[HELP] Face Weighted Vertex Normals Maya

ZeroBiit

Hi,
I've been struggling trying to achieve the FWVN technique in Maya (2018), but I still get some bad result even on some simple shapes.
I've already tried various plugins like BNormal or ADN tool.

Example:



Has anyone found a good/fast way to achieve a good  in Maya?

kanga

OOOOps! Sorry, bad post.

ZeroBiit

UP

gnoop

Your screens are confusing . Left has no bevels necessary for FWVN  while right does have them

ZeroBiit

gnoop said:

Your screens are confusing . Left has no bevels necessary for FWVN  while right does have them

In the left image, I'm showing the mesh before applying the bevels, in the right, there is the mesh with every edge bevelled.

gnoop

Show you beveled mesh with VN visualized , that might help to give an idea

ZeroBiit

gnoop said:

Show you beveled mesh with VN visualized , that might help to give an idea

gnoop

Well,  sorry but I don't know why it looks that way.  Your mesh and normals are perfectly ok.  

Maybe it's just how the shader forms highlight spot there.   Try another math method maybe.        Import to Blender and try there.

Anyway  the idea behind FWVN is to transfer shading artifacts caused by shading gradients   from big flat polygons  to smaller tiny bevel ones where they are just less noticeable.  

ZeroBiit

gnoop said:

Well,  sorry but I don't know why it looks that way.  Your mesh and normals are perfectly ok.  

Maybe it's just how the shader forms highlight spot there.   Try another math method maybe.        Import to Blender and try there.

Anyway  the idea behind FWVN is to transfer shading artifacts caused by shading gradients   from big flat polygons  to smaller tiny bevel ones where they are just less noticeable.  

In Blender there is the Weighted Normal Modifier which works awesome!

By the way, what plugin/tool do you use to achieve the desired effect in Maya?

ZeroBiit

So, I've exported the same mesh to Blender and I've added a Bevel modifier + Weighted Normal Modifier and the result is perfect:


Then I've exported the same mesh from Blender to Maya and it is still perfect:


So I guess that the tool AMT Normal Tools is not working properly in Maya 2018.
Are there any modern tool/script to achieve this method in Maya 2018/2020?
Any suggestion here?

gnoop

I don't know, sorry.   Switched to Blender completely  years ago

Leksey

Nice script, for me)))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OblbLQEMgMA

ZeroBiit

Leksey said:

Nice script, for me)))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OblbLQEMgMA

So, apparently this tool works in most cases but not in every case.

As you can see in the next image I've got a new example:
The bottom mesh is the result of the tool, where some faces along the big curved part are not perfect.
The upper mesh is what I should expect on the curved part in terms of shading.



Apparently these tools kinda work only if do the bevel with the Mitering mode set to none, this means that, if you just forget to set just a single bevel with the Mitering=None, the whole model is screwed. 

At this point, the weighted face vertex normal workflow doesn't seem a viable option in Maya...

Leksey

ZeroBiit
The script automatically calculates the angle face and aligns the vertex of the normal. Cylindrical, spherical shapes do not require calculations. This script does not have such a function to control the process. It is necessary to select the faces and apply the script.

Leksey

In my arsenal, there is a python script.

It calculates and cylindrical shapes too.

<p># ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p># - pompVertNormFaceAvg</p>
<p>#</p>
<p># - Sets the vertex normals of a face selection,</p>
<p>#   averaging normals shared by multiple selected faces.</p>
<p>#</p>
<p>#</p>
<p># - by Pontus Karlsson 2013 (www.pomperi.com)</p>
<p># ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p> </p>
<p>import maya.cmds as cmds</p>
<p> </p>
<p>faces = cmds.filterExpand(sm=34, ex=True)</p>
<p>verts = cmds.ls((cmds.polyListComponentConversion(faces, ff=True, tv=True)), flatten=True)</p>
<p>normals = [[], [], []]</p>
<p> </p>
<p>for v in verts:</p>
<p>    conFaces = cmds.ls(cmds.polyListComponentConversion(v, fv=True, tf=True), flatten=True)</p>
<p>    shaFaces = list(set(conFaces).intersection(set(faces)))</p>
<p>    faceNorm = cmds.polyInfo(shaFaces, fn=True)</p>
<p>    </p>
<p>    for normal in faceNorm:</p>
<p>        label, vertex, x, y, z = normal.split()</p>
<p>        normals[0].append(float(x))</p>
<p>        normals[1].append(float(y))</p>
<p>        normals[2].append(float(z))</p>
<p>        </p>
<p>    x_avg = (sum(normals[0]) / len(shaFaces))</p>
<p>    y_avg = (sum(normals[1]) / len(shaFaces))</p>
<p>    z_avg = (sum(normals[2]) / len(shaFaces))</p>
<p>    </p>
<p>    cmds.select(v)</p>
<p>    cmds.polyNormalPerVertex(xyz = (x_avg, y_avg, z_avg))</p>
<p>    </p>
<p>    normals[:] = [[], [], []]</p>
<p> </p>
<p>cmds.select(cl=True)</p>

ZeroBiit

Leksey said:

ZeroBiit
The script automatically calculates the angle face and aligns the vertex of the normal. Cylindrical, spherical shapes do not require calculations. This script does not have such a function to control the process. It is necessary to select the faces and apply the script.

Okay, that makes sense now.

 It's kinda sand that you have to do some manual tweaking, it can be a huge waste of time.

In Blender you can achieve the same effect just adding two modifiers:


But, right know Maya is my main modeling application. I would pay for a fully automated script in Maya.

ZeroBiit

Leksey said:

In my arsenal, there is a python script.

It calculates and cylindrical shapes too.

<p># ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p># - pompVertNormFaceAvg</p>
<p>#</p>
<p># - Sets the vertex normals of a face selection,</p>
<p>#   averaging normals shared by multiple selected faces.</p>
<p>#</p>
<p>#</p>
<p># - by Pontus Karlsson 2013 (www.pomperi.com)</p>
<p># ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p> </p>
<p>import maya.cmds as cmds</p>
<p> </p>
<p>faces = cmds.filterExpand(sm=34, ex=True)</p>
<p>verts = cmds.ls((cmds.polyListComponentConversion(faces, ff=True, tv=True)), flatten=True)</p>
<p>normals = [[], [], []]</p>
<p> </p>
<p>for v in verts:</p>
<p>    conFaces = cmds.ls(cmds.polyListComponentConversion(v, fv=True, tf=True), flatten=True)</p>
<p>    shaFaces = list(set(conFaces).intersection(set(faces)))</p>
<p>    faceNorm = cmds.polyInfo(shaFaces, fn=True)</p>
<p>    </p>
<p>    for normal in faceNorm:</p>
<p>        label, vertex, x, y, z = normal.split()</p>
<p>        normals[0].append(float(x))</p>
<p>        normals[1].append(float(y))</p>
<p>        normals[2].append(float(z))</p>
<p>        </p>
<p>    x_avg = (sum(normals[0]) / len(shaFaces))</p>
<p>    y_avg = (sum(normals[1]) / len(shaFaces))</p>
<p>    z_avg = (sum(normals[2]) / len(shaFaces))</p>
<p>    </p>
<p>    cmds.select(v)</p>
<p>    cmds.polyNormalPerVertex(xyz = (x_avg, y_avg, z_avg))</p>
<p>    </p>
<p>    normals[:] = [[], [], []]</p>
<p> </p>
<p>cmds.select(cl=True)</p>

Sorry, I missed your reply, I still can't get it to work correctly.

Leksey

@ZeroBiit
Just select the faces and run the script. Use the tab in script editor for Python.

Leksey

I recorded a video on how to quickly make weighted vertex, 
using transfer attributes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoRGiTQteQ4

ZeroBiit

Leksey said:

I recorded a video on how to quickly make weighted vertex, 
using transfer attributes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoRGiTQteQ4

Wow This is really helpful, thank you so much. 

BTW, very nice tool bar.