lloyds maya thread

# 1 09-09-2011 , 09:43 PM

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Hello Simply Maya, I'm new here!

I am currently transitioning over From Max to Maya.

I'd like your help but i don't want to spam the forums with different topics.

So right now i am working on different aspects of highpoly modelling.
I've been having issues with tubes/pipes.

I found you can use curves and add a painteffect to it to give you a pipe. but this time it seems to of gotten twisted.

user added image

now i could set the options to use normal and i get this result

user added image

but I don't like the angle that the edges are all at now. pointing upwards.

so what did I do wrong? and how do i untwist the curve?

-lloyd

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# 2 09-09-2011 , 10:39 PM

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I would suggest using a curve and extrude along a path rather then paint effects.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 09-09-2011 at 10:42 PM.

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# 3 09-09-2011 , 11:16 PM

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Hello ctbram,

While getting annoyed at Mayas lack of curve to tube/pipe simplicity that max has one of the guy who makes maya suggested i use painteffects.

i.e make curve > add paint effects = tube/pipe

as oppose to

make curve > make object > align to bottom of curve > extrude along curve > tweek = tube/pipe

Thats why I was doing it this way and was wondering what caused the twist

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# 4 10-09-2011 , 01:54 AM

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you are making it more complex then needed. the actual sequence is

- make curve
- make nurbs circle
- select circle, shift select curve, pick extrude options and check pipe, at path, profile normal

I can't help with what is creating the twist as I do not use paint effects. Maybe someone else will know.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 5 10-09-2011 , 02:39 AM

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OOOH this seems to be doing what i want too. only problem is i can't see where to change the thickness of the tube?

edit: silly me. i scale the circle :O

Thank you

Last edited by russian box; 10-09-2011 at 02:52 AM.

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# 6 10-09-2011 , 04:28 PM

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filleting a control vertex,

i have drawn out a curve and want to fillet some corners to give me a nice rounded section.

in max you select the vertex and fillet it

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how do i fillet a vertex in maya?

OMG Making Pipes in Maya on Vimeo how slow user added image

Last edited by russian box; 10-09-2011 at 04:54 PM.

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# 7 10-09-2011 , 06:39 PM

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Yep, I was going to tell you about curve fillet which as you now see only works on pairs of curves and compared to Max splines is tedious. But it is what it is and don't rely on autodesk doing anything about it any time soon. (I say a nightly prayer hoping they will prove me wrong).

Maya's modeling tools are old and very basic. Curve and Nurbs based tools have not been updated for over ten years. Although you can do the same types of things in Maya that you can in max it is often times far more convoluted.

Just a heads up - if you try to match Max tools to Maya's one to one you will make yourself very sad.

Pick a modeling package, pick any package you want, and I can almost guarantee it will have a more robust, intuitive, and stable modeling tool set! On the bright side Maya's tool set in so small that it is hard to be over whelmed with options.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 10-09-2011 at 06:46 PM.

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# 8 12-09-2011 , 01:04 AM

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Well i've been playing with the ring extrude method you mentioned but i've noticed it doesn't give good topology.

This will be smoothed to form highpoly geo and also then used for lowpoly geo.

The problem is, the edges seem to be slanted.

user added image

how can i generate an extrusion along a path where the edges come out at the right angle?

I've also noticed this with extrude when extruding faces that go round an edge
user added image

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# 9 12-09-2011 , 02:20 AM

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For the donut I would use a torus instead of extruding the shape.

For the extrusion they have added "thicken" to the extrude node that will help this a little but you are always going to get oddness in the corners that will need to be manually adjusted even in other apps like max and modo.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 12-09-2011 at 03:04 AM.

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# 10 12-09-2011 , 02:47 AM

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Also the reason the circle is not following what you would think is the normal of the path is because you are trying to use a closed circular path. I am not sure why it does what it does but if you cut that path in half and then extrude the closed circular profile along each half circular path the normals will be as expected.

In other words if you extrude along an OPEN path the profile will remain normal to the path tangent.

I cannot explain why it becomes skewed when extruding along a CLOSED periodic path. It is just one of those things you have to deal with.

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