Maya tips & tricks - Page 5 - Simply Maya User Community

# 81 07-06-2005 , 09:51 PM

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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!

Subdivide and conquer!

Free your mind, and your ass will follow!

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# 82 08-06-2005 , 12:20 AM

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

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# 83 08-06-2005 , 09:05 AM

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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. user added image

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# 84 09-06-2005 , 02:36 PM

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Re: UV Snapshots: getting around limited image resolution

Originally posted by Renderizer

5. ... go out for a little walk in the sun and enjoy the fresh air.

Originally Posted by

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.

Image dump

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# 85 09-06-2005 , 10:13 PM

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Maya and multilayered TIFFs

Originally posted by vladimirjp
NEVER!!!!

Originally Posted by

Tzzz...

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.

Subdivide and conquer!

Free your mind, and your ass will follow!

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# 86 24-06-2005 , 04:16 PM

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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:

Ryan

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# 87 25-06-2005 , 08:45 AM

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

Dae

"I THINK, THEREFORE I AM"
René Descartes

www.mvorster.co.uk

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# 88 06-07-2005 , 08:27 PM

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kool

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

<a href="https://insanityprojects.tripod.com">Insanity Projects</a>

ICQ#- 277234669
AIM- jsprpettit4

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# 89 07-07-2005 , 10:31 AM

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I'd like to take this opportunity to say:

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

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# 90 11-07-2005 , 07:04 PM

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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.

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# 91 27-07-2005 , 03:11 AM

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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.

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Last edited by mhcannon; 27-07-2005 at 04:58 AM.

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# 92 27-07-2005 , 11:35 AM

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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!!!!!

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# 93 27-07-2005 , 04:41 PM

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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).

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# 94 27-07-2005 , 06:08 PM

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

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# 95 28-07-2005 , 02:56 AM

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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.

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# 96 28-07-2005 , 08:12 AM

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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

AIM: mhcannonDMC

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# 97 06-08-2005 , 06:40 AM

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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.

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Last edited by mhcannon; 06-08-2005 at 06:44 AM.

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# 98 06-08-2005 , 06:48 AM

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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...

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Last edited by mhcannon; 06-08-2005 at 06:51 AM.

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# 99 06-08-2005 , 10:34 AM

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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

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# 100 07-08-2005 , 07:52 AM

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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....

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