closing a face model

# 1 14-01-2010 , 05:25 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010

Posts: 2

Hi all,

I am new to the forum and to modeling 3D objects in general, my question might sound trivial to you and I hope that it does so that I could get some help user added image

.

I have a face model, a triangulated surface with holes at the eyes, mouth, and neck. I need to "close" this model so that the resulting face will contain no edges (I mean, no edges belonging to only one triangle), while the holes are preserved.
I thought of creating a smaller face (with less details) and place it inside mine, connecting it to the original one at the eyes sockets, lips, and neck. Being totally new to Maya I feel kind of lost just by looking at the available menus!

Could anyone suggest the simplest way for me to achieve my goal, i.e., close the surface preserving the holes?

Thanks a lot,
Giff

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# 2 15-01-2010 , 04:51 AM

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Join Date: Mar 2007

Location: TN (USA)

Posts: 1,889

Not sure why you would want to do that..but if I understand what you are asking, a simple method would be to select the model (assuming it's polygons) and then extrude slightly. That will add thickness to the model and result in closed faces.

People don't usually do that though...at least not to my knowledge. Is there a specific reason why you want it to be closed?

Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

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# 3 15-01-2010 , 05:51 AM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

Many applications require watertight meshes, such as RealFlow, Face Robot, or even 3d printing applications.

There are ways to do it simply.

1) Grab the edges around the hole you wish to fill, and extrude the edges. Scale them down in XY and Z until there are very close to each other. Then go into Edit Mesh>Merge>Option Box. Set the distance to 10 to ensure all the vertices get merged.

2) Go to Mesh or Edit mesh (forget which one, I still use Maya 7) and there should be a Fill Holes tool. Click that, then click on an edge that borders the hole. It should fill it. If not, take a look at the docs. (F1)

Hope this helps.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 4 15-01-2010 , 04:49 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010

Posts: 2

Thanks for the answers.

As to the why, I found a great application to automatically do the rigging (I want to make a simple skeleton and rig the face to it), which requires the mesh to be closed.

I think Perfecto understood my goal best, in fact I do not just need to "fill holes", but NextDesign answer is also very useful.
Problem is that I don't know how to just extrude the whole mesh. Actually, when I click on a edge or face and then select "extrude" from the edit mesh menu, I don't get the manipulator tool to work and I can only extrude if I manually select the move tool...

Anyway, I guess I'll have to extrude the edges of the lips, eyes and neck, until they touch each other and close the mesh... It's very tricky because the mesh is fairly complicated and the edges to extrude are in locations not easy to reach...

I'll try again...

Cheers,
G

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closing a face model

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