Maya 2008 Impressions! - Page 7 - Simply Maya User Community

# 91 11-10-2007 , 03:40 PM

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hi jay.., any thoughts..??? yes.., ouch!!! soryy wat can I say...

stay with maya 6 until you hit the mother load and stay vintage.., no-one but you will notice.

man that hurts..,

you may as well save the bickies for maya 2009

tough call me freind user added image

the court is out and besides the constant 'updates' it seems maya 2008 has the thumbs up.., as far as Im concerned its the best maya ive played with.., but the pice.., guys like you should get discounted for the advertising you do by proxy..., i mean you guys do keep up a lot of interest in maya and help alot of up and comings who will fork out the bucks when they get work.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 92 11-10-2007 , 08:09 PM

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i can find 'extrude edge' it seems 'extrude' covers it all?? is this correct..,

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 93 11-10-2007 , 10:30 PM

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Hi Mat,

yeah the smooth preview tools great, thats what I ve been using on my WIP, the screen grabs and the wireframes are yous grabbed form the screen with it switched on. Also the slide edge tools great for evening out geo.

Mirek - Yeah its all one function now.

Hey Jay, thats a biggie and I can see your dilema, for someone producing on time constraints, like yourself, I would think that learning a new software would be a bit of a ballache what with trying to keep work going in and out, but then again you'll still have maya..

How much is syflex + shave for maya? Would that not be a possiblilty with maya complete?

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 94 11-10-2007 , 11:14 PM

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Hey Steve

LOL, jesus, Ive been playing with XSi trial. In a nutshell, very nice bit of kit. Learning it in depth is a bit of a mission for me right now by the look of it, despite things being where you'd expect them, they are still a bit finicky and Im in Maya 'Mode' so it looks like its definately going to be a Maya Upgrade.

Shave n Haircut, is a possibilty too, I know my friend and colleague Gio Chrono uses it when he can, and I 'spoke' briefly to him yesterday on this same thing and he mentioned Shave too, and thinking about it its probably a better way to go for me. Having many years of Maya under the belt would be a waste to go and change it all now.

Soft looks and feels fantastic, but its getting into that mindset that will be a killer for an old work horse like myself. So at the end of this week I'll give the boys at Escape Studios a shout for an upgrade to 2008.

Syflex stand alone is around $2000 and Shave is $499 so you can see the dilemma there in the price war. This is all included in XSI essentials price of 1400 quid. Kind of sucks really. No justice on Autodesks part. Max has a ton of Plugins, but it comes with Character Studio which is great and thats all for around 2grand.

Autodesk need to think of the consumer market more I think especially us dudes who are a one man band studio, doing freelance work. Speculate to accumulate, as they say....

Cheers
jay

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# 95 12-10-2007 , 01:16 PM

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i remeber the take over and the discussions here then.., ever hopeful and trusying lot we are.., but at the end of the day.., does one trust big business??

shave and hair cut walks all over mayas 'hair' any day of the week

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 96 12-10-2007 , 02:38 PM

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Speaking of other packages like xsi and max, has anyone taken a look at the new modo 301?

I had a chance to look at the seahorse tutorial and it looks pretty impressive. I like the all around package modeling, uv unwarapping, texture painting. What really impressed me about the seahorse tutorial is it had a zbrush feel to it. There was very little technical poly modeling. The UV layout was a snap, pick a seam, press a button and bingo unwrapped model, no picking through tons of overlapping lines or tedious picking of faces and assigning colors etc. The 3D texture painting was cool. You could paint displacement, and bump information and see it in the model in real time.

That being said the model was pretty simple and I can't say anything about its animation features and I don't think is has any particle dynamics. By for pure modeling and texturing the workflow looks really nice.

But like Jay I have a ton invested in Maya and switching to the new package is painful.

I just wanted to throw modo out there as something worth taking a look at. It's relatively inexpensive. If anyone has more extensive experince with it please let me know as I am seriously looking into giving it a try.

Cheers,
Rick

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# 97 12-10-2007 , 07:28 PM

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i ve looked at a lot of different apps but all for different reasons., FCP, ProTools, AE, CS3.. Boujou.., ect.., i just want an alround good work flow from pre to post (and back again user added image

). maya does me fine for 3D.., when uni is finished I have ideas for my own studio and website.., something of a multi-media site.., but I wont let too much out of the bag.., anyway, hence ny interest in Flash, dream weaver, and some of Adobes new web tools such as contribute (new for me)> I have a heap of hardware here, just updated the PC to something quiet monstrous, and would like to hire it out and the other stuff lying about here for post facility, recording studio, previz, ect at a low cost to idies.., a loy of plans anyway.., theres a lot of space here in Oz for some such things (a little criptic but moe will be revealed as time goes by.) (the degree should help.)

the point is, i only move by necessity more so than curiosity.., life is too short now. To move to another 3D app for the sake of curiosity would be my death throws in 3D.., for me necessity is the mother of invention, the mother of where my money goes (eg, do i REALLY need that mag in the shop??.., NO!!) and the mother of everything i do.

what is annoying is some apps such as ProTools, though beautiful in its simplicity.., are considered A MUST to know in post work.., but could use many other apps with more functionality to do the same job quicker.., I often flow between apps at uni doing post sound to use tools it does not have, apps like Premier are fine but its like.., we HAVE to use AVID or HAVE to use FCP..,

so, I HAVE to buy them..?? bbaaahh user added image

(they are good, and i did buy them, but i often feel its just the name, while cheaper can do the work as well or better).., though i guess with FCP 2 s new 'pro ress 422 (by memory) codec' and the new cameras such as the red camera.., well, if one wants to play with HD then one has to play with FCP.., again.., necessity!

whats your needs??

CT.., as for modo.., i have seen some tuts too and was very impressed.., thats not the free app is it.., thats blender I think.

my picot.., necessity s the answer to all questions asked..

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 98 12-10-2007 , 09:27 PM

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Theres some great uv mapping tools in maya ithat do what you were describing, theres even a video on it, its the UV Unfold option, you select a series of edges do a uv cut, then select the UVs you want it to use as the unwrap, hit unfold and your pretty much there, just need to relax overalpping areas and your done.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 99 12-10-2007 , 09:56 PM

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Where is this video that shows how to select an edge and then unfold a model? I found one on using the lattice and unfold tool but the does not unwrap a model. The model is already unfolded and the lattice just straightens it out and unfold relaxes the uv's.

It was a DT free tutorial. I searched all over and could find nothing on a modo like unfolding tool in maya where you can select the edges you want to unwrap and then autounwrap the model like modo.

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# 100 13-10-2007 , 01:25 AM

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It was on Autodesks area site, in one of the blogs there, its avido showing workflows etc.

Also have a look in the help files as it goes over the Unfold option with a rino (think its that) as an example.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 101 13-10-2007 , 06:06 AM

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Originally posted by ctbram
Speaking of other packages like xsi and max, has anyone taken a look at the new modo 301?

Originally Posted by

I can't hang with Modo in general and I've tried several times. If you're used to Maya, it's really like starting from scratch and re-examining and re-developing your workflow. It's one of those programs that looks so easy when other folks are doing it but when you sit down to model anything, it's debilitating, to me anyways. I do admire Silo quite a bit for organic/character modeling. Its workflow is hard to beat, especially when it comes to selections.

Maya 2008 has some nice features but as far as upgrading from Maya 7...I don't know. Modeling-wise, I'm using the same tools I've always used. Being able to select and insert loops/rings is nice but scripts have been around that allowed this in earlier versions. The other stuff I can't comment too much on as I haven't tried any of the nucleus stuff. There's always shave and a haircut and syflex cloth. Unless there's an express *need* to upgrade as part of a pipeline, I don't see any reason to, really.

"Terminat Bora Diem, Terminal Auctor opus."

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# 102 13-10-2007 , 10:00 AM

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Thanks for the pointers on maya and uv unfold. I will check out the resources.

Update: 10/16 7:52pm
I checked out the autodesk area and I cannot find anything on maya uv unfolding. If you do a search on /ALL maya/ANY level/UV/ you get 2 hits (lol). I guess that says something in it self. Do you have an actual link?

I'll check the help inside maya 2008 and see what it says. But I doubt it will be useful. What I need to see is a real step by step tutorial or something.

Last edited by ctbram; 13-10-2007 at 10:42 AM.

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# 103 13-10-2007 , 06:30 PM

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I've had a look for the link but cant find it, Ive got the video downloaded to my PC but its 54 meg long, I think it was something to do with the bonus tools set although the UV unfold is NOT a bonus tool, it was just thrown in the show how to use it.

If you want a step by step tutorial or Something, then look in the help file, it goes over it.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 104 14-10-2007 , 11:46 AM

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hasnt it been like that since 8.5.., pick an edge.., seperate.., then hit relax UVs..?? its not new in 2008.

demonstrated in the EXTERIOR digi tut.., the street scene.., that where I first saw it.

take it easy and life will be easy

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# 105 14-10-2007 , 03:06 PM

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Originally posted by mirek03
hasnt it been like that since 8.5.., pick an edge.., seperate.., then hit relax UVs..?? its not new in 2008.

Originally Posted by

Yup it has I was just saying the workflow fir the unfold UV options (thats been in since version 7 it think) as CTbram was asking about a tool similar to what he saw in a modo tutorial. so its off the point of the 2008 impressions.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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