Is there a tool like Bend modifier in Maya?
polycounter lvl 10
I was browsing tutorials when I saw this:
http://athey.deviantart.com/#/d4m4pma
Is there a feature or tool like this in Maya?It will make moving textured hair clumps around a character's head way easier.I have been wondering if I should learn 3dmax.It seems to be having all the cool stuffs.Like xioul shader,bend modifier,so many cool stuff.Is it because it is used for games and Maya for films?I presently use Maya.
So I gather for architectural work,games,modeling even better rigging feature,3dmax is great while Maya is good for effects only?
http://athey.deviantart.com/#/d4m4pma
Is there a feature or tool like this in Maya?It will make moving textured hair clumps around a character's head way easier.I have been wondering if I should learn 3dmax.It seems to be having all the cool stuffs.Like xioul shader,bend modifier,so many cool stuff.Is it because it is used for games and Maya for films?I presently use Maya.
So I gather for architectural work,games,modeling even better rigging feature,3dmax is great while Maya is good for effects only?
Replies
You can use a wrap deformer though where you can take a proxy like a nurbs plane to deform the patches of hair (and have more control than the bend modifier).
You could also turn on soft selection and move the points on the hair clumps around smoothly.
I don't know where you have gathered that Maya is only good for effects, but Maya is more widely used for rigging and animation. Max has some cool modeling stuff that Maya is missing but they're not that far off and I know nothing about architectural work so I won't comment.
Though Google solves that issue. However, 2010/2011/2012 you can now specify degrees or radians in preferences.
M4d and kcat both give other alternatives.
Lattice (ffd for max I believe) / Bend / Wrap Deformer are all in animation toolset (F2) -> Create Deformers
Soft selection is "b" if I remember right. and if you hold "b" and then mmb and drag l<->r it changes the diameter of the falloff. I believe the falloff curve itself is adjustable in "tool settings".
Modify -> Transformation Tools -> Move Tool [option box]
As far as "what's better for what" that is completely personal preference.
I have been thinking of learning 3dmax because for sometime now these are the problems I have noticed while using Maya.
-whenever I have a lot of polys in my scene,the viewport drags.How am I suppose to animate a considerable complex 3d scene with textures on display whenever this happens.I have an Nividia Geoforce 9500 card of 1GB and a CPU ram of 4GB.
-Whenever I try to preview textures on my model,it shows up washed out,sometimes the model looks transperent,so I have to turn hard quality on and that slows my viewport down as I try to pose characters or paint skin weights(u need to see if the textures are stretched at a particular position).I have tried using viewport 2.0,there is also a noticeable drag.
-Runing simulations is a huge pain as most times,it doesn't play out well,I have to do a lot of tweaking to get it right.Using dynamic curves to deform hair and capes is cool but there is no parmeter to keep the cloth from falling through the mesh except with those rings which means more rings,longer computing time.Tried ncloth,loved it but also runing simulations several times with different settings to get things to look right.
-I understand to use Maya comfortably,u need to make use of a lot of scripts or have some scripting knowledge to incoporate new features into it.I am no scripter and quite basically,I hate scripting.Don't want to be bothered with it and not planing to learn it anytime soon.
@m4dcow,
I actually meant that most film houses use Maya especially for its vfx effects like fire,water e.t.c.I understand its got good rigging and animation features.Can someone tell me whats missing in 3dmax in terms of animation and rigging that makes it better.
-From the research I have done so far and also from this:http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52652
There were some really interesting points made like,the viewports in 3dmax doesn't slow down in the presence of high poly models,rendering and lighting is better.I don't know about running simulations though.The general conclusion is 3dmax is more computer friendly or requires less problems when it comes to the technical side as against Maya.3Dmax has more plugins that speed up a users workflow like CAT,Xiouil,just to mention a few.
The above link is dated around 2008,so I wonder if there are now better features for both Maya and 3dmax as of 2012 versions.