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.
# 256 21-04-2012 , 04:16 PM
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Thanks ctbram, stwert. Will look into the lighting for before the next render.

# 257 01-05-2012 , 09:41 AM
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user added image Does anybody here have experience with Vue? In particular how to get decent AO between a Vue object and a native Maya object?

# 258 01-05-2012 , 10:38 AM
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what is the vue object, is it not polygons?

# 259 01-05-2012 , 11:32 AM
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The Vue object is a terrain object. (The grass field in the foreground in the last image post). Yes it is polygons (Triangles actually). I have tried exporting the terrain from Vue and importing it into Maya as a native object but the results are just crap. The displacement and bump comes across nicely but the diffuse, specular etc are shite. My texturing skills just aren't good enough to recreate the same result.

I have tried all the different lighting models available except GR (My machine can't cope with it). I have tried the option of using the Vue environment together with MR sun & sky. Latter actually works quite well, one just needs to tweak the color balance on MR sun a bit.

The other alternative for me is to create a smoothed version of my plane and import that into Vue. Down side of that is the polycount as well as the need to redo all the materials. I can't use mia_x as a Vue material and the UV mapping of objects is a bit dodgy in Vue. (I suspect more a case of me not really understanding the difference between world parametric and object parametric).

This little thing of AO has had me occupied now for nearly 2 weeks. I have gone thru google, bing, yahoo and excite and found a couple of posts in 2009 and 2010 where people have had the similar problem but the threads just died without a definitive answer. I now understand ctbram's frustration with his shadinggroup in outliner problem.

I'm slowly approaching to that horrible thin line called "Why bother?".

# 260 01-05-2012 , 12:47 PM
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Dont get down hearted Pixal there are more ways to skin a cat, Have you looked at paintFX for the back ground I know you have to convert to polys to use in MR but you can render out layer and comp in say PS................dave




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# 261 01-05-2012 , 01:05 PM
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Thanks dave. I've thought of using fur as well. I've read that there is a grass preset. That correct?

# 262 01-05-2012 , 01:25 PM
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sorry i know what vue is, just wondered what a "vue object" was. if its polygons whats the problem? what do you mean a by decent AO?

# 263 01-05-2012 , 01:42 PM
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Never used the fur grass but the preset is in the shelve tab also check out the visor for more paintFX trees and such, for long shot you can make trees out of image planes mix and match any thing to get the job done...............dave




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# 264 01-05-2012 , 01:42 PM
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honestdom, To be honest, a hint of AO will be an improvement. Currently shadows are rendered correctly but there is no AO.

# 265 01-05-2012 , 01:48 PM
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thanks dave. All but two of the trees are already just billboards. Will look into the paintFX and possibly fur when I get home.

# 266 01-05-2012 , 03:18 PM
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thats odd, without having a look i wouldn't know what the problem is. try exporting as an obj.

# 267 01-05-2012 , 08:48 PM
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@honestdom, The area labelled (1) is missing something. It just looks like the tail is hanging out the air. I expected some, albeit discreet, but still some degree of occlusion. I still need to address the other area. Need to adjust the materials to reflect more of the environment.

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# 268 05-05-2012 , 07:28 PM
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Quik question. With MR sun & sky and DOF which one of the gazillion sample values has to be increased to smooth shadow edges? It's a bit grainy.
(Yeah yeah, I know, RTFM/WTFT/STW user added image)

# 269 05-05-2012 , 07:33 PM
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# 270 05-05-2012 , 08:39 PM
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Thanks dave. The MR sun & sky setup is ok. Without DOF the shadow edges are fine. When I enable DOF, the edges around the out of focus objects appear grainy. The only way so far that I have found to kind of eliminate it is to up the min/max sample levels under Raytrace/Scanline Quality section at the expense of render time. Are these the settings I'm supposed to change? I know some people prefer to use depth maps to do DOF in post but I want to try both methods and compare the results.

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