Some Maya Questions
polycounter lvl 17
Hi, Im coming back to Maya after 5 years of Max and I have a few questions if any one has the time...
1. When creating new uvs for a model they are created in a new uv slot, not over the existing uvs and so don't show in the viewport. I have to copy the uvs and paste them over the correct slot in the UV editor. Does that make sense? Is there a way of only using one uv channel and applying all uvs to that?
2. Is there a comparable option to backface selected where only visible polys in a viewport can be selected?
3. Is there a comparable function to the relax modifier in max where it loosens up geometry?
4. Does maya have smoothing groups?
Thanks in advance, let me know if you need any more info!
1. When creating new uvs for a model they are created in a new uv slot, not over the existing uvs and so don't show in the viewport. I have to copy the uvs and paste them over the correct slot in the UV editor. Does that make sense? Is there a way of only using one uv channel and applying all uvs to that?
2. Is there a comparable option to backface selected where only visible polys in a viewport can be selected?
3. Is there a comparable function to the relax modifier in max where it loosens up geometry?
4. Does maya have smoothing groups?
Thanks in advance, let me know if you need any more info!
Replies
2. Yep, check the Preferences, it's in there somewhere. Probably in Modeling preferences.
3. Yes, it's called "Average" or something, should be in the Mesh menu.
4. No, it's got something way better - soft/hard edges. Select all edges and go to the Normals menu, select "Soften Edges", that has the same effect as assigning your whole object to smoothing group 1. Then you can select specific edges and do "Harden Edges" from the same Normals menu, it will have the same result as putting two smoothing groups next to each other. This, in my experience, is way faster and more efficient than using Smoothing Groups.
Note that for answers 3. and 4. you will need to be using the "Modeling" (or is it "Polygons"? I forget) menu set, as chosen in the drop-down menu in the top left. This will set all the menu items to the correct sets for modelling, but I assume you already have that set up.
All of this is just from memory so I might have got the names slightly wrong.
2- yes look in display-polygons-custom poly display, lots of powerfull stuff in there too.
3- you can relax, or smooth using the sculpting tools, which if you want to do it across the whole model select what you want smoothing then use the flood option
4- no it has a far better soloution soft and hard edges. best way i do it is give the whole model 180 degree smoothing, then select all the edges that you want to be hard and give them 0 degree smoothing, i have a whole shelf dedicvated to smoothing and normals with 0, 30, 45, 60, 85, 180 degree buttons, very quick. (85 degrees for checking low poly meshes for normal baking)
3. If all you need is to smooth and not maintaining the form, the 'average' will do the job, but if you want to maintain the surface complexity, check out this mel by the guy from image metrics, very robust!
http://highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/modeling/poly_tools/oaRelaxVerts-4499.html