Introduction to Maya - Rendering in Arnold
This course will look at the fundamentals of rendering in Arnold. We'll go through the different light types available, cameras, shaders, Arnold's render settings and finally how to split an image into render passes (AOV's), before we then reassemble it i
# 16 14-10-2011 , 01:23 AM
Acid44
Guest
Posts: n/a

Z-plane Clipping/Fighting/Distortion

Q: My objects are too close together and appear to be coming through each other even though they aren't.

Example (Click to enlarge):
user added image
user added image

A: This is Z-fighting, they are basically fighting for their space in the z axis (from camera) and this is causing them to have the look of being on the exact same coordinates.

Fixes:

Easy way - Move them further apart, if possible.

Other easy way, but sometimes could be a problem - Adjust your camera's clipping planes. This can be done by going to View>Camera attribute editor, in the viewport (may vary by Maya version) From there the clipping options are under the Camera Attributes section. Try setting the near clip a tad higher, and the far clip a tad lower, you'll usually only need a very small change to fix it.

Example (Click to enlarge):

user added image
user added image

# 17 18-11-2011 , 08:39 PM
EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,374

Face selection

Q: How come I can only select faces by hitting the center dot; or How can I turn off/on the center dot on faces; or Why does face selection look different on my computer?

user added image

A: You can change the face selection mode in the preferences
user added image

Change it to match a tutorial or to suit your preference.
user added image

# 18 23-01-2012 , 07:04 AM
bullet1968's Avatar
Lifetime Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 4,255
Q: How do I snap vertices to a grid...or line them up so I can mirror and merge. Also how can I snap a row of vertices to a particular vertice on my model?

A:Snapping_Verts.wmv - YouTube


bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes
# 19 27-03-2012 , 02:50 AM
EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,374

Hard or soft edges

Q: How do I smooth or soften hard edges OR why do I have strange shadowing on my object?

A: The normals need to be softened or hardened. In the first case, select the edges to be softened, then Normals > Soften Edge. In the second case, select the edges, then Normals > Harden Edge.

Attached Thumbnails
Attached Images
# 20 27-06-2012 , 05:54 PM
EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,374

Abbrs

Abbreviations/Glossary

AE: Attribute Editor
AI: Adobe Illustrator
AO: Ambient Occlusion
BG: Background (e.g. BG plate)
CV: Control Vertex
DM/Dis map: Displacement map - texture to create additional surface detail
FCP: Final Cut Pro
FG: Final Gather
FK: Forward Kinematics
GI: Global Illumination
Geo: Geometry
HiPoly : High polygon mesh - a dense mesh with a high number of poly faces
IK: Inverse Kinematics
LoPoly : Low polygon mesh - a mesh with a small number of poly faces
ma: Maya ASCII - file format
Max: 3ds Max - Maya's bitter rival (owned by Autodesk too)
mb: Maya Binary - file format
MEL: Maya Embedded Language - scripting language built into Maya
N-gon: Polygon or face with > 4 edges/sides
NM : Normal map - texture to simulate additional surface detail
obj: Geometry file format - contains geometry and UV information
persp: Perspective view or camera
Poly: Polygon or Face
Prefs: Preferences folder - on Windows, typically located in "...My Documents\maya\2013-x64\prefs"
PS: Adobe Photoshop
Tri: Triangle, a face with 3 edges/sides
UVTE: UV Texture Editor
Verts : Vertices, points on a mesh
Wires: Wireframe shading mode, usually wireframe on shaded
Z: Pixologic ZBrush


Link people asking about abbreviations to this post for reference. PM me to add more to the list.


Last edited by stwert; 28-06-2012 at 01:43 AM.
# 21 08-09-2012 , 01:43 AM
EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,374
Q: How do I "delete" my preferences on Windows or Mac?

A: If Maya starts acting really strange, sometimes there's nothing for it but to reset the application to default preferences.

On Windows, the prefs folder can generally be found as C:\Users\YourUsername\My Documents\maya\2013-x64\prefs (or whatever version you have).

On Mac it is /Users/YourUsername/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/2013/prefs (or whatever the version is).

The best way to kill the prefs folder without losing your preferences completely, is to just rename the prefs folder as prefs_2012-07-09 or whatever date you want to give. When you restart Maya the next time, a whole new set of preferences will be generated, and hopefully the buggy behaviour will be gone.

Note: You don't typically have to reset the whole folder, usually killing the userPrefs.mel file is enough.

# 22 02-05-2014 , 07:47 PM
EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,374
I anticipate this will quickly become a FAQ in the coming months

Q: Where's Keep Faces Together?
A: In Maya 2015, Keep Faces Together has moved from the Edit Mesh menu to the Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences under the Modeling tab.

# 23 03-11-2014 , 01:06 AM
David's Avatar
SM Tea Boy
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Prague
Posts: 3,228
@cdozier86 people here try and help out as much as they can. They do it in there spare time for free! Very nice of them I think and I personally am glad to have those sorts of people around.

Maybe you should invest some time in trying to help yourself.

24 hour ban.
Dave


From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"
Posting Rules Forum Rules
You may not post new threads | You may not post replies | You may not post attachments | You may not edit your posts | BB code is On | Smilies are On | [IMG] code is On | HTML code is Off

Similar Threads