2 Maya2009 Unlim questions

n88tr

1. When I'm working with models and need to join them together into one is it better to just Combine and leave them be as one or is it better to bring them in close to one another, Combine, and then vertice stitch them together?? When I vertice stitch things it often means I need to add more split edges and basically geometry to one piece or the other and I'm trying to keep my polycount as low as possible, clean.

2. I'm looking for some Lighting guide to show off my models, however meager they are. Can some one help me out? My lighted models look horrible compared to those I see on this site and I want to change that.

Thank you very much.

Flynny

1st question possibly depends on the engine the model is destined for.. some engines dont like open meshes. But here ive seen models combined.

2. no idea myself, but i wouldnt quite rely on a pretty render to push your work.

Compo

What Flynn said, depends on the engine you are bringing it into, Unreal 3 I know watertight will always be better.
- About the positioning of the 2 models,
1- What are the models you want close together anyway. Merged or not depends on a few things: 1- How close will you get to the objects / what angles the models viewable at (ie: even up close will you be able to see at certain angles they are joined or not)
2- Watertight Models can be lower poly sometimes with faces almost together being merged. Watertight also doesnt always mean completly clean topology.

- As for lighting. Depends on if you want a simple set up for a WIP picture post or, portfolio quality shots. For quick WIP pics, just use a simple 3 light set up. Key light fill light and back light. Portfolio pics Id look into metal ray for maya/ 3d max equivilent. Look into giving [thread=61346]Marmoset[/thread] a try also.

-Maya Mental Ray Tutorial. I only gave it a quick skim, might be a bit excessive for anything but portfolio shots but meh: http://www.sohipitmhz.com/tutorials/studio-lighting/index.html

kodde

If you are going for realtime 3D game models I personally would not present them with renders such as Mentral Ray since these are far from how your work would look in a game engine. Go for some hardware render such as Marmoset or similar imo.

n88tr

I'll research this Marmoset, thanks.

I know jack about lighting so I'll have to learn.

Thanks guys.