Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 2
This course will look in the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. It's aimed at people that have some modeling experience in Maya but are having trouble with complex objects.
# 1 15-01-2011 , 02:33 PM
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Free Friday Tutorial #4: Chain by Duplication Along a Path

Simply Maya - Chain by Duplication Along a Path on Vimeo

This week we take a look at how you can use Maya’s animation tools in modeling to create a chain, a very useful technique which can save you a lot of time. You’ll learn how to create an individual chain link and a motion path with the CV curve tool, then use Maya’s attach to motion path and create animation snapshot options to duplicate the link along the path with twist to get a realistic looking chain.

- Motion Path with CV Curve Tool
- Curve Parametrization & Rebuilding Curves
- Animation Tools in Modeling
- Attach Objects to Motion Path
- Duplication & Twist at Individual Key Frames
- Animation Snapshot Options

Try this one it's a handy tip that might just save you a lot of time.
Thanks to Rick (ctbram) for creating the tutorial,

Dave


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# 2 15-01-2011 , 06:47 PM
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A useful tool to know, I used this on my tank tread........well done Rick...........dave




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# 3 16-01-2011 , 04:42 PM
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I could have used this when modeling my park! Maybe I'll redo the chain with this technique since its the one thing I didn't really like about my model.
Thanks for this!

# 4 01-08-2011 , 12:02 PM
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Thanks Rick...great and informative as usual...I finally got to watch it all the way through!!!!

cheers bullet


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# 5 18-01-2012 , 05:38 PM
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Thats a nice trcik. But, don't try this after you isolate the curve and the object to duplicate. It took my 1.5 hours to figure out whats wrong. The next day i opened my project and the duplicates were there ! Ofc no isolation...

# 6 27-08-2014 , 01:46 AM
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Chain link bunching

I'm having trouble with this guide. The links on my chain are bunched at the beginning and end - they aren't evenly spaced along the CV curve.
I'm presuming there is something I need to change in the graph editor, but I don't know what.

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# 7 27-08-2014 , 09:40 PM
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Did you rebuild the curve like Rick said?.................dave




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# 8 02-09-2014 , 11:02 PM
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Indeed I did:

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# 9 02-09-2014 , 11:06 PM
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Not really sure what else I must be missing/doing wrong. I've followed the guide word for word so far.

# 10 02-10-2014 , 05:34 PM
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If it helps, here's a zip of the file

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File Type: zip Knife chain.zip (169.1 KB, 576 views)
# 11 02-10-2014 , 07:36 PM
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# 12 02-10-2014 , 09:48 PM
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Select the first link then go to animate/graph editor, with the graph editor open select the curve in the graph edit and go to tangents/spline..............dave

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