Old Pillar in Maya

tanka

Hey all, I'm currently trying to improve my modelling/texturing skills and decided to follow the Old Pillar tutorial that everybody raves about. The only problem however is that I'm using Maya and the tutorial focuses on Max.

I followed through most of the tutorial fine, up until it got to the AO baking stages, where I've started to get a little confused. I've followed a few tutorials online about AO baking in maya, but I can't seem to get the ambient, diffuse or normal bakes to work. I was wondering if there were any good tutorials around for AO baking in maya? Or does anybody have any tips for this sort of thing?

Thanks.

breakneck

i haven't gotten around to it yet, but i hear lots of good things about xNormal for baking ao and normal maps- plus its free.

Jason Young

Were there specific problems you had baking in Maya? Maybe you could post a pic or scene to illustrate what's not working? xNormal is definitely good to have in your arsenal. In my experience, it's faster at baking than Maya, though I use both as sometimes Maya gives a better result.

breakneck

also the Making of Varga tutorial has a good fake ao bake technique from a low poly w/ normal map applied.
http://www.paultosca.com/makingofvarga.html

alexk

heres another tutorial for AO baking http://www.game-artist.net/forums/vbarticles.php?do=article&articleid=17

scroll down to #6 "BAKING OCCLUSION FROM HIGH RES TO LOW RES MODELS" and follow those steps

i also was using maya when I went through the pillar tutorial, it was frustrating. now I use 3d max and not so frustrting anymore lol, good luck

I forgot to ask, how did you handle the rebar part in maya? in the tutorial, he uses Path Deform in max (he models a straight rebar, then paths if along a spline). How did you approach that? Did you find the maya equivelent, or did you just shape the rebar by hand?

Jason Young

alexk wrote: »

I forgot to ask, how did you handle the rebar part in maya? in the tutorial, he uses Path Deform in max (he models a straight rebar, then uses a spline to shape it). How did you approach that? Did you find the maya equivelent, or did you just shape the rebar by hand?

You could do it several ways. Extrude along a path, wire deformer, use spline as a skin influence, etc.

alexk

JMYoung wrote: »

You could do it several ways. Extrude along a path, wire deformer, use spline as a skin influence, etc.

oops, i wasn't specific enough, I edited my post above. I mean, in the tutorial, he models out a straight peice of rebar in highpoly, with the indents and all, and then paths it along a spline. It's kinda like an extrude along a path, except that, you can take anything you model and make it path along a spline.

Here's my old thread asking about this http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=54020 and no one had an answer. So just wondering how the OP handled this. it's definetly not wire deformer, and pretty sure its not skin influence

tanka

Thanks for the help guys, the "Making of Varga" tutorial might be exactly what I needed. The AO baking tutorial from Game Artists was one I was already following, and it has been a pretty big help.

Basically, my problem is getting the actual bake right, mine are either too bright or too dark. Then for some reason the normal map and diffuse won't bake properly, they'd come out as a solid colour, or a very basic outline of the model. Nothing too major, I just want to make sure that I'm doing everything correctly.

As for the rebar, I didn't model it. I was kinda experimenting with the whole process, instead of making a pillar I applied the pillar tutorial to a concrete barrier. I figured that before I'd complicate the baking process with more peices, I'd get the basics down pat, then have a go at more complicated stuff.

If I did do the rebar however, I would have modelled a modular section of the rebar and duplicated it until it was the length I wanted it. Then I probably would of added a basic rig to twist it around. I'm not sure if this would give similar results to the method used in the tutorial, but I think it would be close enough. Though I am sure there is a way to duplicate a model along a spline in maya.