Stairway to Heaven - Deforming groups - Page 2

# 16 13-12-2012 , 04:43 AM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

I did not notice that the pegs appear to be pulling away from the bridge. I'll have to look at my model again I may not have them actually penetrating the surface of the bridge.

Because these are all separate objects separation may occur for large deformations. Therefore they may need to be unified into a single mesh or perhaps they may need to be parent constrained.

However, for this model I am thinking that I simply did not embed the pegs into the bridge enough.

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

Last edited by ctbram; 13-12-2012 at 08:08 AM.

Quote

# 17 13-12-2012 , 08:37 AM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

I rebuilt the test model and the pegs were only coming out because I had not fully inserted them into the base of the bridge.

Here is a new version with everything combined and a single wire tool deformer. As you can see everything is staying in contact.

I have attached a rar with the simple test scene so you can see the wire deformer settings. I normally just play with the dropoff distance (10 is a good value but it is scene dependent so you may need to fiddle with it).

Attached Thumbnails

Click image for larger version

Name: 12-13-2012 3-29-42 AM.png
Views: 285
Size: 44.1 KB
ID: 53042

Attached Files

bridge_deform_example.zip (317.6 KB, 352 views)

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

Last edited by ctbram; 13-12-2012 at 08:43 AM.

Quote

# 18 13-12-2012 , 07:19 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2012

Posts: 34

Wow ctbram,
This looks great. Just as I need it.

So basically I just have to combine everything, then i have one mesh.
Then add a curve (how i want it to bend) and do a wire deformer with the curve and the mesh?

This is just great. The problem is: How am I supposed to combine everything.
I can easily combine the metal frets to the bridge but for the headstocks it starts to give me some issues.

Every headstock consists of A LOT other groups (like tuningpegs, screws etc.).
When I take one headstockgroup and click combine it takes forever. And combining this to the fretboard takes way to long.

Is there any way I can do this efficiently, or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks so much for the time and help!

Quote

# 19 13-12-2012 , 07:22 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2012

Posts: 34

Ouh and also
Am I able to edit the headstocks or more important textur them? Or is it to late after combining everything?

Thx

Quote

# 20 13-12-2012 , 09:41 PM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

Yep you can still texture everything. All combining does is merge all the parts into a single object node. You can always "separate" the combined mesh to make changes.

What you'd want to do is create the UV's for all the individual parts and then combine them.

The attached .ma file should give you an idea of how the wire tool deformer works. The wire tool will allow you to pull the model up and down and left and right but you'll need to use another deformer to bend the bridge at the ends.

Check the .ma file and let me know if you need help making sense of it.

-Rick

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

Quote

# 21 14-12-2012 , 11:48 PM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

28MB for an mb file implies you have a very high poly count scene and so it is not surprising that trying to apply a deformer slows your system to a crawl.

1. please describe your system - cpu, cpu speed, 32 or 64bit os and maya, system mem, graphics card, graphics card mem?

2. also what is the poly count of the combined model?

You may have to use a proxy model (like the one I attached above as an example) to set up the shot and then swap in a high poly model. I have not run into a need to set this kind of thing up but maybe someone else in the forum could give you some tips.

I did get your link to your file unfortunately I do not want to open scene files from other people as I have been struggling for some time with series graphics issues and since the mb file can alter my preference settings it complicates my ability to debug the problems I have been having with maya.

You may want to post the link to the scene file in a thread here and maybe someone in the forum can take a peek at it.

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

Last edited by ctbram; 16-12-2012 at 11:02 AM.

Quote

# 22 15-12-2012 , 08:41 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2012

Posts: 34

Yes as i said. The guitar headstocks have a lot of different groups and objects and polys.

My system is win 7 64bit, 12 gb ram, AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series, Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.30Ghz.

The polycount is from one headstock is :
Verts: 14612 13572
Edges: 29328 27272
Faces: 14844 13816

I tried to combine the fretboard and the frets and then a wire tool like you said.
It work but in areas where i want to do a heavy deform it just messes up.

I guess i have to make it all manually to make it work right :/ ?

But here is my file. I would greatly appreciate if somebody could try it.

Thank you.

https://ul.to/spiof54r

Phil

Quote

# 23 15-12-2012 , 08:42 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2012

Posts: 34

Maybe there is some trick how I can speed up or optimize my memory and graphic cards to get maya all the power it needs.
All I did till now is setting the priority of the maya.exe process to "high". But it doesnt seem to do a way better job.
But maybe again, i am overlooking something..

Quote

# 24 15-12-2012 , 09:05 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

You could try using proxey model to keep the poly count low..........dave

https://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/aut...oxy_rendering/

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

Last edited by daverave; 15-12-2012 at 09:16 PM.

Quote

# 25 26-12-2012 , 01:10 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2012

Posts: 34

Thanks Dave, I will try to do it with proxys.

The intresting thing I recenty discovered is, that in the unsmooth polygon mode in the viewport, my metalfrets and the fretboard stay attached to each other.
Just when I smooth it everything seperates.

So either I let it unsmoothed or I add that much divisions in length, that it doesnt deform that much.

Thank you guys for the help! Appreciate.

Happy Holidays and a happy new year user added image

Quote

Posting Rules Forum Rules

Similar Threads

Topics

Free Courses

Full Courses

VFX News