Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 2
This course will look in the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. It's aimed at people that have some modeling experience in Maya but are having trouble with complex objects.
# 61 25-02-2006 , 04:42 PM
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Yeah, It looks amazing so far dilberts - keeping a close eye on this one. Well done! user added image

# 62 26-02-2006 , 04:46 AM
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Been playing with my studio environment render set-up. One of my main goals with this project is to generate nice, realistic studio renders. I'm kinda tired of falling back on HDRI's, even though they do look great. It just seems like HDRI's can sometimes become an excuse to not spend the time needed on the lighting and environment.

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# 63 26-02-2006 , 04:48 AM
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Look great dilbert !


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# 64 26-02-2006 , 09:27 AM
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# 65 26-02-2006 , 09:31 AM
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Wow!!:attn:

Only thing that I am not sure about is that car kind of looks like it is floating at the moment.

# 66 26-02-2006 , 02:24 PM
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excellent. only that its tires are off the ground, but that can easily be fixed

so f***ing amazing. Thats pimptacular.


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# 67 27-02-2006 , 08:04 PM
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ooo come on dilberts...I wake up, have a cup of coffe,open SM and....no BMW updates...

I'll drink coffe tommorow again you know! user added image


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# 68 27-02-2006 , 10:22 PM
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amazing probably better than the ferrari dvd. i havent seen it yet.
so when you gonna put the headlights and the mirrors on the car.


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# 69 28-02-2006 , 12:26 AM
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Sorry, no updates. My day job takes up most of my time, so playing with Maya is a luxury.

I'll be doing the rear end next, and then all the smaller details like lights, mirrors etc. and then finally a basic interior. Just enough to make an external render look real (probably seats, dash, and a steering wheel). The car is floating as I didn't turn on the raytraced shadows on my area light to save on the render time.

By the way, I have a question. Anyone have any opinions on other modeling software, specifically for highly accurate NURBs surfaces. Maya just doesn't seem accurate enough with surface tangency with NURBs for professional product visualization. I wonder if anyone has played with Studio Tools, or maybe Rhino? Whatever suggestions anyone has, the software would have to be able to export to Maya for rendering, as I don't want to learn a whole new render package like V-Ray for instance.

Also, anyone know how much Studio Tools costs? None of the authorized resellers publish their prices online?

# 70 28-02-2006 , 04:11 AM
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can you tell a bit how you setup the lighting and rendering for that blue light render?

i think that point you made about people abusing hdri to do the work for them is absolutely true


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# 71 28-02-2006 , 05:30 AM
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Sure. The entire model is surrounded by a huge nurbs sphere that has a circular ramp texture applied going from brilliant white (HSV 0,0,9) through blue/grey to a warm blue color. This sphere has the primary visibility turned off, and is responsible for the reflections. Adjust the ramp to your needs. The ground plane has a circular ramp also to fake the spotlight effect on the car fading into darkness. There are two Mental Ray area lights in the scene. The first is light linked to the tires so I can adjust their specularity individually, and the second is set up for ray traced shadows (which I didn't render in the last image).

The image is rendered with Mental Ray with 1000 final gather rays and slightly blurred reflections.

The whole image revolves around the placement of the ramp on the environment sphere, and the type of texture used. Mess around with some different textures to come up with some interesting reflections. Adjust the colors and irradiance settings to control the feel of your image. Basically, it's kinda like using an HDRI, but actually spending the time to think about what you're doing, and actually controlling the render. Way too many times with cars you'll see someone slap a cheap downloaded HDRI onto the render, and have some ugly in-your-face reflections. If you're going to use an HDRI, in my opinion, nobody should know

# 72 28-02-2006 , 01:55 PM
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wow thx for posti that last post i wos wondering how u got the fade into a dark background effect, id ever thought of just adding a ramp to the floor, looking sweet.

# 73 28-02-2006 , 05:11 PM
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Originally posted by dilberts
Sorry, no updates. My day job takes up most of my time, so playing with Maya is a luxury.

I'll be doing the rear end next, and then all the smaller details like lights, mirrors etc. and then finally a basic interior. Just enough to make an external render look real (probably seats, dash, and a steering wheel). The car is floating as I didn't turn on the raytraced shadows on my area light to save on the render time.

By the way, I have a question. Anyone have any opinions on other modeling software, specifically for highly accurate NURBs surfaces. Maya just doesn't seem accurate enough with surface tangency with NURBs for professional product visualization. I wonder if anyone has played with Studio Tools, or maybe Rhino? Whatever suggestions anyone has, the software would have to be able to export to Maya for rendering, as I don't want to learn a whole new render package like V-Ray for instance.

Also, anyone know how much Studio Tools costs? None of the authorized resellers publish their prices online?

I think that Alias offers some solutoins for industrial design...

https://www.alias.com/glb/eng/product...ductId=1800007

I think its compatible with CAD graphic system...

Check on discreet's web page 4 theirs solutions!


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# 74 03-03-2006 , 06:27 AM
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Haven't had time to model any more, but I did mess with a different studio set-up, with a different paint. This one is designed to be a non-stylized bright set-up. What do you think?

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# 75 03-03-2006 , 06:28 AM
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Another angle:

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