Integrating 3D models with photography
Interested in integrating your 3D work with the real world? This might help
# 1 13-02-2003 , 10:38 AM
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Pocket Watch

OK. I'm now starting off to try Maya to MY fullest.

I'm not great, but doing little steps at a time.

I decided to try and create a pocket watch. I have just learned how to use textures and have been experimenting with them lately. And I'm also experimenting with everything in Maya. Example, this is the first time I have used NURBS and a glass texture.

I have a few of my own concerns to share, and quesations to ask.

1) My glass - I created a solid piece of glass that engulfs the whole watch face. Would it look better or different had I made the glass a thin piece above the face? Also any tips on creating and editing glass would be great. This texture was dl from AliasWavefront site. Followed their tut, but got confused so just dl it.

2) Numbers - What would be an easy way to go about placing numbers on the face?

3) Casing - Since I'm new to this and texturing, I wasn't able to create the best casing texture. I'm going for a gold or polished steel look. I was thinking that I could create a steel texture in PhotoShop and place that onto it. Any Suggestions?

4) Lighting - Using a simple spot light. Any good tips on how to do good lighting?

5) Shadows - Why do my shadows come out looking choppy when rendered?

Thats' all for now. Other suggestions are strongly encouraged. user added image

SOOooo, here is what I have so far.


- Matt
# 2 13-02-2003 , 10:41 AM
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A closeup Shot.


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# 3 13-02-2003 , 10:42 AM
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A BIG closeup Shot.


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# 4 13-02-2003 , 12:06 PM
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An animation showing one revolution. My first animation.


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# 5 14-02-2003 , 12:44 PM
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right

1 question at a time me thinks user added image

1. 1) My glass - I created a solid piece of glass that engulfs the whole watch face. Would it look better or different had I made the glass a thin piece above the face? Also any tips on creating and editing glass would be great. This texture was dl from AliasWavefront site. Followed their tut, but got confused so just dl it.


The glass face is ok... But it need to look as if it is away from the main numbers.. maybe add a slight reflectiveness to the glass to so it looks more realistic

# 6 14-02-2003 , 01:59 PM
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I played around a little with the glass and casing.


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# 7 14-02-2003 , 02:06 PM
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getting better - noe you want to work on them edges where the glass mets the case... try to get a nice smooth finish

# 8 14-02-2003 , 02:18 PM
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hi mshoward,
Not bad for your first
u could try playing with your lighting abit.
Maybe using 3 points of lights from different angles and different intensity of each light.
This may make your scene look "fuller" and your shadow less "choppy" as u had mentioned.

# 9 14-02-2003 , 02:25 PM
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Kevin - I can't seem to figure out how to make the edges smoother.user added image


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# 10 14-02-2003 , 02:37 PM
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how did you make the edges? take a wire frame of the watch and post

# 11 14-02-2003 , 03:16 PM
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OK Soryy but, How do i just render or create just a wireframe image?


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# 12 14-02-2003 , 03:45 PM
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nevermind, Figured it out after some time.

Not greatest quality.


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# 13 14-02-2003 , 05:07 PM
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Yes, this looks like nurbs!

The nurbs-surfaces is "tesselated" when rendered. Each nurbs-surface has a tesselation attribute, which controls the "quality" of the triangulation of your surface.

You can set nurbs-tesselation for several objects at the same time, via RENDER mode and looking under the "render" menu item on tesselation.

But I prefer to set tesselation per object. This is done by chosing a nurbs-surface and hitting Ctrl + a, to open the attribute editor.

There you can set U and V tesselation manually. You get good results in an instant by increasing the tesselation from the default value of 1.5 to 3 and higher.

You can klick "show tesselation" to see how the surface is made into triangles in your "workspace".

I'm no expert in depthmap shadows (which you are using), but if you enable raytracing in RENDER GLOBALS AND enable the RAYTRACE SHADOWS in a light's attribute editor, you get a clean shadow border.


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# 14 14-02-2003 , 06:28 PM
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That's a boatload of questions. user added image

1. Your glass - I would just build it as a thin piece above the rest just for the fact that I like building things as separate elements for organization and easy editing's sake. That being said, I'd build the shape of the watch's body, then the face, then the glass, then the chain, etc. Lots of ways to do it but what comes to mind initially scaling down a NURBS sphere and detaching a surface for the face (make sure keep original is unchecked). Then, I'd use a NURBS circle with a planar trim for the face or even easier, select the top isoparm of the body and edit curves -->duplicate surface curves and make it planar. For the numbers and tick marks, you could use maya's text tool for the numbers and simply create planes and duplicate them for the ticks or use Illustrator or Photoshop to create a texture map. Seems like it would be easier to figure out in maya, though. For the glass, I would use the detached top from the original squashed sphere, shade it, and re-attach it.

2. Numbers - see #1 above.

3. Casing - Do a search around the web for maya shaders...you're bound to find some good metallic ones such as pixho's. If you download someone else's shader, don't just use it...deconstruct and learn from it. Look at the graph network of the shader in your hypershade and see how it was created, the material settings, etc.

4. Lighting - Subnurbs is on the right track with his suggestion. Start out with 3-point lighting (a main light, a fill light, and a backlight). Try a couple of spots for the main and fill and a direct light for the backlight. Play around with intensities, penumbra angles, etc. There's a video tutorial here at SM in the VIP section (subscriber-only) that will get you on the right path. Otherwise, google is your friend.

5. Shadows - If you're using depth map shadows, in the light's attribute editor, open the shadows tab and make sure 'use depth map shadows' is checked and on. Look at the Dmap resolution...increasing it will give you smoother shadows. Try 512 or 1024. Or, you could use a smaller Dmap like 128 and increase the Dmap filter size to 3 or 4. This may slow your renders down a bit.

If you're using Raytraced shadows, play with the light radius and shadowrays (i.e., increase both of them a bit).

Man, I feel like I just wrote a book. Anyway, hope this helped some or sparked some ideas. Oh, and btw, if you decide to animate the watch afterwards Alias|Wavefront has a tut here.


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Last edited by NitroLiq; 14-02-2003 at 07:34 PM.
# 15 14-02-2003 , 10:22 PM
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WOW NitroLiq, that was alot.

That was very helpful. user added image

Too bad I'm at work right now, or I would work on it. user added image

I haven't used to the text tool, maybe that will be my next project.

Thanks for the novel. user added image

Next time I'll try to keep things simpler.


- Matt
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