Extrude polygonal faces from a curve in Maya?

melviso

I was watching this video showing a character modeling timelapse in blender.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9UZYTwwQcc"]Blenderella: Timelapse - YouTube[/ame]
Watch closely at 00:34.

A circle curve/polyline is used to outline the eyes,then extruded in polygonal form directly,same thing with the lips.
I have always wanted direct control like this in Maya.Does maya have this feature cause I think u can only create a polygonal surface from curves with the loft btw two curves,extrude using a circle and a path curve,revolve or brail?I find this restrictive.
It seems Blender has become way better than these other apps and its packing all the features u find in maya,3dmax,mudbox into one app.
I already know two ppl who have switched from Maya to Blender.I might do just that.Because its free,it seems ppl tend to overlook how powerful it is.

Athomield

it wasn't from a curve i guess or it's a curve that was converted to an edge.
Blender support an edge or a vertex by itself and also supports vertex extruding, but unfortunately neither 3ds max or maya does.

rube

It looks like they're just extruding the edges of a polygon, not an actual curve. You can do that in maya pretty much the same way, make a polygon of the eye shape and then extrude the edges out. Then delete the original polygon.

melviso

@Athomield ---Its a circular curve which probably converts to polygons when u hit the extrude button or a polyline connected by vertices.This begs the question-What the hell is Autodesk waiting for?Why have they not added this?The date of that video is Aug 2011.Almost 2 years back.Has anyone noticed how certain things u find lacking in Maya u find in 3dmax and vice versa?
Maya has the sculpt geometry tool but no grab brush.
Blender has edit,sculpt,vertex paint,texture paint modes.Also their modifiers are great.Sculpt mode has very good sculpting brushes.One cannot help but see the advantages of free apps these days they are on par or perharps even better than the apps we pay so much for.
Commercial apps will forever continue to delay adding important features so they can release new versions and make money whereas free apps if well backed annd supported will have new and better tools.Currently researching Bmesh in Blender.

@rube---- Actually that could work.Thanks for the tip but the disadvantage to this is u have to always clean up ur mesh which can become tasking if u are creating a complex model..Notice in the video,the vertices of the curve are pulled around the eye in both front/side views before extrudding the faces.Thats very neat and makes ur topology workflow/planing easier.I may have to go with what u suggested,I do not have the time or energy to start learning a new app.Autodesk wake up!!!

rube

If you pause at just the right time you can see he starts the eye with Mesh>Circle not a curve, so he probably does it the same way I described, you just can't see him deleting the original face.

JR

rube wrote: »

If you pause at just the right time you can see he starts the eye with Mesh>Circle not a curve, so he probably does it the same way I described, you just can't see him deleting the original face.

Exactly this. And your explanation about how to do it in Maya is perfect too.

Athomield

melviso wrote: »

@Athomield ---Its a circular curve which probably converts to polygons when u hit the extrude button or a polyline connected by vertices.This begs the question-What the hell is Autodesk waiting for?Why have they not added this?The date of that video is Aug 2011.Almost 2 years back.Has anyone noticed how certain things u find lacking in Maya u find in 3dmax and vice versa?
Maya has the sculpt geometry tool but no grab brush.
Blender has edit,sculpt,vertex paint,texture paint modes.Also their modifiers are great.Sculpt mode has very good sculpting brushes.One cannot help but see the advantages of free apps these days they are on par or perharps even better than the apps we pay so much for.
Commercial apps will forever continue to delay adding important features so they can release new versions and make money whereas free apps if well backed annd supported will have new and better tools.Currently researching Bmesh in Blender.

@rube---- Actually that could work.Thanks for the tip but the disadvantage to this is u have to always clean up ur mesh which can become tasking if u are creating a complex model..Notice in the video,the vertices of the curve are pulled around the eye in both front/side views before extrudding the faces.Thats very neat and makes ur topology workflow/planing easier.I may have to go with what u suggested,I do not have the time or energy to start learning a new app.Autodesk wake up!!!

Well, what makes autodesk not to make a solid sculpting feature in 3ds max or maya that they have mudbox.
and yes they want to gain more money but don't forget the other feature in 3ds max and maya plus the plugins that are made by maybe 3d artisits.

melviso

@Athomield-I downloaded a copy of Blender from their website to investigate this.Turns out you are very correct.The mesh- circle does not have a face,it's just a circle with edges and vertices like a curve,u can also extrude a vertex from a vertex forming one edge connecting the two vertices in the process,no faces.Thats just awesome,like topogun,very good for retopology,topology planning and modeling things that has lots of curves/arcs.

@rube- that means she didn't delete any faces(that timelapse was done by a lady and she is sure talented.)U can draw a line/curve without faces in Blender.I have tried ur tip for maya,and it works wonders.Just wished maya had the extrude vertex like Blender or is there a script or plugin for this?

throttlekitty

Blender can create geometry from curves, I remember that you could use a scale tool or somesuch to effectively turn it into a polygon tube. I remember connected curves to create branches being quite elegant too.