Import Vertex Color information from .obj into Maya

Spudnik · May 2015

Hey everybody,

I'm writing a small script that automates a couple of baking operations in Maya. One I'm trying to get to work is baking vertex color information from my sculpt to my lowpoly but the problem I'm coming up against is the fact that Maya doesn't seem to import the vertex color info.

For example, if I do some polypainting in Zbrush and export that mesh with polypaint, upon import to Maya, it seems to have lost that information. The info is definitely in the obj however, since other bakers like xNormal can bake those out just fine (inb4 just bake with xNormal: xNormal is my baker of choice as well, but for this project, the number of programs involved in the asset creation should be absolutely minimal - just Zbrush and Maya)

Is that just a limitation of Maya or am I overlooking something?

Eric Chadwick · May 2015

I did a google for obj "vertex color" maya import and found this:

Zbrush Polypaint importer for Maya / Free on Vimeo

monster · May 2015

Spudnik wrote: »

Is that just a limitation of Maya or am I overlooking something?

OBJ file spec doesn't support vertex colors so it's not really a limitation. But as Eric pointed out, there are workarounds.

Eric Chadwick · May 2015

The original file spec doesn't support it, but it looks like Pixologic (or someone) appended it in. When you export a polypainted OBJ it has vertex color in it. Xnormal sees it. I think it's just that Maya doesn't recognize the addition.

Neox · May 2015

i have to search for the working script, i had it workin inside maya viewport and renderer, but sadly it can not be baked

oglu · Oct 2019

Is there a way to get this working with maya2019.?

poopipe · Oct 2019

Neox said:

i have to search for the working script, i had it workin inside maya viewport and renderer, but sadly it can not be baked

You don't need to bake vertex colour. Output it to a texture using the vertex paint tool

oglu · Oct 2019

I need the vertex colour.
And i dont have the Zbush file.

Eric Chadwick · Oct 2019

Convert the obj to another format that can import vc? Maybe obj to fbx?

poopipe · Oct 2019

Bake it to a map with xnornal or substance - I'm pretty sure they both support obj vert colour

You can then bring it into maya and apply as vertex colour

If you're willing to write the code it's not that much work to dig the vertex colour out of the obj file - I didn't write the one we use at work but it's pretty straightforward

Import Vertex Color information from .obj into Maya

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