Capping

# 1 27-11-2002 , 01:13 AM

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Suppose you've just extruded a nurb circle along a nurb curve, so you have a simple snaky tube, like a short piece of hose.

How would you get a cap on one / both ends of that hose, so it appears closed, and you cant see inside the ends? (Like the cap option in the Cylinder and Cone primitives)

There doesn't seem to be any option in the extrude tool to add such caps.

Dan

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# 2 27-11-2002 , 01:34 AM

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... and ...

PS - I want to then animate the underlying Nurb curve, so that the resultant extruded surface follows the curve dynamically, and make sure those end caps stick!

Dan

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# 3 27-11-2002 , 02:22 AM

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this is a pretty popular question. I've attached a pic to demonstrate how I do it in the thread below. I insert an isoparm at the edge, and scale the end hull down to close the hole. Then adjust hulls to get however sharp a corner you want.

Check it out here: https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...?threadid=2120

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 4 27-11-2002 , 03:07 AM

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... cool! But...

Thanks Mike - Ive gone through those solutions in that thread, and they all
seem to have their pros and cons.

For example - No you cant deform a surface with a planar cap or it just disappears! But you can easily animated the underlying curve (with cluster deformer/whatever, and the planar cap travels with the end whatever you do quite happily. But its always sharp!

Whereas your technique of adding isoparms and collapsing the end closed creates a surface that can easily be deformed, but if you animate the underlying curve, it goes all wonky.

If only there was a way to get an end cap that would lock to the end of the extrusion, even when animating the underlying curve, and also be able to procedurally sharpen / soften the corner.

Is this possible?

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# 5 27-11-2002 , 07:17 AM

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why not delete the surface's history, and use a skeleton to animate it?

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 6 27-11-2002 , 10:22 AM

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Why not indeed!

Thanks for the help, Mike.

Dan user added image

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# 7 09-12-2002 , 12:40 AM

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You know, after trying and trying again...and again...and again...lofting curves, adding planar caps and trying to connect everything into one shape (one of the mods at highend3d suggested I need to break the loft into 4 pieces vertically each having the same number of isoparms, then select the for edges and create a boundary surface...beyond me at this point)....I'm beginning to wonder why this or even the various methods for poly modeling, have to be like pulling teeth for something that seems like it should be a given option. It's like I just want to be able to use the curve tools or beziers to create a poly shape (like the create poly tool) and be able to extrude it with caps and attach it all into one shape, yet it takes 50 steps to do one little thing.

Newbie frustrations? Yeah you bet! user added image

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# 8 09-12-2002 , 12:57 AM

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welcome to the world of 3D! lol user added image

That's the way everything is in some form or fashion. I'm sure the Max and Lightwave guys will bust in saying how simple something is in their program that's sooooo difficult in Maya, but when I try to do it.... I always just go back to Maya cuz I find it easier.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 9 09-12-2002 , 01:34 AM

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I think that's where some of the frustration comes in as I'm trying to get down some basic 3d principles following what's supposed to be a general tutorial from a book I have. Trouble is, the guy is using Max (from his screenshots) and what it makes out to be simple, is about 10 times as hard in Maya, if I can figure it out at all. It would seem that I just have to keep working through full-length maya tutorials before I can attempt (or understand) how to take the book's principles and translate them. I need to sit with someone and pick his/her brain and actually be shown how certain things are done...hand-holding. Hopefully I'll be getting some Maya books and DVDs for x-mas and will have to splurge the $20 for VIP tuts soon.

Last edited by NitroLiq; 09-12-2002 at 01:36 AM.

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Capping

... and ...

... cool! But...

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