A spline by any other name. . .

# 1 04-10-2003 , 11:09 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: Australia

Posts: 50

Hi there.
Im a long term max user, learning maya,
one thing is driving me nuts about maya.
i can't find the spline tool.

well, i found it kinda, it says it's a spline, or a bezier, etc etc
but in max there was a spline that you could use the control handle and make a sharp angle with the one control point.

called a bezier spline
as opposed to a nurbs spline.

the only ones i can find in maya are nurb type ones, and you have to click 3 points to make a sharp corner.

to me this seems really messy and not a very accurate way of making a corner.

is there something I am missing?

thanks for your help!

Binabik.

Quote

# 2 04-10-2003 , 11:23 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: Too near the sun

Posts: 501

Are you looking for the EP drawing tool? That draws sharp angles.

Quote

# 3 04-10-2003 , 11:47 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: Australia

Posts: 50

no, the EP drawing tool acts the same as far as i see.
you need to click a couple of times to define a corner.
which seems really messy to me.

Quote

# 4 04-10-2003 , 12:00 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: Too near the sun

Posts: 501

If either is set to linear and not cubic, then they all draw angled corners, my EP default is linear, but lets assume youres is on cubic.

Create > EP Curve Tool and set it to linear.

Quote

# 5 04-10-2003 , 12:06 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: Australia

Posts: 50

cool

buuuut
say i want the line to go straight on one side of the control point, but adjustable curve on the otherside of the point?

Quote

# 6 04-10-2003 , 02:01 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: Too near the sun

Posts: 501

The only way I know is to put it on Cubic with a tripple click when you dont want bends. There may be another way, but I don't know it.

You can move the points so they are directly on top of each other using the snap to points (hotkey v), this will make them neater than just clikcing three times. But other than that... <shrug>

Quote

# 7 04-10-2003 , 02:20 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: Australia

Posts: 50

ok thanks for your help user added image

not sure if sticking 3 points on top of each other will cause glitches in the geometry when I loft the shape though.

Quote

# 8 04-10-2003 , 03:58 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: Too near the sun

Posts: 501

It doesnt.

Or at least it shouldnt.

Quote

# 9 04-10-2003 , 04:01 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2003

Posts: 51

Create the straight parts with the tool set to linear.
create separate smooth curves with it set to cubic. (c for curve snap.)
Then .... edit curves> attach curves (attach method connect)
then you have a continuous curve with straight and curvy sections.

you also can try the curve editing tool -(edit curves>curve editing tool) it kinda has a bezier handle. but I find it useless.
Joe

rasterfarian

Quote

# 10 04-10-2003 , 04:12 PM

The Maya Mountain
Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: Seattle, WA

Posts: 8,245

Yeah, I believe that curve editing tool is for that purpose, although, I've not used it much... I don't use nurbs often, so I've not run into that problem.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

Quote

# 11 04-10-2003 , 05:17 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2002

Location: Seattle, WA

Posts: 1,154

AFAIK, Maya does not have standard bezier splines similar to the ones in Max or a vector drawing program. Instead, all curves in Maya are NURBS. You just have to deal with the quirkiness of editing NURBS curves.

(I also use Max, and I do miss the spline and patch modeling when working in Maya. user added image

)