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.
# 16 16-05-2011 , 06:39 AM
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Thank You Chirone! I agree with you on both counts, having the actual object & restarting Macs :-) .

# 17 16-05-2011 , 08:55 PM
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Looking good josh any bit you finding hard........dave




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# 18 16-05-2011 , 11:06 PM
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Thank You Dave. The hardest part is avoiding frustration :-) (The longer Maya has been running/the Mac, gradually, the slower it reacts, which becomes a test in patience).

Getting into the areas of detail (cutting holes in the back, seeing/finding unneeded verts, clean-up, etc.) and planning-out / 'seeing' where the best edge flow will be has been slow going (second guessing what might be better choices). Although the hardest part for me has been getting good at 'local' translation control at the component level. If I have an edge loop selected using the Move Tool, and I go through the; Object, World, Along rotation axis, Local, Normal, Normals average, etc. I'll still end-up guessing when moving the loop. Same is true for extruding.

But, the new options with the extrude tool (Thickness, Offset, Division), and the Interactive Split Tool have been great! (watching the AREA videos on what will be available with the Maya 2012 bonus tools also looks great).

# 19 17-05-2011 , 03:03 AM
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Proof that I'm an idiot <:-D ; Delete by Type > History ... forgot all about that. That was a long list. Delete, and duh... look at that, Maya's lag decreases dramatically :-) (I understand that it's a good idea to keep history to, especially when in the modeling phase. But I had a waaaaaayyy more history than I needed, & I've got back-up scenes saved with the history).

It was also very nice to learn about the Move Tool's; Set to Point, Set to Edge, and Set to Face (never knew <:-o ). I have a ton more to learn. I spent most of my time today watching vid's and learning (YouTube, Digital Tutors, and the AREA), and searching threads in CG Society. For modeling I only did a little, focusing on the elbow & getting it to look better when previewed smooth.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/477599/RoboFrontPerp01.png

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/477599/RoboFront01.png

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/477599/RoboElbow.png

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/477599/RoboElbowSmooth.png

# 20 17-05-2011 , 03:44 AM
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Looks great, although I think the creasing in the elbow is a bit funny in places. I wonder if there's a memory issue with the mac. History does accumulate and take up memory, but it shouldn't be that laggy.

# 21 17-05-2011 , 04:02 AM
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it's certainly looking recognizable!

also, are you running firefox? that thing is always like 'hey i think i'll just take up 1 gig of your memory just because you closed me' or 'oh you want a new tab? ok, i'll just take 1 gig of your memory for that'




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# 22 17-05-2011 , 04:15 AM
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Thank You Chirone!

Spot on about Firefox, hahaha :-D ! Lately I've been using Chrome, -since FF is such a hog, and can certainly slow things down.

# 23 17-05-2011 , 04:37 AM
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Looks great, although I think the creasing in the elbow is a bit funny in places. I wonder if there's a memory issue with the mac. History does accumulate and take up memory, but it shouldn't be that laggy.

Thank You Stwert, -and you are correct. Right where the funny creasing is (the bicep going into the rounded elbow folds), there's an ugly -overly long- and ill fitted poly. I'll be working on that, -and I appreciate your eye on it! Any time you see any issues, your feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

And I think you are correct again, there might be a memory issue with the Mac (are those called 'memory leaks' ? ). Since, Maya will still slow down after ~ 2-4 hours. I tested my scene in Maya 2011 on the Vista 64bit, and it ran without any lag (it was very nice :-) ).

# 24 17-05-2011 , 04:50 AM
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And I think you are correct again, there might be a memory issue with the Mac (are those called 'memory leaks' ? )

very loosely yes.

basically when a program makes an object (eg, maya makes a new material) it takes up memory. when that object is told to get deleted (eg, you delete the material) it could be the case that the object still exists in memory but nothing knows about it because all references have disappeared.

therefore it stays in memory never going away, and you end up with lots of memory taken up by objects that can't be freed because no one knows how to get to it now that all references to it are gone.

so yeah, very loosely it's a "memory issue".

i wouldn't call recording of the history of an object a memory leak unless you delete history and whatever memory it was taking up has not been freed.




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Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

Last edited by Chirone; 17-05-2011 at 04:53 AM.
# 25 17-05-2011 , 05:17 AM
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Thank You Chirone :-) ! Much appreciated. I've been doing some Googling on it (after reading your post), and it seems I should be watching my CPU & possibly System Memory in the Activity Monitor. When Maya starts to really lag, I should watch for how much memory is getting used (I guess <:-D , -I myself know pretty much nothing on this subject).

# 26 18-05-2011 , 06:37 AM
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# 27 20-05-2011 , 08:15 PM
looks good...

I would love to have that kind of a robot at home...

# 28 20-05-2011 , 08:20 PM
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Thank you Serzz! My nephew certainly enjoys Robosapien, but the remote control for it has been lost... 8D .

# 29 20-05-2011 , 08:58 PM
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Comming along nicely..........dave




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# 30 31-05-2011 , 06:14 AM
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