Complex UV Layout in Maya
Over the last couple of years UV layout in Maya has changed for the better. In this course we're going to be taking a look at some of those changes as we UV map an entire character
# 1 11-05-2007 , 12:18 AM
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Getting back into Maya - some questions!

Hello all,

I haven’t done any Maya work in months, but over the last week I have re-installed and realised why I enjoyed it first time round! :attn:

So, with any luck I will have some WIP shots to post soon, but first a few questions.

1) I think I know the answer to this but anyway. I converted a half complete model into SubD's to see how it looked. I then tweaked the model and made it look a lot more fluid and as I wanted. Bearing in mind I did not extrude or do any deleting only vert moves, is there a way I could have converted back to Polygons but having exactly that same face, edge and vert count?

When I tried to convert back I ended up with loads more faces, edges and verts that would have made further modelling really hard. In the end I scrapped the idea and went back to a previous save point.

2) I have been modelling a head and body separate. So far I have concentrated on the head. To get it looking nice and crisp I have increased edge numbers. When I come to adding the head to the body do I need to keep the flow of edges going, so that the body which does not need as much detail has the same large amount of edges? So far I have kept all faces 4 sided, is it a good habit to keep an entire model like this?

For example: the base of the neck on the head model has 20-30 edges, where as the connecting location at the top of the shoulder has only 10-15 edges. Should I split the body into much smaller parts to allow for a clean flow of edges from the head down to the feet? From there I could be faced with simple or small geometries needing loads of edges just to match the amounts in the head!

There will be more questions to come I'm sure as I work on further parts of the WIP, look out internet Azimuth is back in town... user added image

# 2 11-05-2007 , 03:59 AM
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1) go to modify->subD2poly->option box. under tesselation method you've gotta hit "vertices". this gives you the original mesh without added faces and such.

2)4sided is always better. you have to have 4sidedPs when smoothing otherwise you will get artifacts. some rendered problems can be solved overlooking the geometry and, if existing, getting rid of 5+sidedPs.

with the head. if you need to merge the meshes you should go with even faceNumbers.

if nobody will see the "seam" you don't have to merge them.

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