work at a company, this is my first game job, so I never figure I needed to see their game engine, only that they are using Unity 5. I can only check errors in Maya and using my version of Unity. Since I am just learning Unity, I don't know exactly what I am looking for unless it is painfully obvious that something is wrong.

since I have no clue how much stuff actually looks to them.

If you are in their office then you need to walk up to their desks and have them show you.
If not, as I said before, you need to tell them to be very clear and specific about what is wrong and how, necessarily including screenshots. I would not accept any feedback at this stage without screenshots.

Again, I said to run it through their pipeline because they could have custom shaders in Unity or it could be their own conversion pipeline at fault. Running it into Unity by yourself isn’t guaranteed to give you their results, so again I would force them to give you screenshots.

L. Spiro

can't you just export the models in object/different file format and re-shade them in the Unity interface?

this way you would know if it works or not aswell.

I also tried a few mockups in Unity with blender-made models in the past, their skin material was off, and too plastic-like once i dragged them to Unity, so i had to create new materials in Unity itself and apply those to the meshes i previously had.

since I have no clue how much stuff actually looks to them.

If you are in their office then you need to walk up to their desks and have them show you.
If not, as I said before, you need to tell them to be very clear and specific about what is wrong and how, necessarily including screenshots. I would not accept any feedback at this stage without screenshots.

Again, I said to run it through their pipeline because they could have custom shaders in Unity or it could be their own conversion pipeline at fault. Running it into Unity by yourself isn’t guaranteed to give you their results, so again I would force them to give you screenshots.

L. Spiro

They do use customs shaders. They were talking about them during our weekly meetings. And everything is online so I cannot walk into their office and have them show me what is wrong. They have showed me screen shots, but it was usually when something was extremely wrong, like my model turning to jags or a side disappearing. Also, sorry if I sound dumb, but when you say run it through their pipeline you mean their version of the game engine and not just Unity running on my computer.

can't you just export the models in object/different file format and re-shade them in the Unity interface?

this way you would know if it works or not aswell.

I also tried a few mockups in Unity with blender-made models in the past, their skin material was off, and too plastic-like once i dragged them to Unity, so i had to create new materials in Unity itself and apply those to the meshes i previously had.

My job is only modeling and unwrapping. Shading goes to a different team. The way it is set up, we have the modeling team, the texture team, and then the shaders. They used to have one team who did all of this, but divided it up into three to make things go faster and people were having trouble with their assignments. People were turning in their stuff late or errors occur.

I never put a fully texture model in Unity, so I don't know how it would look. Actually, I think I will try that now using one of my old models.

Also, sorry if I sound dumb, but when you say run it through their pipeline you mean their version of the game engine and not just Unity running on my computer.

Do the same tasks they do to get the same result in your own copy of Unity (and their game or at least their shaders).
If they have a custom exporter from Maya then use that. If they convert to FBX and load into Unity directly then do that.

But again, it is useless for checking proper lighting results if you do not have their custom shaders in Unity. So you need to get their shaders somehow, be that via a copy of their whole game (which is overkill) or via a test model-viewing scene they should be able to provide you that uses their shaders.


L. Spiro

Also, sorry if I sound dumb, but when you say run it through their pipeline you mean their version of the game engine and not just Unity running on my computer.

Do the same tasks they do to get the same result in your own copy of Unity (and their game or at least their shaders).
If they have a custom exporter from Maya then use that. If they convert to FBX and load into Unity directly then do that.

But again, it is useless for checking proper lighting results if you do not have their custom shaders in Unity. So you need to get their shaders somehow, be that via a copy of their whole game (which is overkill) or via a test model-viewing scene they should be able to provide you that uses their shaders.


L. Spiro

They had no one who knew a thing about Maya, which was part of the trouble. I had to use 3D Max and relate that to Maya, which wasn't too bad since 3D Max and Maya are similar enough. I also had to do the conversion myself since even the obj files got corrupted for some reason. When they sent the files back to me they were corrected and I put them into Maya, although that was when major errors did happen.

Looking at your posts, it seems although I am new to game development and made plenty of mistakes I wasn't exactly set up for success either. Knowing what I do now, I should have insisted that they send me a copy (or let me replicate) what they did in Unity so I could truly see for myself what was happening.

Communication was a major issue. I went days without hearing back about my projects, leaving me little time to do repairs. But I think the biggest problem was that the person who is the overall boss (the person who wants the game made) isn't a game designer. He leaves the decisions of what can and cannot be used to the people who oversaw my work. So, I don't think it ever occur to him to send out the Unity models, although strangely no one ever ask for them. That would explain why the scene team had so many problems compared to everyone else.