UV Snapshots: getting around limited image resolution
 

Since I just came up with a little tip and mhcannon thought it would be a good idea to post it here, I will do just that.

Maybe some of you have found out before that Maya limits the image resolution of the UV Snapshot to 2048x2048, which should be enough for most things, but sometimes you just need more space.

To get this done, follow these easy steps:

1. Close Maya if it happens to be running, otherwise you may experience problems.

2. Track down a MEL script called 'performUVSnapshot.mel' (should be somewhere here: [Program Path Dir]\Alias\scripts\others).

Copy it to your scripts folder (eg. my documents\maya6.0\scripts). Maya will give these scripts prioity over those found in Maya's install folder, so you can keep it for later use, just in case you have to reinstall Maya. In case you want to leave the script where it is, make a copy of it before you apply any changes.

3. Open the script in notepad and look for these lines:

int $kPLEMaxX = 2048;
int $kPLEMaxY = 2048;

Once you've found then, simply change the two occurrences of 2048 to the maximum resolution you might need to use (I set mine to 4096).

4. Save the script and restart Maya. Select your geometry, call the UV Snapshot window and set the resolution to your heart's content.

5. Shut down the machine, pick up your girlfriend and go out for a little walk in the sun and enjoy the fresh air.

Amen!

Right on!! Thanks Renderizer,, this helps me out a whole lot. you Rock :attn:

As I finally read thro all the post and so I don’t put up a tip that has already been posted I think I got something someone might be able to use.:p

Using the duplication Options box you can make all kinds of cool things that would be rotated. Like a staircase or in this example a chain.

Just open up your duplication options box in your Edit tab and set a torus up to be copied.

Keep copy checked and set Group under to world.

I have my grid set up to units of 16 by 256 so I had to scale up my torus then set up the Y-axis in the options box 122. 45 leaving the scale set to 1 and instant chain.;)
http://www.planetunreal.com/nsf/RONBO/tip/DupChain.jpg

Re: UV Snapshots: getting around limited image resolution
 

NEVER!!!!



----

fyi: u can also adjust the size of the UVsnapshot in PS to whatever u want, it will not affect the texture, its just there as a frame of reference.

Maya and multilayered TIFFs
 

Tzzz... :D


With Maya 6, there came the opportunity to use PSD files in your scenes. But what if you don't have Maya 6 or better?

Did you know that you can save multilayered TIFFs in Photoshop?

They include all your layers, alpha channels, blend modes, adjustment layers and even paths, so that the handling is pretty similiar to 'true' PSD files.

The good (and obviously not too well known) thing is, that Maya can read these multilayered files to use them as textures. This is possible because PS saves a full resolution composite layer along with all the meta data that makes up your image.

Might come in handy at times.

I'm having trouble modeling. I don't really know if I'm doing it right. I want to model a man but I can't find a tutorial for one. Is there anything that makes modeling easier?:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

lots of practice and try start with a more simpler subject, try Kurts cartoon dog tut found here

Dae

kool
 

kool thread. Exactly what I am looking for. :attn:

I'd like to take this opportunity to say:

:attn: :attn: :attn: :attn:MHCANNON IS A GOD:attn: :attn: :attn: :attn:

Random extrusions
 

Umm, first off, thanks for the positive feedback... I don't think I rate godhood, but thanks again anyway.

Ran across this option the other day and thought it would be a cool way to make quick landscapes or rocky surfaces. In the Polygon's Extrude Faces options is a slider for random extrusions. This options is normally "greyed out," to access it you first have to uncheck the "Use selected curve for extrusion" option. Then you can either enter numbers or move the slider. This causes the resulting extrusion to become rough... the higher the numbers the rougher it looks. Enjoy.

Getting the Bends
 

Mirror cutting is a handy features for bending objects along whichever axis you want. A typical use might be to creat something like a picture frame. To use, select an object then select Polyons>Mirror cut>options box. You'll need the option box to select the settings for the tool. For bending purposes you'll want the combine meshes option selected. The manipulator handle for this includes movement and rotation option. You're actually moving or rotating a cutting plane which defines where the mirroring will occur. In the example a below a simple elongated box is mirror cut to create a 90 degree bend. To ensure a perfect bend, 45 degrees was specified in the appropriate channel box field.

Hey,


Tx for all the Tricks and Tips.

I need to create pipes and I use curves to create the pipes and then extrude them. I was wondering if I can use mirror cutting on cylinders too?

Keep up the good work!!!!!

mirror cut should work on any polygonal object. You can even apply multiple mirror cuts to a single mesh. Mirror cuts act like deforms in that effects are cumulative. Also to "lock in" the effect you should delete history on the object to remove the mirror cut influence. Below are some sample mirror cuts on various polygonal objects including a torus, a cone, a cylinder, a simple head shape, and an extruded poly profile (sort of a guard rail shape).

mhcannon thx for the quick reply.
I will play around with it.

F key for framing in Outliner window
 

In addition to using the ' f ' key to frame a selected object in the viewing window, you can press ' f' while in the Outliner window to to frame the selected object's node. This is very helpful when working with a character that has many joints and parts, or objects that are grouped many times.

The "a" and "f" short cuts work in most editors as does the alt + mmb and alt + rmb.

a = frame all
f = frame selected
mmb = middle mouse button
rmb = right mouse button

Modeling in Black and White
 

If you've used landscape generator such as Bryce or Vue than you'll be familiar with this techinique. These programs use a grayscale image to generate terrain height. You can do a similar thing in Maya by coverting displacement maps into polygons. To do this you will have to assign a grayscale texture to the displacement channel of an objects shading group (NURBS or polys only). Once the displacment map is assigned, simply select Modify>Convert>Displacement to Polygons. This creates a new object that has the displaced geometry. As this is math intensive, it may take a while to compute. In the example shown, the original object was a simple NURBS plain with 16x16 U and V division. The image inset bottom left is the grayscale image that was used.

WARNING
Depending on the resolution and complexity of the grayscale image used, the resulting polygon may be a heavy mesh (see HUD inset).

Beside creating geometry that might otherwise be diffucult to model, the method saves the renderer from having to calculate the displacement and allows accurate interaction with geometry.

Modeling in Black and White (cont.)
 

For those curious, this is the shading group for the terrain displacement in the previous post.

Pretty simple network...

Adding items to the shelve
 

I know this is know by the most of you already, but since I haven't seen it in here yet:

You can add items to your shelve by holding ctrl+shift when clicking in a menu.

*Hope this qualifies as a good hint/trick :blush:



Thanks, Mitchell

Help for those "Senior" moments
 

If you've ever had a "senior" moment in which you couldn't remember which menu a tool or option was there is hope for you. Under the help menu there is a "Find Menu" option that allows keyword searches. This will show you all the menus that contain the keyword searched. Of course if you can't remeber where the "Find Menu" is, well....

5th Panel... sort of
 

This is a work around to the limit of four panels view sets. If you need more than four, you can create tear off panels. In any of the standard viewports, select the camer you want to make into a new panel viewport. Then select Panel>Tear off copy...

Once the new floating panel appears you can safely switch the original viewport to a different camera.

Help!!!!!!!
 

hey Guys!! how'z ya?? I need your Help guys .. i m new user of Maya ... i was using 3d Max frm 2 yrs ... now i wanna switch on Maya ... Because Maya's charater amimation is too advance than Max... thats why .. now guys .. i need yr help ... who can tell me ... how should i do in start .... gimme some tips n tricks n basic tutorials ...

Thank YOu

Ragards

Heres a big tip for ya,, Buy the videos on this site;)

<<Heres a big tip for ya,, Buy the videos on this site>>

Thanx buddy ... Yeah i m using dat videos ...

Poly Extrusions on Curves
 

Most modelers are used to extruding profile curves along a path curve, but many forget that you can do the same thing with polygonal faces. Try this out, create a curve, select the faces you want to follow that curve then open the Extrude Faces Option Box and make sure "use selected curve for extrusion" is selected. Set any other extrude options then apply.

In the this example a simple torso was created then the base faces of the arm were extruded along a path curve simulating the arm bend and distance. If you have history on, you can even modify the extrusion result by editing the CVs or EPs of the path curve.

P.S. To all, hope you read through this entire thread. Run a search on the forum if you looking for particular topic. If you're having problems with a tut then come back and ask a specific question, but please try to keep this thread related to tips and/or tricks. Oh... and a reminder anyone may post a tip or trick. :)

Negative Lights
 

Maya lights are not like real lights. This is especially true for lights with a negative intensity value. Negative intensity values act like mini-black holes, actually removing light from a scene. This can be handy for enhancing mood or appearance by darkening areas that would otherwise be lighted. This example shows a -1 intensity point light in the corner of the room compared to the same scene shown with a single directional light. This is subtle difference since the negative value isn't the high and the decay is set to linear.

GOBOs
 

Gobos are images mapped to a lights color channel that creates a stencil or blocking effect. Gobos are a quick way of adding shadow effects without have to actually build model to cast the shadows. In this image the top gobo, the window, effect shows the render and the image that was used. When you assign and image to a light's color channel a new attribute tab will appear; the stencil, this is where you make most of the adjustments affecting that appearance of the gobo. The settings shown, particularly the mask settings prevents the light's cone from showing (square image over a circular light). You think of gobos without doing the bat signal or menacing shadow in a doorway so I've included these example also.

I need help
 

hey Guys !!

Plzz do me favor .. i need yr help .. i m making a fantasy Dragon ... anyone can tell me .. where i find tutorial ....Do yew know abt it .. plzzz tell me the link ...

Regards

Thanks

As far as I remember there is a T-Rex VIP training video on this site. It shouldn't take too much effort to change certain bit 's to make it into a dragon.

i have no Pints :(... i can't get it .... do yew another site ?

Rendering sub-d's using Mental Ray
 

Hi everyone, mhcannon asked me to post this here as it may prove useful to some of you, and I'm happy to oblige.

Right, I've noticed that some people are having problems rendering their sub-d meshes in Mental Ray. This is most probably because mental ray cannot support a sub-d mesh that has tri's in the base mesh. A neater way to render your sub-d's is to use Mental Rays approximation editor. This will attach a node to your mesh, and when you render it will look just like a sub-d. Here's how you do it.

1. Select your mesh and open up the approximation editor by going to window -> rendering editors -> mental ray -> approximation editor , and it will pop up.

2. In the approximation editor, under the bottom most set of options next to subdivision approx, click on create then edit . The attribute editor should open.

3. In the attribute editor you need to set a few options depending on how you want your sub-d to render. Set the approx method to length/distance/angle , then set the length. The lower the value you use for the length, the smoother your sub-d will be, but it will take longer to compute. Make sure that view dependant is checked on, and set the mesh conversion to none if your mesh is completely made up of quads, or to triangles to quads if you have tri's in your base mesh. It is important to set it to triangles to quads if you have tris, otherwise the sub-d won't render.

4. Thats it, and your polygon mesh should now render as a nice smooth sub-d (5)! :attn:

Yeah, that's a neat little tip. I haven't come accross that particular problem before, but I bet it's lurking just around the corner.

Thanks for that one!

i have a question relevant to this forum
 

i found a nice tip on this thread about show>isolate select>show selected. it helped me save a lot time for extruding my teeth out of the mouth cavity itself( though i am starting to wonder if that was such a good idea :confused: ).
but, there is a problem with isolate select. when i try to use the paint selection tool or the split oplygon tool, the hidden geometry shows up as if it were a ghost. you cannot see the geometry, but the brush still recognizes it and moves as per the contours of the hidden geometry, rather than moving as per the faces that i am actually trying to select. is there any way of working around this?

split polygon tool
 

Ok, here’s a tip for using the split polygon tool.
Say you are modifying the polygon in the vertex or face mode, and decide that you need to split it by using the split polygon tool.
As soon as you click on the split polygon tool, your polygon quits the sub-object mode (vertex or face) and goes into the object mode.
But, right now, before you start splitting, if you hit the undo (z) key once or twice; your polygon goes back into the sub-object mode, and also, the vertex that was previously selected, is highlighted once again.
If you are going to split a complex mesh with a large number of vertices and an uneven shape; then this could be quite useful as you can use the selected vertex as a reference for splitting. Also, as you go back into the sub-object mode and start splitting, maya also highlights the next accessible edge that you could split in purple color, so that you can perform a series of splits easily. (see image)
A fairly basic tip, but thought that some of you out there might not know; as I too hadn’t discovered it for quite some time.

and since we are on the subject....
 

Also, you should make use of magnets in the ‘Edit Polygons>Split Polygons Tool>Options’ while splitting your polygonal faces. Magnets are actually the number of divisions per edge that you are splitting. Magnet Tolerance specifies how sticky your magnets are going to be. So that if you have kept the number of magnets to 1, then you split will happen either at the exact center of the edge you are splitting or, at the two extreme ends.

I hope I am making sense and don’t sound too confusing…
:p

Why did'nt I see this traead before??

Thanks for all the help, just read this thread form start to finish

If I come across anything cool, i'll give put a post on.

You have NO idea how useful that magnet-split poly option is... (Yea, I'm one of THOSE suckers who keeps subdividing faces to create extra snap-to verticies... guess I won't need it anymore :p)

As for personal tricks -- I'll start with the most basic modelling trick most people overlook (out of tedium):

When you're not sure how to reduce a mesh automatically... don't be afraid split polygons/delete faces or vertices/whatever and just using the create polygon tool with snap-to-polygons (V) to create workarounds.

My theory is -- if you're stuck on a problem, don't spend an hour trying to find out how to do it the textbook way... spend an extra 15 minutes doing it the manual way then combine and merge vertices. Maybe its just me but I seem to be quicker than my other newish buddies because they do the textbook ways when I just brute force everything I do to reach my ends.

Its all a matter of personal style though.

batch render/ playblast
 

i only just learnt this and it was v.useful.. i hope no else has mentioned it here alread - its for using the right frames per sec. see pics - now u want PAL 25 for english TV an Film 24 for film but u want the anmation settings to be in realtime (whatever u have set the frames per sec to)

pref for animat
click the box at bottom right to bring it upcheck ur settings to match above

[URL=[IMG]http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5296/pref24bd.jpg[/IMG]]choices
chose ur settings PAL 25 for TV and 24 for Film

i can't believe
 

i can't believe nobody write this tip :P

i see lots of screenshot with its windows services "Themes" turn on. well, if u want faster desktop & faster application, try change the "themes" services to "disabled", if u don't feel the fast, come and wack me up :attn:

well, u can set ur windows xp "restore" to disabled also, (only if u know the consequences), that would make ur windows more faster.

here is a website showing how to optimize windows xp
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html

AMAZING !!!
IT S GOOD EX FOR ME