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.
# 1 21-05-2007 , 05:47 PM
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my container terminal

Hi! This is my first project in maya: a container terminal. I've been working for some weeks now, so I would be glad if I get some feedback and a little help... I’ve been trying to deal with some issues related to instances. Oh, and excuse me if I make a lot of mistakes since I haven’t practiced english lately… user added image

The container is a simple cube with the colour and bump channels mapped (maps created with corel). I used the cereal box tutorial in the maya help for UV mapping. I created different shaders for different shipping companies.

To create the first group of containers I duplicated as instance like 400-500 of those cubes. Rendered with mental ray and a little patience, but no problem. To fill with containers the whole terminal, I thought an option would be creating aligned groups of 500 or so containers. But after doing the second group of containers, mental ray crashes when I try to render. Moreover, some containers don’t appear in the viewport. Why?? I don’t know, maybe I messed something up in the hierarchies after duplicating “as instance” so many times… in fact I still get quite/very confused every time I happen to open the hypergraph. user added image

I need help. How would you create so many objects? Small groups of containers referenced in the main file for layer rendering?? Or different layers in smaller groups but in the same file? Are instances reliable?
I hope somebody can give me some advice on this. By the way, is it better to save as *.ma than *.mb?

Thanks in advance!

# 2 21-05-2007 , 05:51 PM
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images...

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# 3 21-05-2007 , 05:53 PM
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# 4 21-05-2007 , 06:12 PM
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ok, I have stolen this from other topics, but I think it would look better if you'd make them a bit dirtier (it's not easy being a container you know? user added image )


...but that was when I ruled the world
# 5 21-05-2007 , 06:30 PM
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I agree with Freaky; a thin, light coating of dust, with a tad of grime in recessed areas and along the edges will break up the flat-colored-ness of the cargo containers.

Also, after looking at pictures of freight containers, yours look a little to long, in proportion to their height and width; here's some images of what I mean.

https://narrowmind.railfan.net/WPYR/f..._Container.JPG

https://www.chinamaristar.com/product...de_freight.jpg

https://www.intermodalsolutions.com/I...orage%20L2.jpg

Other than that, I think your textures look great; keep at it! user added image


# 6 22-05-2007 , 09:32 AM
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Thanks freaky and severinianthony, I agree those containers look TOO clean, but I don’t want to get them too dirty either… user added image There are different types and sizes of containers, I modelled a 40' standard type. Guess I will try to add mode variety in the following weeks. But right now what worries me most is the repetition issue that crashes mental ray renders. I have to find the way to duplicate them and organize the file properly… the hypergraph is a total mess. user added image

# 7 14-07-2007 , 07:25 PM
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Hi again, just wanted to share some renders after a lot of hours spent practicing with different illumination and tuning of textures. The problems with mental ray crashing with large files were solved using a file reference system with cleaner and lighter files.
Right now I’m trying to adjust the shadowed areas which I think look too dark. I’m using physical sun/sky and I don’t know how to light up a bit only those areas. Shadow colour doesn’t seem to affect that type of illumination… hope someone can give me some light on that. user added image

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# 8 14-07-2007 , 07:26 PM
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By the way, I'm preparing some dirt textures for the colour and diffuse channels.

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# 9 14-07-2007 , 07:38 PM
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The concrete texture now works quite good for up close and distant shots.

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# 10 15-07-2007 , 04:52 AM
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Make them durty . It's quite good KUTGW user added image

# 11 15-07-2007 , 10:22 PM
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Thanks, I will finish those dirt layers soon, I'm sure it will improve the whole scene.

By the way, about the dark shadowed areas I was asking for help... Forget that. I'm just watching this renders through a different monitor and it looks so different!! This proves how important it is to have a good monitor for an appropiate color calibration.

# 12 15-07-2007 , 10:41 PM
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Try one render with 1024 Depth map Shadows
and Filter Size 8
When i render with those stats it get me good effect user added image

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