maya highpoly modelling?

Sa74n

hey.

i just wanted to know if there are any helpful plugins, mel-scripts or other tools that ease the workflow a little. i'm quite new to highpoly modeling so i'm grateful for any help i can get. i mainly model environment objects so if there are specific tips for mechanical stuff that would be cool. while browsing pc i found some helpful tips by per128 and the floating geometry method.

any other tips you guys could share?

-henning

Snowfly

don't limit your toolset to polys for high poly modeling.it's worth learning NURBS and surfaces in Maya for mechanical objects especially.

Daz

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don't limit your toolset to polys for high poly modeling.it's worth learning NURBS and surfaces in Maya for mechanical objects especially.

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Couldn't agree more. I just lost a job because of lack of nurbs experience. Still, it wasn't realtime stuff. My own dumb fault for not having touched nurbs in about 5 years I suppose.

But anyway, what is it you're specifically looking for? On the poly side, a friend just showed me this script which is pretty nice: http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/modeling/poly_tools/3304.html
Beyond that, hard to know how to help you in terms of mel scripts without explanation of what it is that you can't currently do without scripts. All the old useful stuff from the likes of mjpolytools etc is pretty much in maya 7.0 now.

Steve Schulze

So NURBS aren't just a somewhat impractical looking artifact of the days before Subdiv modelling? I suppose I'd best give them a look...

Daz

It appears that some CG studios use them still. I don't mean use them here and there, but use them 100% for their entire rendering pipeline.
They're definitely powerful for fleshing out shapes really quickly, and I do use them sporadically for stuff, but I always convert to polys afterward, and I'd be fairly horrified at having to make an entire character with them. I would definitely feel restricted and bogged down in the technicalities of it all. I guess it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but I've decided to delve into them after todays hard lesson.

thomasp

hell, no, nurbs are far from dead. renderman loves them, also no uv-mapping to deal with, etc. and you need a lot less of an resolution to create smooth looking shapes.
it's just that they really suck for character work or any other complex contiguous surface that has to be highly deformable since it's essentially all stitched together from little patches and tends to break in animation.

Toomas

BTW cant you take a poly cage and turn it into NURBS? Then do the beziers and whatever else satanic rituals it requiers?

Krisonrik

That's exactully how much I use Nurbs >.> I hate it while making huge objects. It's crazy to have all those things stiched together and still have all those holes here and there. Daz, if you get back your touch of Nurb modeling, post a tutorial or the kind please. Would save another old dog's (apparently me) life too XD.

Sa74n

i downloaded connect poly shape from Dirk Bialluch yesterday and it works quite good for me. seems quite similar to that active smooth poly thing. thanks for that link anyway. might give it a try to see if it helps the workflow a bit more.

i still use maya6 but i'll get those mjpolytools anyway. what i need is stuff like duplicating edge(-loops) for example. all kinds of quick stuff to help deform the cage model.
i might take a glance at NURBS later on but for now i dont even have a clue what is the difference to polymodeling

Sage

From what I know NURBS are used a lot to make cars and other organic looking objects. SubD are new to games but it has been around since at least Max 2.5 around 1998. Working with NURBS requires a Game Artist to approach the modeling process in an entirely different way from polys so it is a real pain to make the switch. They are useful though I just don't like them.

Alex

thomasp

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BTW cant you take a poly cage and turn it into NURBS? Then do the beziers and whatever else satanic rituals it requiers?

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yes, you can. you have to convert a polygon mesh to subd first before turning it into a bunch of nurbs patches. i'm not familiar enough with maya's toolset in that area to be sure if there aren't any hidden evil shortcomings to this conversion though.

j_bradford

I didn't think much of nurbs until I saw this guy's work; http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=307349&page=1&pp=15&highlight=nurbs+college

Daz

Yeah, I just saw that guys stuff too. He's a truly exceptional modeler, and I just can't believe the detail he gets with patches. I would love to see a tutorial from him. Can't seem to find any decent Nurbs ones out there.

SouL

Wow. And that guy is still in school.

Daz

No he isn't. I know where he is But he was then I think yeah.

MoP

Damn, he's insane!

Zergxes

I use lattices (in the animation subset, delete history to remove it afterwards) often. Also, other non linear deformers are really helpful, especially the bend deformer if you have lots of pipes and stuff on your model. The sculpt polygon 'artisian' tool also comes in handy. Finally, check out the tutorial on Digitaltutors about running in smooth poly proxy mode.

The film guys use NURBS, ILM in particular. The Hulk was a NURB.

Oh, yeah and here's a quick tut with NURBS:

http://www.polyextrude.com/tutorials/tutorials/modeling/character/CharacterModeling.html