Help a Newbie

# 1 23-04-2005 , 05:11 PM

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I'm an ABSOLUTE NOOBIE!!!!
I need some help here...
I want to know wether I should first learn mostly how to model in polygons, NURBS, or Subdivisions. I have been messing around in maya and made a little mess of a polygonal "fomula 1" car. It resembles an alien spacecraft. It's not supposed to, but thats not the point. What should I do to learn the basics of Maya? Also, i need help to understand the uses of IK handles and those things. I managed to make a pretty smooth animated hand without them, using just joints. Another question: to model a car, should I use nurbs or polygons? or subdivisions? I'm sorry, but a newbie's gotta learn... so please be kind enough to respond to this and lend a helping hand. Thanks!
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# 2 23-04-2005 , 06:50 PM

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start with poly, then nurbs then subdiv

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# 3 23-04-2005 , 06:56 PM

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Thanks, I'll do that!

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# 4 24-04-2005 , 06:02 PM

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this is probably the best I can do. heres a picture. It sux but im a noobie and i'm learning. plus, the model took about 2 hours so far, but i dont have the patience to sit in front of the computer all day and model or animate or whatever, so the quality of my models and animations is gonna be poor.

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# 5 25-04-2005 , 08:32 AM

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Howdy MattTheMan,

I would say that you should begin to learn to model with polys first and then move your way across to the others as mentioned above by metallicjet66.

I would also suggest that you model a few models first before you venture into the world of animation. user added image

It will greatly help you in the long run if you can learn to model a character for animation, ie...to know where to put in that extra bit of detail so that the character deforms properley, get into the habit of using reference images, I can't stress enough about it (IMO) Reference is key to proportionalised and accurate models. Looking at your pic, I can definately see that you have the potential to get there, so just keep at it and you will get there user added image

MainlineX

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# 6 25-04-2005 , 07:32 PM

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Thanks

thanks man, i'l take yer advice. i dun think i got much potential but w/e... so thanks anyways!
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# 7 25-04-2005 , 07:47 PM

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Hey MattTheMan
I agree with both of the other guys about how you should approach modeling, it is how I started and it makes a lot of sense.
Don't think you don't have potential. Maya, and computer graphics isn't exaclty easy. I've been working with Maya for only a couple months, and things are still hard, but bit by bit i'm getting it. So don't give up you can do a lot if you just keep trying.
Good Luck and have fun with Maya!

David

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# 8 25-04-2005 , 08:04 PM

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thnx

thanks ya'll u r an inspiration! i know i might be stepping it up instead of 1 notch, something like 1029498712394 notches by doing this, but i am modeling a human head with NURBS. I found this pretty cool tutorial to do this. Oh, by the way, have any of ya'll heard of that Blast Code? That thing i awesome!!!! i dont have a great comp, so it runs kinda- lemme rephrase that - VERY laggy, but it is sweet with playblast. One more question that I would like help with. My playblast is messing up. It is stopping around the 10th frame. It really sux cuz if I have a really loaded scene, i need playblast to even view my animations. Any suggestions? :?

Thanks anyways!
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# 9 25-04-2005 , 08:19 PM

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I think it was mentioned a while ago that this is a windows error its happened to me on my windows XP Pro SP1 but not on my laptop which windows XP Home SP2 so that might be the issue
What OS are you running

(anyone correct me if I am wrong)

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# 10 25-04-2005 , 09:01 PM

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windows XP proffesional

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# 11 30-04-2005 , 07:26 PM

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...

I have learned some techniques for modeling in NURBS so now I will start learning that. My which I shuld learn first question is solved. Now I would like to solve my playblast problem, I should like to learn how to use inverse kinematics and I need help on how to texture. Thanks all ya'll on your help so far!
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