Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 1
This course will look at the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. We'll look at what makes a good model in Maya and why objects are modeled in the way they are.
# 31 31-07-2008 , 04:35 AM
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it's looking really great - though 'm not sure i'm buying the bent pieces on the side - the dents look a little straight and uniform at the moment. other than that, great work so far. user added image

# 32 01-08-2008 , 05:51 PM
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The dent's are supposed to be relatively small so I'm going to rely on the textures to make them look realistic...

Sorry, no progress yet, I'm hoping to get some today

Benny


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# 33 01-08-2008 , 05:56 PM
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yay for bump mapping!

and happy belated 16th birthday! do you get to do anything cool now?

i think here in NZ you get nothing cool... you can start driving and working when you're 15




that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

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# 34 02-08-2008 , 04:42 AM
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Thanks Chirone,
I got mostly money :attn: 1,300 NIS (currently 370.58 USD).
I'm gonna save it for a driver's licence. when I get 16.5 I can start learning how to drive...

I finished laying UVs of anything but the door. no time to post pics now cause I need to get up early tomorrow and my brother is asking me for the computer...

Benny


When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

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# 35 02-08-2008 , 01:06 PM
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ah the good ol' days when you gotta share your computer with the other people of the house....

i'll assume from one of your other posts you used the UV editor in Maya to layout your UVs user added image




that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
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# 36 03-08-2008 , 02:44 AM
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:attn: finished laying UVs!
Maybe a few tweaks here and there but I can say I'm done with that...
https://img207.imageshack.us/img207/770/tempan9.th.png (this is probably going to take a while to load)

Chirone: yes, I used Maya's UV editor ...

Now for the really hard part.
If any of you guys have a good tutorial for materials and shaders and all that stuff I'd like to hear about it because my knowledge on this subject is totally basic
:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

let's hear what you've got to offer :attn:
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When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

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# 37 04-08-2008 , 05:56 PM
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Sorry, don't know of any tut's for that. Learnt all I know from The Animation School in Cape Town.

Q1user added imageo you have photoshop?
Q2: what do you know about texturing? IE, the difference between a phong, blinn, lambert, and phong E?
Not questioning your intelligence or anything. Just you said you don't know much about it.

See, different parts of your fridge are gonna need different finishes. Like the inside rack is shiny and rusty, and the rubber strips is dull and dirty, and then the outside is different all together.

Now it is possible just project a photo onto an object. But you don't have much controll over it.

Otherwise you could paint it using maya paint. But that's really hard to get it to look great.

For photoshop:
Combine all the chrome, rubber, painted and plastic objects in their separate groups.
Assign suitable shaders to those objects.
Fit their UV maps into the top right hand corner of the UV texture window.
Image-create PSD networks in the UV texture editor.
Now you have your psd doc. Go play around in photoshop and save .
Back in maya go to image-update psd networks. Press 6. The textures should show.
No you can trun off layers in photoshop, but do not delete them unless you're the one that aded them. It completely messes up the doc and makes you compy freeze up.

Ok so that's the really short version. Maybe I didn't help at all. You should be able to get most of this in Maya help.
Good luck kiddo
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# 38 04-08-2008 , 06:38 PM
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Thanks, but now that I think of it my knowledge is not TOTALLY basic... I know how to apply a texture from a file... I have photoshop, and i know the difference between lambert and blin, phong and phong E (I don't know the difference between the later three... Can someone explain that?).

What I'm having problems with is how to make it look good after I assign the basic texture. some photoshop tutorials might help too because I don't know enough to refine those textures that aren't abandoned enough.

Plus, I'm currently having problems with bump mapping.
When I apply a bump map the surface get's all dark and rough even when my bump map is a uniform color.

Any Ideas? Anybody?
Benny


When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

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# 39 04-08-2008 , 07:28 PM
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Originally posted by BennyK
have photoshop, and i know the difference between lambert and blin, phong and phong E (I don't know the difference between the later three... Can someone explain that?).

that made me smile. user added image

basically a blinn and phong have specularity attributes that you can adjust. i think phong shaders are more realistic but take longer to compute.

for photoshop you're just going to need to start experimenting. look up a few basic tuts to get a feel of the tools. focus on the color map first - get that right and then can use it for painting your bump and spec maps. try to think about where an object is shiny or not for the spec map. that adds a lot of realism.

here's a good overall tutorial of the process.

https://www.leighvanderbyl.com/tutorials.html

as for your bump, you need to lower the depth on the bump2dnode. pretty low - like o.1.

# 40 04-08-2008 , 07:36 PM
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Thanks arran :bow: , good link :attn:
Hope I'll get something done soon...(Finally - I was just playing around and discarding any progress I made so far)

Any more tutorials you think can help? I'll try anything right now.
Benny


When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

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# 41 04-08-2008 , 09:09 PM
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Incredible! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, but I didn't know how to describe it:

out of "Texturing For Dummies"
To make a texture believable, you have to be able to convey to the viewer exactly what the surface would feel like if they were to reach out and touch it. The art of creating textures is so much more then just defining the colors of surfaces; it's about creating the quality and tangibility of them too.

*This is going to take a while to read and experiment with so I don't know when there's going to be progress...
Thanks again!
Benny


When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

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# 42 06-08-2008 , 06:48 PM
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I've been playing around with some of the stuff I've read. Most of it I knew already but it gave me a different view at things.
I've learned a LOT from the photoshop tips (that's not surprising as barely knew anything in it...). Thanks again :bow: .

Here's a render I did:
https://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9163/tempsr9.th.png

Using a marble texture and the following textures from CGtextures:
https://www.cgtextures.com/texview.ph...63ffb52ac38e92
https://www.cgtextures.com/texview.ph...63ffb52ac38e92
https://www.cgtextures.com/texview.ph...63ffb52ac38e92

I'll soon get back to texturing my fridge... we'll see how it goes now user added image .
C&C please,
Benny


When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

My latest snake game
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# 43 08-08-2008 , 09:08 AM
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Fridge progress

Here's where I've got so far:
https://img396.imageshack.us/img396/4889/temprr0.th.png

The rails look HORRIBLE user added image but I have no idea how to improve them... I'll probably redo them later on.
Besides that I'm pretty pleased with these textures so far.
It takes a LOT of time drawing them in Photoshop (That's what I've been doing most of today and yesterday and I've got ~15% of them done. I keep postponing the texturing of wooden pieces since I've got no idea how I'm going to do those as well.
C&C please,
Benny

P.S.
I've discovered the drawbacks of running Maya and Photoshop with 1024X1024 multi-layered files on a 2.6 GHz (single core) Computer 5 seconds at a time (with 2 second intervals in which I could actually do something user added image )


When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

My latest snake game
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Last edited by BennyK; 08-08-2008 at 09:14 AM.
# 44 08-08-2008 , 09:28 AM
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grab an image of wood and use that as your texture

it seems like whereever possible you shouldn't go reinventing the wheel

if the texture already exists somewhere then use it :p




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# 45 08-08-2008 , 09:38 AM
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I do use existing textures but they are seldom exactly what I'm looking for according to the reference... I haven't yet found a wood texture suitable for my plywood cover so I'm going draw that one anyway(based on other textures... I've got more then 30MB of those from CG Textures).

BTW, what's the best way of creating a bump map from a wood texture? Brightness-contrast modification don't seem to work.


When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

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