Hmm, it's weird, I have no problems extruding along a curve that has been drawn on a live surface. I can also duplicate the curve, make the surface not live, then move that curve around and extrude along it, modify it etc. Not sure what the problem might be. Have you tried making the surface not live before trying your operations?

yeah, it's weird...
yeah i have made the surface not live before i did any of the other operations

i've attached an image, at the top is a live surface and what i get when i click on a curve
at the bottom is the non live surface and what i get when i click on a curve

as you can see the move manipulator is the same in both cases and i cannot lift the curve off the surface...

That happened to me too chirone....my manip would give me 3 points of direction??? wierd!

EDIT: well I dont know what the hell is going on but I just replicated stwerts..left the surface live and everything!! and it worked???? what the hell??

I tried again and left the surface live and it still didn't work...
I'm really confuzzled about this....

whilst I can't seem to get the curves used for extruding I can use them for animation paths, which means I can use the animation snap shot

So I used an animation snapshot to make the wooden planks on one of the bridges. Turned out fine, but there was something really odd going on at the end where extra objects started appearing.
I deleted them which is a hack solution... it doesn't solve the actual problem...
I don't know what happened, but there is a screen shot below of a simpler situation where a cylinder is used for animation snapshots along a curve that was made live along a surface. As you can see there are extra cylinders at the end that go between what should be evenly spaced cylinders.
I thought at first the animation wasn't linear and that's why there is an increase of cylinders at the end... the animation curve in the Graph Editor shows it's linear... I don't ever remember this happening in the past....

I tried making rope using the same technique but had a clover shaped curve rotate along a motion path.
I lofted between curves and started playing with the rotation amount and the increment in the snapshot. eventually it got to the point where the rope just cut off and stopped being made of geometry and started being made of invisible...



EDIT: interesting development. the surface curves have to be duplicated with Edit Curves > Duplicate Surface Curves.
now all that remains is the animation snapshot issue...
Also I wouldn't be sticking with geometry rope, I'll do it in a more efficient way, I just thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if I did it with animation snapshots and lofting

It might not only be animation tangents, but the spacing of CVs on the curve, you could try rebuilding curve to see if they space better. All around it's quite strange... it's a mayastery.

as far as i can tell the clustering of cvs doesn't affect the animation snapshot
I built a curve where a lot of cvs were bunched up so they weren't evenly spread and still got the same result if i change the snapshot increment to anything other than 1

Perhaps i'll just have to adjust the timing of the motion trail... although I don't think that's possible after the motion path has been made...

I think it is possible. Try this: Go to an intermediate frame and change the U value in the channel box (motionPath input node)... I'm just reading this out of a book, so hopefully it works.

Okay, when I try it, it needs something slightly different, Ctrl MMB drag to change the U value, and then key selected. Maybe. :D

hmm, yeah, you can re-key the U Value in the channel box, so that also means you can adjust the keys in the graph editor.

I think that's easier than fiddling with the stuff in the channel box :D

made a platform that sits on the cliff side
it's held up by cylindrical shaped poles of wood
and a shot of the cliff from further out because i extended the cliff to be bigger

Hey you could probably check out this script instead of the animation snapshot, it makes object placement much less of a headache.

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/do...on/c/sppaint3d

I got the script working. It's really awesome! don't know how you found it..

I do wonder how you get a 'weird hierarchy' though...

So far it's pretty easy to use, had an issue of not putting the script in the right place but that's nothing bad.

thanks Genny!

updates later...

I love the detail you have already put into this. I agree it looks like it would be great in a video game setting. will there be anything at the base of the cliffs like a river or forest?

Gect: after playing around I think it's easier to play with animation snapshots and adjust when the end frame is. The script you linked me to is good but unless I'm using it wrong I can't paint in a straight line...
I could use it for maybe the inhabitant's earlier attempts at building along a cliff and things are all wonky though...

twisted: thanks. I'd post images of references of my main inspiration but I can't find any decent ones...
I was thinking about what was at the bottom of the cliffs... At first I thought maybe there's nothing there... it's just rock, or spiky rocks. Then I wondered why would anyone want to live here if there's nothing but certain death at the bottom... perhaps the inhabitants are exiles, perhaps they like living next to danger, perhaps they are hiding from something or someone, or perhaps there are minerals to be mined..
I think that it'll be water down there. After all... why would you build a place to live if you can't get water?
So there's a river at the bottom of the cliff.

update...
i have no idea what I want to do for the huts/houses on the platforms... i figure they should be made of wood... maybe fat wooden poles, maybe with the wood standing up or in a lockwood house style...
or maybe made of stones...

I dunno... if you were to build a house in a high up windy place on a platform made of wooden planks what would you make it out of? I figure it shouldn't be anything too heavy that it falls off the cliff, but it can't be too light that it blows away...

I just thought of something... if it rains the water would just sit on the platforms because it they are flat...

anyway, attached pictures, one with a concept hut/house, and one under the platform. The planks were there previously, but i never showed them until now. I think the platform is secure....

I can do all that for you Chirone...but...and I mean but...it will complicate it entirely and remove the fantasy of it all. If you want realism...you will have to rethink some of it if not all mate...obviously 'how did it get there' construction wise is your first hurdle..then yes drainage...access/egress etc etc...up to you mate. I can give you the input but you might shy away from it man?

cheers bullet