Maya

This plugin integrates Prism into Autodesk Maya.

Supported Maya versions: 2022+ (Python 3)

Guides

This section provides an overview of the Prism-Maya integration, including the Basics, Extras and advanced USD workflows.

Basics

Extras

USD

Setup

The plugin can be installed from the Prism Hub. After the plugin is installed, the Prism integration needs to be added to the Maya preferences folder. This can be done in the Prism User Settings -> “DCCs apps”.

This is the path, which should be selected for the integration (other Maya versions are possible): %USERPROFILE%\Documents\maya\2026

Accessing Prism in Maya

Prism is available inside Maya from the “Prism” menu in the main menu bar or from the Prism shelf.

The menu contains options to:

• save and version up your scene

• save, version up your scene and add a description/thumbnail

• open the Project Browser

• open the State Manager to import, export, playblast and render files

• open the Prism Settings

Saving Scenefiles

You can save new scenefile versions using the options in the Prism menu or by opening the Project Browser and selecting “Create new version from current” in the context menu in the “Scenefiles” tab.

Importing Objects

To import objects from your Prism project into Maya you can open the State Manager from the Prism menu, expand the “Import” section and click the “Import” button.

The Product Browser will open where you can select and import a product version by double clicking it.

Alternatively you can also rightclick a product version in the Project Browser and select “Import”.

Exporting Objects

To export objects from Maya into your Prism project you can open the State Manager from the Prism menu and click the “Export” button in the “Export” section.

This will create an export state where you can set your export settings and define which objects to export.

You can then use the “Publish” button at the bottom of the State Manager to execute the state and export your objects.

The exported product version can be found in the “Products” tab in the Prism Project Browser.

Creating Playblasts

To create and save a playblast you can open the State Manager from the Prism menu.

In the “Export” section click the “Playblast” button to create a “Playblast” state.

When the state is selected you can set the playblast settings on the right side in the State Manager.

You can then use the “Publish” button at the bottom of the State Manager to execute the state and create a playblast of your scene.

The playblast can be found in the “Media” tab in the Prism Project Browser.

Rendering

To render your scene and save it to disk you can open the State Manager from the Prism menu.

In the “Export” section click the “Render” button to create a “Render” state.

When the state is selected you can set the render settings on the right side in the State Manager.

You can then use the “Publish” button at the bottom of the State Manager to execute the state and create a render of your scene.

The render can be found in the “Media” tab in the Prism Project Browser.

If you have the Deadline plugin installed you will see an option to submit the render as a job to the Deadline render farm.

Maya Referencing Workflow (Alembic)

Included Departments: Modeling, Surfacing, Rigging, Layout, Animation, Lighting

Note

This should be considered as a general guideline and can always be adapted to individual requirements. In addition, this workflow is still in development.

General Prerequisites:

Turn off the “USD Settings”: In case the USD Plugin is enabled: Prism Settings > Project > USD > Turn off “all checkboxes”.

Note

Technically speaking, this workflow can be combined with USD, but unless specifically needed, it is recommended to turn off USD.

Turn off “Master Versions”: Prism Settings > Project > General > Turn off “Use master product versions”.

Note

File formats like “.abc” and “.mb” are binary files. These come with the advantages of a compact file size and faster loading times since they get loaded directly from memory. However, the way they get loaded from memory (memory-mapped), they lead to file locking (e.g., if an artist has opened the file and another artist tries to publish to the same file, a file locking error message will appear from the operating system.

Note

Master Versions in Prism come with the following advantage: If a department publishes a product and that product is referenced in a downstream department, the product in the downstream department is automatically updated to the latest version. Without master versions, the version has to be manually updated in the downstream department (Prism will show a popup if a newer version is available).

Note

We might add an option in the future to use Master Versions on supported file formats like “.ma” or “.usda” and avoid to use Master Versions on unsupported file formats like “.mb”, “.usdc” or “.abc”.

Modeling:

Asset Structure: Assets (e.g. characters, props) can be created as usual in Maya. However, it is recommended to use an “Asset Structure” similar to shown here:

This will ensure all references stay connected during the whole workflow.

Export Modeling: Assets can be published (exported) to make them available for downstream departments. Select the main asset group in the Outliner and press the Prism Export Icon, select “.ma” as “Outputtype” and turn off “Import references”:

Surfacing:

Import (Reference) from Modeling: Inside Surfacing, press the Prism Import Icon and select the exported “Modeling” Product. In the “Create Reference” popup, select “Create Reference” and uncheck “Create Namespace”:

Create Materials and assign them to the referenced model.

Export Surfacing: Same process like in Modeling (Select the main asset group in the Outliner and press the Prism Export Icon, select “.ma” as “Outputtype” and turn off “Import references”).

Rigging:

Import from Surfacing: Inside Rigging press the Prism Import Icon and select the exported “Surfacing” Product. In the “Create Reference” popup, select “Import Objects Only” and uncheck “Create Namespace”:

Set up the rig inside the “rig” group (which was defined in Modeling).

Note

To make the references more stable when referencing the rig in Animation, the Surfacing will be imported into the Rigging instead of being referenced.

Export Rigging: Same process like in Modeling (Select the main asset group in the Outliner and press the Prism Export Icon, select “.ma” as “Outputtype” and turn off “Import references”).

Layout:

Import (Reference) from Surfacing: Inside Layout, press the Prism Import Icon and select the exported “Surfacing” Product. In the “Create Reference” popup, select “Create Reference” and use “Create Namespace”. Use e.g., “Ref001” as namespace to bring in the same asset multiple times. Continue with e.g., “Ref002” etc. (Just numbers “001” or “01” are not allowed by Maya’s namespace syntax):

Note

Namespaces are important in the Layout step, to avoid losing materials due to the same name or issues with the alembic cache, when applying it during Lighting.

Position the imported assets (like characters and props). Add the whole scene into a group e.g. “Assembly”:

Export Layout: Select the “Assembly” group in the Outliner and press the Prism Export Icon, select “.ma” as “Outputtype” and turn off “Import references”.

Note

The Layout step is optional, the scene can be directly built in Animation as well.

Animation:

Import (Reference) from Layout: Inside Animation, press the Prism Import Icon and select the exported “Layout” Product. In the “Create Reference” popup, select “Create Reference” and uncheck “Create Namespace”.

Import (Reference) from Rigging: Inside Animation, press the Prism Import Icon and select the exported “Rigging” Product. In the “Create Reference” popup, select “Create Reference” and use “Create Namespace”. Use e.g., “Rig001” as namespace to bring in the same asset multiple times. Continue with e.g., “Rig002” etc.:

The imported rigs can be placed at the same position to the corresponding assets from the Layout and the Animation can be started.

Note

Namespaces are important in the Animation step, to avoid losing materials due to the same name or issues with the Alembic cache, when applying it during Lighting.

Export Animation: Open the State Manager and create an Animation “Export Folder” (Right-Click > Create > Folder) in the Export Section and call it e.g., “AnimationExports”. Create an export state for each animated asset (Right-click the AnimationExports folder > Create > Export) and make sure the “geo” group of the asset is selected. For multiple animations, change the identifier for each animation:

Note

The selection of the geo group is important in order to apply the cache in Lighting correctly. In addition, it will make sure that only geometry is exported, not the rig itself.

Lighting:

Import (Reference) from Layout: Inside Lighting press the Prism Import Icon and select the exported “Layout” Product. In the “Create Reference” popup select “Create Reference” and uncheck “Create Namespace”.

Import (Apply Animation Cache) from Animation: Select an asset in the Outliner, press the Prism Import Icon and select the exported “Animation” Product (e.g., “Anm001_Squirrel”). In the “Create Reference” popup select Apply As Cache > To Selection:

Repeat the steps for all animations.

Note

Since the assets have already been placed in Layout, the location is added again during Animation. To fix this, simply reset the transforms on the root assets.

Benefits once each department is set up:

• If Surfacing is updating materials, Lighting will automatically receive the update the next time the scenefile gets loaded. (Layout and Animation will receive the Surfacing updates as well.)

• If Animation is updating animations, Lighting will automatically receive these updates.

Limitations:

• If the asset gets changes, Surfacing will get these updates but Rigging needs to reimport and redo some rigging tasks.

Further Development:

• We might add an option in the future to use Master Versions on supported file formats like “.ma” or “.usda” and avoid to use Master Versions on unsupported file formats like “.mb”, “.usdc” or “.abc”.

• We might to improve the workflow that scene building will be implemented in a more automated way.

• We might improve the workflow to apply alembic caches in a more automated way.

Adding Prism integration using environment variables

It is possible to use environment variables to add the Prism integration to Maya instead of adding the Prism integration into the Maya User Preferences.

The following environment variables need to be defined:

PRISM_ROOT = C:\Program Files\Prism2
PYTHONPATH = C:\ProgramData\Prism2\plugins\Maya\Integration\scripts
MAYA_SHELF_PATH = C:\ProgramData\Prism2\plugins\Maya\Integration\shelves
XBMLANGPATH = C:\ProgramData\Prism2\plugins\Maya\Integration\icons

These environment variables can be set in the system settings or in the Maya.env file.

To load the Prism Maya plugin from a central location in your studio you can set the MAYA_ENV_DIR environment variable and point it to a folder on your network storage. In that folder create a Maya.env file with the following content:

PRISM_ROOT = C:\Program Files\Prism2
PYTHONPATH = C:\ProgramData\Prism2\plugins\Maya\Integration\scripts
MAYA_SHELF_PATH = C:\ProgramData\Prism2\plugins\Maya\Integration\shelves
XBMLANGPATH = C:\ProgramData\Prism2\plugins\Maya\Integration\icons

Troubleshooting

I don’t see the Prism shelf in Maya

This means that the Prism integration isn’t added to Maya.

In Prism standalone go to the Prism User Settings -> DCC apps -> Maya and add the Prism integration to your Maya preferences folder.

If the preferences folder is already in the list, ignore that and add the Prism integration to the folder again.

I see the Prism shelf, but get a warning when I try to open the Project Browser

This can happen when other Maya plugins are causing errors during the Maya startup.

Usually this is caused by errors in this file:

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\maya\2024\scripts\userSetup.py

You can see the error message by opening the Maya Output Window after Maya launched: Windows -> Output Window (usually at the top of the window when you scroll all the way up).

If you know Python you can try to fix that error.

Otherwise you can simply remove all the non-Prism related code in the userSetup.py file.

You can also remove the userSetup.py file completely and then add the Prism integration to the Maya preferences folder again from the Prism User Settings.