What's the problem when mirroring geometry?

# 1 13-07-2007 , 04:41 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

Hi,

as the images show, when I try to mirror this head, the eyes are sealed, and the mouth is pinched and distorted. I've ticked the box to merge vertices, and all the inner vertices are at "0" on the X axis. If I turn off merge it works fine, but then I have to merge each pair by hand. My merge value is at default value.

Why does it do this, and can I prevent it? Surely it should just make an exact copy reversed over the axis, and merge the overlapping vertices, and nothing else.

thanks,

gubar.

Attached Images

Quote

# 2 13-07-2007 , 05:45 AM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

Your pivot point needs to be at the origin of where your mirroring, which might be why its making a strange duplicate

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Quote

# 3 13-07-2007 , 05:47 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

Thanks for the response,

but that's not the problem. My pivot point is in the centre.

Anyone?

thanks,

gubar.

Quote

# 4 13-07-2007 , 05:50 AM

Jr.Who

Guest

Posts: n/a

Try making the value of the vertices merge .0001.

Quote

# 5 13-07-2007 , 06:21 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

Thanks again,

but tried that. Even tried sticking a few more zeros in there - the same. I've deleted my history too, but no luck.

Anything else it could be?

thanks,

gubar.

Quote

# 6 13-07-2007 , 06:31 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Posts: 3,708

i don't really use mirror geometry, so i'm not sure why it does this - i think it may be because it closes any open surfaces, though I could be wrong.

I would just mirror geometry with merge vertices turned off and then just grab all the vertices in the center and merge them manually - it's not like you have to do them one at a time, so it should take 2 seconds. user added image

arran3D

arran3D blog

Quote

# 7 13-07-2007 , 06:55 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

I don't have to do them one at a time? I assumed I did, and I've done it now...

for future reference, I can just group select them, and it will only merge the adjacent ones? not sure how that works - suppose I wanted to merge a large group - how would I differentiate between a series of 2-point merges, and one mass merge?

thanks,

gubar.

Quote

# 8 13-07-2007 , 07:01 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Posts: 3,708

hmmm... not quite sure what you mean. as i said, i don't normally use mirror geometry. i prefer to just to do edit>duplicate with a minus sign in the appropriate scale box. Then I just marquee select the vertices I want to join and do merge vertices. you may have to adjust the distance in the options box, but it's good idea to make the distance too small and then increase it incrementally just to ensure you don't merge any vertices that you don't want to. Hope this helps...

arran3D

arran3D blog

Quote

# 9 13-07-2007 , 07:15 AM

The Maya Mountain
Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: Seattle, WA

Posts: 8,245

are you using the Mirror Geometry command or just mirroring it by scaling to -1?

In any case with the merging, if you set your distance to, say, .001, then what you're saying is that the only verts that will merge are the ones that are within .001 units of each other. So you can select the entire mass and it'll only merge the ones that are virtually on top of each other and leave the rest alone.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

Quote

# 10 13-07-2007 , 07:34 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

Thanks folks,

I have been using mirror geometry. As you can see in the images, it is merging vertices that are not near to each other (for example, the ones on the tip of the nose and the tip of the lip).

I understand what you mean now about the merging - using a low paramater, and selecting a group so that only the ones overlapping merge. I've tried it on a test and it works. But, I still get this problem when I mirror and merge.

I'll have another look and post back.

thanks again,

gubar

Quote

# 11 13-07-2007 , 07:57 AM

The Maya Mountain
Join Date: Aug 2002

Location: Seattle, WA

Posts: 8,245

I personally don't use the Mirror Geometry command for just this kind of reason... not very predictable. I will generally duplicate my mesh and scale it in the direction I want to mirror -1 and then combine and merge verts.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

Quote

# 12 13-07-2007 , 10:22 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

Hi mtmckinley.

When you do that, do you have to duplicate as a copy, rather than an instance?

cheers,

gubar

Quote

# 13 13-07-2007 , 10:29 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Dec 2006

Location: Plattsburgh New York

Posts: 1,222

duplicate instance will make it so that when you edit one side it will also do it for the other side, thats good when you want to work on only half a model but still see a whole model view (good for a lot of modeling).
duplicate Copy will be what you're looking for

- Mike

https://rhetoriccamel.blogspot.com

Quote