HELP: 1st Maya experience...

# 1 22-03-2007 , 12:36 PM

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Hi, I have been searching for a way of doing a page turning animation. I have used a little C4D in any 3d work ive done, but though my searching I found this tutorial for maya...

https://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutori..._of_the_month5

This is exactly what I have been trying to create and luckily they even provided a scene file to work from. It's my first time ever using Maya and im lost on a few points. It seems a lot more complicated than C4D.

Basically I want to do 3 things. The most important is to be able to apply 2 textures to the page. One on either side. If you look at the file from the tutorial, when the page turns, the back of the page is just the mirrored texture of the page. I need the back of the page to be a new page that I can have different content on. I have been searching tutorials on how to achieve this and got lost in 'Blinns' and nodes...

Secondly, I would like to map a seperate video to each whole page instead of a static image. Is this possible? Im sure it must be.

The final thing I want to achieve is to make each page 'landscape' view rather than portrait. The same height, just double or treble the width. All the page layouts i've designed have been landscape...!

This is all new to me and any help is really hugely appreciated. I'd be so grateful for any pointers.

Many thanks for reading this.

John.

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# 2 22-03-2007 , 03:39 PM

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update

Me again, I've thankfully found a really good tutorial that helped me with the texture problem...

https://www.digitaltutors.com/digital...ideo.php?v=181

Now I can have a different texture for each side of the page.

Continuing to work on the other problems now...

user added image

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# 3 22-03-2007 , 03:40 PM

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Hi I have read this tutorial and it basically tells you step by step how to create the book and animate it,if you want it to be landscape instead you can simply create it longer when it says to extrude the top and bottom right hand faces 5 units ,instead make it 7 units or whatever you need to create the same aspect ratio as your already created images (this part 01 in the tutorial).
The other alternative is to create the book exactly as shown and once modelled simply scale it on the x axis to get the desired width.

stage six part 22 onward gives you a step by step guide to creating a double sided shader which is exactly what you need to have a different image on each side of the book.
once you have created this shader to add the images you want open the hypershade (window /rendering editors/hypershade) then select the blinn material for page1 front and click ctrl +a to open the attribute editor.Next clcick on the checkered box next to the color option, when the new window opens up select the file node this will then allow you to browse to your image and add it to the material.Follow the same precedure for page 1 back in the hypershade.

duplicate the whole shader and name it page two if you want to add to the next page and follow the same precedure to add page two's images.

hope this helps.

Last edited by jsprogg; 22-03-2007 at 04:20 PM.

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# 4 22-03-2007 , 03:59 PM

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Thanks

Hi jsprogg, thanks for the reply. I'm completely new to Maya and all these terms so when I thought about reproducing the book step by step I was a little scared by that....! So I was hoping to just modify what was already there. I've got my pages fixed now - thanks for the tips! I'm learning a lot as I go.

I tried to select the parts of the book that need scaled on the x axis, but when I scale them it goes very strange. Pages going through each other etc. I think I would need to go through and alter all the page turn animations. Unless there is a simpler way to do it?

If there is no simple way of scaling it then I will maybe have to start from the beginning and follow the tutorial and try and build my own landscape version. I know this will be difficult for me to follow so I was hoping that if anyone on this forum knew a very quick way to scale the x then they could tell me or else upload the file if it was a quick thing for them to do.

But I will keep working at it. If you have any other tips please let me know - especially also about mapping a video to the page instead of an image.

Thanks jsprogg! user added image

John.

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# 5 22-03-2007 , 04:03 PM

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to scale you should do it before you animate and to stop the geometry going through each other you need to group the components, select all the ojects you want to scale then hit ctrl +g to group then scale the group and it will scale evenly....then do your animation.

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# 6 22-03-2007 , 04:09 PM

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Thanks again

Nice, i'll do it that way. Then i'll just redo the animation of the pages instead of rebuilding the entire book from the start.

Thanks for that!

user added image

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# 7 22-03-2007 , 04:31 PM

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with regards to mapping a video to the material if the video is an image sequence you need to make sure they are numbered sequencially then load the first image of the sequence on to the file node you created when you clicked on the checked box next to color and then below that check use image sequence.
You might need to set the start and end frames you want the texture to appear on the screen.
If the video you want to use is an avi , instead of selecting the file node when you click on the checkered box next to color you need to select the movie node and browse to your movie clip, you will also need to set the slength of the movie and the start and end frames that you want the video to appear.It will not need to start until you can actually see the page and can end when the page is turned. if the movie is shorter than the time you need it to be on screen you can also set it to cycle.

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# 8 22-03-2007 , 05:21 PM

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jsprogg, many many thanks. you've been a big help. I'm still having a few little problems with the scaling and animation bit but I just need to figure out my way around the package - its all a little disorientating. But I think i'm gonna get there!

Thanks again - really appreciate it.

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# 9 22-03-2007 , 05:32 PM

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your welcome , what issues are you still having ?
when I said you need to scale before you animate I meant before UV mapping and rigging also, you need to finish the modeling process before you do anything else especially riggind and binding a skeleton to the geometry.

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# 10 23-03-2007 , 03:20 AM

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Hi jsprogg, I made the decision last night that it would be best for me to follow the tutorial step by step and create my own book from the beginning in the right dimensions. It would help me learn what I'm doing along the way. I'm embarrassed to say I'm already COMPLETELY stuck at part 1......!

I really wish it was a video tutorial because I don't know my way around the package properly to know how to follow the pdf.

Basic things like 'move it 0.5 in both the X and Y axes' or 'extrude out the top and bottom by five units'. I understand what these mean but I don't know what panel the info is on that will let me measure these units. When I create my polygon cube I have to draw it onto the screen and I don't know how to do it accurately so that all the other steps that follow will work...

This is frustrating for me and I'm sure its frustrating for you to read because it is just simple basic modelling. My problem is that if I can't follow along with a video then I'm just lost because I don't know the panels and layout of Maya.

So my options are to go and watch a load of video tutorials on other Maya subjects until I know enough about the package to be able to work along with this pdf tutorial. Or else just use the portrait book rather than landscape which I really don't want to do.... user added image

The good thing is I will be able to do the double sided pages and video mapping. The bad thing is that there is no easy way for me to make the book landscape. It will probably take me many weeks to figure out...!

So I'm not sure what I will do. I have a decision to make!

Thanks again for helping with all that yesterday.

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# 11 23-03-2007 , 05:26 AM

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ok lets address this bit by bit.
when they talk about units they mean the grid squares ,1 square being one unit.The amount of distance this represents is up to you, you can set the measurement in the preferences..go to windows/settings preferences/preferences/settings you will see under Working Units you can change it to mm,cm, meters,inches foot ect.In the same preferences under UI elements make sure channelbox/layer editor is checked (think it is by default)that way when you model you can look in the channel box to right of the modeling screen and see the amount you are translating,extruding or rotating by.You can just go to the channel box and type in the amount for an exact measurement if you want to.

Next to stop you having to draw a polygon, go to the create menu and in the polygons menu near the bottom uncheck interactive creation, now when you click to create a primitive it will just appear at 0,0,0 thats the center of the grid if you didn't know and it will have a scale of 1 unit x 1 unit x 1unit you can see this in the channelbox to the right as you had learned earlier user added image

You can turn off interactive creation in the nurbs menu set too if you plan on using any nurbs.

This should get you started at least now
regards J.S.

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# 12 23-03-2007 , 06:43 AM

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Brilliant! Cheers for that boss! I'm gonna get stuck into it right now.

I may be back (probably!!!!) but I am gonna work hard at it. It's gotta be easier than all the blinns and conditions and shader stuff I was getting my head round last night, right?!

Hope so. Thanks again - much appreciated!!

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HELP: 1st Maya experience...

update

Thanks

Thanks again

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