History and Normals

Maya 2020 fundamentals - modelling the real world

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# 1 09-08-2005 , 10:47 PM

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Join Date: Jul 2005

Posts: 26

hey dudes
i was just wondering, after watching the tutorials
all of the guys that make them delete history often and also check if the normals are correct..
i was just thinkin..
why is it so important to delete history and check that the normals are pointing outwards....
what are normals used for anyways?

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# 2 09-08-2005 , 11:25 PM

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Join Date: Sep 2004

Location: Waianae, HI

Posts: 1,275

I tend to think of normals as front and back surfaces. Strangely, as you're modeling it is possible to have a section of a surface facing the wrong direction even though the rest of the surface is correct. This will create problems when texturing, converting to other geometry types, or merging with other surfaces.

As for history, once a model is finished you should no longer need the file to "remember" all the steps it took to create the model. Additionally, history may have adverse affects with deformers, skeletons, or other animation actions.

AIM: mhcannonDMC

"If you love your job, you'll never work another day in your life."

Last edited by mhcannon; 10-08-2005 at 04:57 AM.

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