Help with my bulging box!
 

Hi guys,

I am working through the Learning Maya 5: Foundation book and am stuck on the second project.

The brief is to design a jack in the box that pops out. That bit has gone fine. What I am now trying to do is to animate the box so it gives a cartoon bulge before jack pops out and then contracts when he emerges.

I am following the instructions word by word but I cant seem to make the box bulge. I have created a lattice and I am playing around with moving and scaling the CV's as you can see from the two pictures (if I have managed to attach them to this message correctly!!)

It seems that when I select the second from bottom group of four CV's and scale or move them out the box doesnt bulge but creates an angle sort of like an upside down pyramid.
:p

Some help with this would be gratefully appreciated as this is causing me big problems in regards to finishing of my model.

Thanx in advance

Towser

Doh! knew it wouldnt work. Here's the second image.

Cheers

Phew... at first I thought this would be a cricket question ;p

what kind of box is it nurbs? polygon?

ahhhhhh man i dont think i can be much more retarded for asking that question use the split polygon tool

yeah, that is an option. It's just that i wanted to use the Cv editor because it will be easier to animate. That's what I assumed anyway. I may be wrong :) .

wel using the split polygon tool makes more cv's to use

Split polygon tool obviously only works on polygons.

The reason it's not bulging, I imagine, is because there's not enough geometry. For nurbs, you can use the Insert Isoparm command.

In Isoparm component mode, click and drag an isoparm to where you want to add a new one. This won't move the isoparm, but it will createa dotted line at the new location. With the dotted line in place, use the Insert Isoparm command from the Edit Nurbs menu.

it would be more easier on you just to use a lattice

The lattice won't have any affect if the geometry isn't there, though. That's the problem.

oh yea i forgot lol well using the split polygon tool would work tho right just make a bunch of cv's on the 2 sides then scale them out

Hi,

I don't know if I am going crazy, but when I switch the view to wireframe, I am seeing the bulge that I wanted. However, when I switch back to smooth shade all it still looks wrong (i.e. the upside down pyramid). Have I perhaps got the shading settings on the wrong setting?

Cheers in advance

on your keyboard... maybe try pressing 3? Just a suggestion, it might ass the increase in resolution for you to see. otherwise im clueless.

yeah, that's probably it. the 1, 2, and 3 keys are the different levels of detail maya can display for Nurbs.

Have tried that. It's still showing the same thing when I press the 3 key. it's a bit odd that when i view it in wireframe you can see it bulging.