Autodesk Maya 2011 – OBJ import with textures


When you have problems in Maya 2011 with import of textures when you importing OBJ-file into Maya, problem is in MTL file. OBJ with MTL are very old file-formats.

  • OBJ-file contains GEOMETRY, it’s Wavefront OBJ – File Format
  • MTL-file contains MATERIALS, it’s Alias/WaveFront Material – File Format

  • You can have textures paths correct, but when your MTL-file not contain Ns exponent for every material, then no textures are imported. It’s a bug in Maya OBJ parser.

    Ns exponent: Specifies the specular exponent for the current material. This defines the focus of the specular highlight. “exponent” is the value for the specular exponent. A high exponent results in a tight, concentrated highlight. Ns values normally range from 0 to 1000.

    # example.mtl

    newmtl material_356
    Kd 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
    Ns 1
    illum 0
    map_Kd texture.tga


    Here you can find thread about this problem on area.autodesk.com.


    Posted by toxik on May 28 2010 under Maya, News |


    4 Responses to “Autodesk Maya 2011 – OBJ import with textures”

    1. Shawn Says:

      I had a problem importing textures with a Wavefront file as well,
      however my problem was that the importer saw fit do delete all the directory separators,
      i.e., “C:\Users\Shawn\Documents\Final_Fantasy_XIII_Models\Vanille\c595_03.tga”
      became “C:UsersShawnDocumentsFinal_Fantasy_XIII_ModelsVanillec595_03.tga”.
      Luckily, she only has 3 textures. I just corrected it in the attribute editor.
      Also, everything looks perfectly fine in the mtl file so it’s definitely the importer.

    2. rms Says:

      In Maya 2012 I have had success using forward-slash paths, ie “c:/path/to/file.png”…

    3. toxik Says:

      You both talking about problems with paths, but i am talking about problem in Maya. It’s a bug in Maya OBJ parsing.

    4. Nahda Says:

      how to solve this then?

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