Maya help

[Styer_Crisis]

I moved these post here given the topic desires it's own thread

Hellkite

*****************************​

I would atempt to make the carrier and fighter, although in the end you may try to kill me cuz of the results, but i just need to figure out how to get orthographic renders into maya....

 

[kjc733]

but i just need to figure out how to get orthographic renders into maya....

It is possible, I experimented with it waaay back when. I actually found it to not be that useful, especially as I prefer modelling with a solid object instead of a mesh and thus can't see the image because the object is in front of it. Also, unless its a view of a real or CGI 3D object, there will invariably be errors with it, things that look like it works in 2D may not actually be possible in 3D. Not a bash at you HK, I've done it enough times myself too. But Serephim is actually a good example, the secondary hull required some "artistic license" in order to actually make it work.

Of course if you want a cheap and cheerful idea to give you rough guidance for dimensions (these days I just eyeball it), overlay the 2D image with a grid. Even if it means printing it out and using a pencil and ruler (shock horror).

And for those hinting, the answer for the timebeing is no. I don't have the love for the spoonheads like Maj does, and I want to focus on HRM2 right now. Maybe when it's finished.

 

[kjc733]

Kjc, your a maya user, maybe you can help me? if you know anything about maya 2011, how do i load up ortho renders into the program?

If you insist on doing it that way, once upon a time I used this tutorial to do it (I doubt it's changed that much):

3DM3.com - 3D models, Tutorials, Gallery, Art works, Animation

However, as I said before, think about it. It's going to be your mesh, it doesn't have to be perfect to HK's picture, you are the one who's got to make it work. Experiment, who knows, you may improve the design. Eyeball it (or use a grid) to get the rough configuration, then freeflow the rest of the way.

I actually found it to not be that useful, especially as I prefer modelling with a solid object instead of a mesh and thus can't see the image because the object is in front of it. Also, unless its a view of a real or CGI 3D object, there will invariably be errors with it, things that look like it works in 2D may not actually be possible in 3D.

Of course if you want a cheap and cheerful idea to give you rough guidance for dimensions (these days I just eyeball it), overlay the 2D image with a grid. Even if it means printing it out and using a pencil and ruler (shock horror).

 

[Styer_Crisis]

ops, i went a little postal with the rener questions over there, and the reason i ask this is cuz maya 2011 has a toolset that can contort a mesh over 2d renders, actualy quite useful.

thx

 

[kjc733]

I'll be interested to see how that pans out - sounds suspicously complex to me...

I personaly think this is the more challenging mesh. There's the need to keep the count down and it has a twin boom.

Remember, the key to a good landing is a good approach. What I mean by that here is plan how you're going to do the mesh before you (meterphoically speaking) put pen to paper. Study the plans, think about how you're going to construct it.

I always start with a cube, then reset the parameters to provide the requisite number of divisions in depth and width. Decide that by the number of direction changes in the drawing. The same goes for height, how many "layers" are there to the design. Don't worry about details like a bridge or fins, they can be extruded in later, just focus on the basic hull form.

The one thing to remember early on when choosing the number of divisions is to make sure you have a centreline of vertices. That way you only need to model one half, you can delete the unmoddeled half, and duplicate and merge the modelled side. This will save a lot of time and effort rather than trying to keep both sides symetrical as you build.

Hmm, I should probably do a tutorial at some point, if nothing else will give me reference if I ever take a break lol.
Anyway, apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs. My sister is also learning Maya for her degree, and I was quite frankly shocked that she didn't know these little tricks.

Oh, one last thing to keep in mind. Maya has a nice little poly counter to help you keep track of things like total polys and also what's selected (very useful in ensuring you haven't accidently grabbed vertices elsewhere on the mesh). But here's the thing - Maya does polys in, well pretty much however you do it. It handles squares best though. Milkshape only does triangles. So when you convert your mesh from a .mb into milkshape the count will roughly double!