Looks like the most recent patch to EA’s Spore game has a new hidden feature: COLLADA export. With this, you can export your creates into COLLADA format, complete with textures and materials, and render them in the package of your choice.
With Spore’s just released patch 5, you can export creatures (and buildings and vehicles) from Spore into Maya (or any other 3D application that supports the Collada format). All thanks to the brilliant Dan Moskowitz.
The exported creations include normal, diffuse and specular maps, and are fully rigged and weighted. So you can pose them too.
Currently it’s only Creatures, although the article hints at buildings and vehicles coming in a future patch.
via Ocean Quigley’s various projects:: You can export Spore creatures to Maya.
Yes i installed Maya and tried out the exporting creatures to collada but it did not work the creture appeard as lines and funny squiggles