Maya - Edge loops and some other quesitons
Hey guys I've finally got onto using Maya, I was a Blender user and I have a few questions. I will re-edit the post and note which question has been solved. I will also add questions and bump up the thread if need be (and if its ok with the admins...) but not so much as to spam.
I will constantly be referring to blender as it's the program I used.
-SOLVED- Cutting edge loops:
So I know how to cut edge loops into a surface, but how about doing it uniformly? To show you an example, here's a video: [ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMqGioAN7p4"]Loop Cut and Slide Blender 3D for Beginners - YouTube[/ame]
In that video you can see a purple outline which marks where the cut will happen, it is always centred which helps with symmetry and when you decide you need to mirror something in the middle. In the video the user scrolls his mouse wheel up, increasing the amount of potential cuts, all staying uniform.
This is what I would like to achieve to keep certain loop the same distance form each other and the edges they surround. Is this possible?
If I have any other questions I will probably just post them here, thanks.
-SOLVED- To sphere option:
For this one I'd like to make a selection into a circular shape. In Blender this is called 'To sphere'. For instance, if I had a plane, that has been subdivided once (so it has 4 faces) and then selected all of the outside edges, how would I make it into a circular shape? The resulting mesh should be like an 8 sided circle.
Let's say I need a square with a pipe coming out the top. The square has 8 vertices and it is extruded inwards. The inside verts would then need to be in a circular fashion, to make the pipe. Here's an example: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=38318
-SOLVED- Editing preset meshes' polys:
When I add a cylinder, is there a way to edit how many polys it has? Such as, if I want an 8 sided cylinder instead of a 32 sided one. The same goes for all preset meshes that I can add. This is probably a simple one but it eludes me.
-SOLVED- Deleting verts/edges:
So I've been trying to delete some verts/edges. I've selected the ones I want to delete and pressed the 'Delete' key, but for some reason it's not deleting it. Sometimes it says:
// Warning: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2013/scripts/startup/cutCopyPaste.mel line 194: Nothing is selected. //
Or if that doesn't pop up, nothing does. Only in the inputs section can I see 'DeleteComponent 1'. The vertex is still there. though when I use the face select and press delete it works...
-SOLVED- Arrays:
Blender has a little modifier called Arrays. They're used to copy your selected object along a certain axis and as many times as you want. In Blender, when you use arrays and edit the original mesh, all the other objects will change too.
So I could easily create lampposts down a street, without duplicating them and positioning them manually. I've had a look at this: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/utility-external/copying/c/array-for-maya
Is there another way? Or do I have to dilly dally with plugins.
-SOLVED- Scaling Edges to 0:
Once again, in Blender. Lets say you have a zigzag edge and you want to straight it out along the x axis, but you don't want to do it manually. In Blender you can simply hit the scale button (whilst the edges is selected), constrain the X axis and hit 0. This will straighten up all the verts and put them in line.
Maya? I can scale inwards until the scale handle gets near the middle, but I need it to be precise. I need it to snap to the middle axis. This would solve my problem.
-SOLVED- Multi-colored selection thingy:
So this one, I know, is a rather newby question. What the heck is going on here?
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=38492
So I was modelling and then boom, I'm not sure what happened but now everything is multi-coloured and changes depending on what I click. I can't select vertices it seems.. It's probably so simple.
Edit: This one is called soft select!
-SOLVED- Mirroring Mesh:
So I've had a look around and I'm really confused about how to mirror mesh. I know how that I can use the duplicate special button, but that isn't working for some reason. Here's an image: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/38513
Once again this is probably very simple, maybe I'm not understanding the tool? I don't know. Also, is there a way to adjust the mirror in real time? Have a look at this video to see what I mean in regards to Blender: [ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6pCGnGU1J8"]Blender Mirror Tutorial - YouTube[/ame] Video is a little outdated, but it's still the same way of doing it.
-SOLVED- Boolean difference:
I've manage to figure out how to use the boolean difference tool because I wanted to cut a hole in my mesh. The only issue I have with this, is that it messes up the topology.
Here's a screencap of what I have: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/38518
Is there another way of doing this or do I have to manually merge the right verts and add more edge loops? If so, which merge tool should I use and so on.
I will constantly be referring to blender as it's the program I used.
-SOLVED- Cutting edge loops:
So I know how to cut edge loops into a surface, but how about doing it uniformly? To show you an example, here's a video: [ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMqGioAN7p4"]Loop Cut and Slide Blender 3D for Beginners - YouTube[/ame]In that video you can see a purple outline which marks where the cut will happen, it is always centred which helps with symmetry and when you decide you need to mirror something in the middle. In the video the user scrolls his mouse wheel up, increasing the amount of potential cuts, all staying uniform.
This is what I would like to achieve to keep certain loop the same distance form each other and the edges they surround. Is this possible?
If I have any other questions I will probably just post them here, thanks.
-SOLVED- To sphere option:
For this one I'd like to make a selection into a circular shape. In Blender this is called 'To sphere'. For instance, if I had a plane, that has been subdivided once (so it has 4 faces) and then selected all of the outside edges, how would I make it into a circular shape? The resulting mesh should be like an 8 sided circle.
Let's say I need a square with a pipe coming out the top. The square has 8 vertices and it is extruded inwards. The inside verts would then need to be in a circular fashion, to make the pipe. Here's an example: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=38318
-SOLVED- Editing preset meshes' polys:
When I add a cylinder, is there a way to edit how many polys it has? Such as, if I want an 8 sided cylinder instead of a 32 sided one. The same goes for all preset meshes that I can add. This is probably a simple one but it eludes me.
-SOLVED- Deleting verts/edges:
So I've been trying to delete some verts/edges. I've selected the ones I want to delete and pressed the 'Delete' key, but for some reason it's not deleting it. Sometimes it says:
// Warning: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2013/scripts/startup/cutCopyPaste.mel line 194: Nothing is selected. //
Or if that doesn't pop up, nothing does. Only in the inputs section can I see 'DeleteComponent 1'. The vertex is still there. though when I use the face select and press delete it works...
-SOLVED- Arrays:
Blender has a little modifier called Arrays. They're used to copy your selected object along a certain axis and as many times as you want. In Blender, when you use arrays and edit the original mesh, all the other objects will change too.
So I could easily create lampposts down a street, without duplicating them and positioning them manually. I've had a look at this: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/utility-external/copying/c/array-for-maya
Is there another way? Or do I have to dilly dally with plugins.
-SOLVED- Scaling Edges to 0:
Once again, in Blender. Lets say you have a zigzag edge and you want to straight it out along the x axis, but you don't want to do it manually. In Blender you can simply hit the scale button (whilst the edges is selected), constrain the X axis and hit 0. This will straighten up all the verts and put them in line.
Maya? I can scale inwards until the scale handle gets near the middle, but I need it to be precise. I need it to snap to the middle axis. This would solve my problem.
-SOLVED- Multi-colored selection thingy:
So this one, I know, is a rather newby question. What the heck is going on here?
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=38492
So I was modelling and then boom, I'm not sure what happened but now everything is multi-coloured and changes depending on what I click. I can't select vertices it seems.. It's probably so simple.
Edit: This one is called soft select!
-SOLVED- Mirroring Mesh:
So I've had a look around and I'm really confused about how to mirror mesh. I know how that I can use the duplicate special button, but that isn't working for some reason. Here's an image: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/38513
Once again this is probably very simple, maybe I'm not understanding the tool? I don't know. Also, is there a way to adjust the mirror in real time? Have a look at this video to see what I mean in regards to Blender: [ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6pCGnGU1J8"]Blender Mirror Tutorial - YouTube[/ame] Video is a little outdated, but it's still the same way of doing it.-SOLVED- Boolean difference:
I've manage to figure out how to use the boolean difference tool because I wanted to cut a hole in my mesh. The only issue I have with this, is that it messes up the topology.
Here's a screencap of what I have: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/38518
Is there another way of doing this or do I have to manually merge the right verts and add more edge loops? If so, which merge tool should I use and so on.
Replies
Max seems to have the tools and accuracy's you're looking for.
To sphere option - In max its called Spherify, its quite good but I've yet to find a maya equivalent.
If you want the split to be centered you can select one of the edges you want to split and use the "To Edge Ring And Split" command (Hold Ctrl and right click and select "Edge Ring Utilities" and then "To Edge Ring And Split" in the marking menu).
Another way is to use the "Insert edge loops tool". Go to the tool settings tab and change the Maintain position to "Multiple edge loops" and the number of edge loops to 1.
By changing that number you can also specify how many edge loops you want to have. They will always have uniform distance between them.
These options can always be tweaked after you've used the tool by selecting the mesh and in the Channel box tab click "polySplitRing**" under INPUTS (all the actions you've done to a mesh is listed there until you delete history).
To easily increase or decrease divisions just click and highlight Divisions in the channel box and then middle mouse drag in the viewport.
This is also done in the Channel box under INPUTS. Just click the polyCylinder/polyCube or whatever primitive you have, and you get a bunch of options where you can tweak it to your liking.
Hope that helps^^
For the "even spaced edge loop" tool problem, if you go to insert edge loop in the edit mesh menu, and hit the options box (little box on the far right from the word) you can do "multiple edge loops" to get even spaced loops I used "Use equal multiplier", "auto complete" and "fix quads" with smoothing angle set to 30. I think most of this is default.
However, I just want to point out that edge loops are typically for edges (Crazy, right?) and that if you want really even geometry across a surface you should roll with the Add Divisions button. But there are more then one way to skin a cat.
Finally with the editing how many subdivisions a primitive has, you can do that easily in the attribute editor / channel box area. At the top right near the exit button are 3 buttons, the far left is the attribute editor. Click that guy to make sure its open and it should give you a lot of tabs and options. For your cylinder example, there should be one called polyCylinder1 - in that there should be something like subdivision axis and subdivision height and caps. Axis will give you a rounder cylinder that is less faceted (blocky). - you can also avoid faceted cylinders by smoothing the outside edges normal angles to achieve a smooth shading!
General maya stuff:
Maya's tools almost all have option boxes. Explore these option boxes, they mostly exponentially expand the tools usefulness.
The attribute editor allows you to edit your work post-humorously. It stores most of your work as a tool that you operated with here in the attribute editor with all of your settings in tact - change those settings and its like you went and undid everything, fixed it, and came back, without all that needless work.
Hint: your base object is usually near the beginning, your texture is always at the end. Arrow buttons allow you to scroll back and forth.
Protip: watch tutorials every day
sorry for long post, lol
lloyd: Apparently Maya does enough and I'm using it pre-emptively for a uni course, that used Maya.
o2_is_alright + Spiffy664: You two have been great, thanks for the help! I'm still curious about the 'to sphere' thing. Using curves and geometry for it is a great way, but not if I have to cut a circle into a surface. Usually I could use subtracting? Not sure how that works either, but it usually messes up the topology.
Let's say I need a square with a pipe coming out the top. The square has 8 vertices and it is extruded inwards. The inside verts would then need to be in a circular fashion, to make the pipe. Here's an example: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=38318
Alternatively I could just creative the primitive, join the meshes and stitch it all up, but I'm wondering if there is a quicker way.
Edit mesh -> delete vertex/edge
Always use this to delete verts and edges (unless you want to keep the vertices when you delete an edge). Faces and objects and other stuff can be deleted by using the delete key^^
Tried that too. Had a look into it and apparently I can't delete verts that are borders... Hmm, seems silly.
Make sure you only have one vert selected when deleting, sometimes trying to delete multiple won't work very well (although edges is usually no problem). Polycount info can be displayed through Display->Heads Up Display->Poly Count
Thanks for all the help so far man. I'll keep at it, I'll probably figure that one out sooner or later.
Cheers.
To sphere option. Maya doesn't have that but what I do it make a cylinder with the amount of edges I need and then just snap the verts to make the geo conform to that cylinder.
Deleting verts. If you select an edge maya has a delete edge/vertex tool that deletes the verts and the edge you have selected. Maya wont delete a vertex that has 3 or more edges connected to it and this actually comes in handy. If you select all the verts on your model and hit delete it will get rid of verts that are not doing anything.
Arrays. Maya has duplicate special under the edit menu. You have control over movement, rotation, and scale for as many times as you need. There is also another tool called duplicate previous(I think) which basically lets you keep duplicating over the last translation you did.
Scaling edges to 0. Select verts or edges you want and with the scaling manipulator scaled them in on the axis you want. If you grab the manipulator box and drag it to the center box three or four times this will align everything. You can also type in zero into the scale input box on the top right of your menu.
To Sphere option: I was thinking that I'd have to do that, shame really. I'll leave it up as -ALMOST- in case anyone else comes a long and has a way.
Deleting verts: I suppose it will come in handy it some aspects. In blender if I were to delete the middle vertex of a plane subdived once, it's delete it and leave just the outside edges. It's quite useful as times..
Arrays: Had a fiddle and it works well. But if I change the first mesh, the others stay the same. If this isn't possible then it's a damned shame. Plus I want to be able to keep editing the settings when need be, no apply it straight away.
Scaling: That worked thanks, but the chennel box/layer editor does not show the usual scalling and transformation details when I have the edges selected. Only when I'm in object mode.
edit- there might be a plug in for the sphere thing you are looking for.
Had a play with it and it works, but there's still one little thing :P Is there any way to change this AFTER I've used the duplicate special settings? Or do I have to delete them all but one and try again if it's not in the right place for me?
Usually I would set the array to about ten and fiddle with the distance until it looked right, but I can't seem to do that with Maya and it slows down my workflow.
Apologies for being picky, cheers.
About your questions, Maya doesn't have something exactly equivalent to array. For some situations, instancing can work for you, like said above. But the closiest thing Maya has to mimic the Array modifier is on Animation menu.
Animate > Create animation snapshot. This will create snapshot objects interpolating keyframes. So, changes made on geometry will appear on its instances. When you rotate/scale/move a keyframe, it will update all other instances, like what array does. And the best part is that you can keep changing keyframes, adding or deleting them. Very flexible.
And about the scaling thing, in Maya you do this using Move tool. Just be sure that "Retain component spacing" option for Move tool is unchecked (using Tool options panel) and while snaping to the grid (X on keyboard) move the vertices. They will align them to the grid.
EDIT: About the spherize, BARDLER is right, Maya doesn't do that. Snap to the point (V on keyboard) and align vertices manually. Yeah, it's a shame.
I do really enjoy using Blender, it's a great piece of software. I will still use it, but I need to get a handle on Maya for uni.
As for the questions, thanks for answering them. Thank you all for your patience with this, workflow is an important issue when it comes to modelling.
I'll update the first post, cheers!
This was the first problem I had when I started modeling. So I did the same thing... posted a picture, b/c I didn't even know how to describe what happened.
If you hold 'B' and scrub left or right you can change the size of your brush. You can also change the falloff rate in the tools attributes editor.
Thanks man, it had me baffled so much. As you said, not knowing the name of it is the worst.
Thanks!
If you delete history and freeze transformations you can duplicate it and scale it negative 1. The mesh will be mirrored over the transform point on your mesh, which can be moved with the insert key. Sometimes this can flip the normals when you freeze transformations of the new mesh.
The other option is the mirror geometry tool, which is under the mesh menu. This will duplicate is into any XYZ direction you want, but only over the furthest vert in whatever direction you picked. Kind of hard to describe but play with it and you will see. However you do not want to use the merge with original option because the tolerance is to low and will collapse vertices that you don't want. You want to manually merge vertices using the merge vertices tool on a low tolerance like .0001. It doesn't matter what vertices you select either, it will just merge whatever vertices are on top of each other with in a .0001 distance of each other.
The negative scale thing worked, thanks. Once I've duplicated it and it's all working, is there a way to edit the modifier. As in... If I mirror something, but want to change the location of the mirror, or the axis and scale, can I do this without deleting the half I dont want and redoing it?
In blender there are settings for it, so it's very simple to use when it comes to modelling.
Booleans are dirty operations that will never give you the topology you want. When I need to punch a whole in something I create a separate cylinder and inlay into what you want, may have to flip normals depending, delete faces you don't need, combine meshes, delete history, and build in the support edges. I find it to be less problematic and far less annoying than booleans personally.
If you absolutely have to use a boolean then you have to go back and clean up the topology manually. There is no way do anything before hand that will result in a clean topology. Also there is a weird bug in maya with booleans that will sometimes make random faces invisible. I have no clue why but all you have to do is apply the material back to the mesh and it fixes it.
As for mirroring, duplicate special should work. If not, you can always use the mirror option in the move tool settings. Maya's mirroring is pretty ass, though.
Agreed on the mirror thing.. They're pretty tedious. Know of any custom plugins that'll make it better?
I have no idea if this is good or not, just googled it. It looks promising though.
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/modeling/misc/c/advanced-maya-mirror-tool
Any idea if it's real time, as that's what I'm looking for. I.e if you change a setting, it updates without having to apply the settings? As 'applying' isn't really applying, which annoys me. It should just say 'add'.
I'll download it and see. Thanks.
Edit: Had a play with it and it's not what I'm looking for. But thanks anyway!
This will only flip your normals if you freeze your -1 mesh before combining it with something else. I always have 2 sided lighting turned OFF in my perspective view port, so faces that are reversed/ flipped will be black. Just a side note, if you ever need to flip your normals you can do this under normal/ reverse. You can select a whole object or select faces.
Booleans in Maya are very dirty operations and I used them all the time... Like a lot of things, they seem to work better when you have a plan before using them. Maya tends to make hidden faces where the hole was punched. The best thing to do is delete all the faces surrounding the hole and extruded out from the boolean edge. Followed by snapping those new verts to outer edges and merging.