Maya 2020 fundamentals - modelling the real world
Get halfway through a model and find it's an unworkable mess? Can't add edge loops where you need them? Can't subdivide a mesh properly? If any of this sounds familiar check this course out.
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1
10-04-2011
, 09:28 PM
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Poser Characters in Maya 2011
I have to say the more I learn about Maya 2011 the more I like. There are many great tutorials out there and I'm getting to the point where I have a film grasp of the basic concepts and controls.
Now, what I would really love is to use my extensive V4 M4 A4 library, including clothing and morphs from Carrara.
I have played around with various export options from C8 and found I could get a fully morphed, and clothed character model into Maya 2011 (no textures), but there are no working skeleton in there and the clothing is not attached to the skin.
I will keep you all informed of my progress and hopefully some of you who know how to do this could respond to this.
Cheers!
-----I have just watched a DT tutorial on rigging characters for production and it seems like if I can get the model into maya I should be able to bind the skin to a rig or use an auto-rigging script I will try this and let you know how it goes in the next few days ----
Last edited by me2011; 10-04-2011 at 09:30 PM.
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2
14-04-2011
, 07:04 PM
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I do get the impression there is some experienced person out there who could answer this question very easily but alas, its every person for themselves......,
I am using the trial for Poser 8 Pro and I can get fully textured nude models into Maya. It also appears that you can separate the head from the rest of the welded mesh (or you can export all the separate bodyparts) which would be great for facial animation software. I also plan to use a autorig script in Maya for the rest of the body so I should be good to go.
Does this make sense anyone out there? I am sure I'm missing a whole lot!!!!
Boy, everyone was so helpful in the Carrara forums when that was my platform of choice. There where so many people with quick responses for questions. I guess since Maya is a pro software platform everyone here treats any information like trade secrets....,, such is life.
I will get to the bottom of this and will share with those of use who want to use Maya to tell stories in small teams or solo. Maya tutorials seem so focused on modeling everything you use which is kind of weird to me. I don't want to learn how to model when there are so many people more talented than me doing it. Those poser models look so nice and there are so many of them, I find it hard to believe there is no established pipeline to get these models (unrigged) into Maya.
Why don't I want to learn how to model my own characters?
Do you need a license to drive a car? YES (legally at least)
Do you need a mechanics license to drive a car? No but it helps to know how the car works.
How many people driving cars have a mechanics license? A veryyyyy small percentage.
I'm not saying what I'm doing is the right way, but its is a way.
Last edited by me2011; 14-04-2011 at 07:08 PM.
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3
14-04-2011
, 07:38 PM
The thin red line
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I think the problem you have is that not meny people on this site use poser. Most are modellers and make there own model. I did import a poser model into lightwave but found the mesh was to detailed to be used for animation and I think the mesh was made of tris not quads. If poser can export a low mesh and high mesh of the same model (in quads) that would be useful. You can find some skeletons in the visor directory.......dave
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4
15-04-2011
, 02:16 PM
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This brings up an interesting point.Hi me2011
...,If poser can export a low mesh and high mesh of the same model (in quads) that would be useful. You can find some skeletons in the visor directory.......dave
I have read that using Carrara or Daz to export the models makes for a huge model that uses the same texture map 35 TIMES (not intstances but the same map!) for some very inefficient reason that makes sense in those other programs.
In my preliminary exports from Poser the M4 V4 K4 models are very small in size and loads fast- Test renders of close ups look amazing without even trying. I really think this effort is worth it, at least for me. The problem is how to export the whole body and clothing with textures as one mesh that only needs to be rigged, and there a re lots of auto rigging programs that do that, but first things first- figure out how to export those sexy V4M4A4S4H4 Daz/Poser models and get them into Maya 2011!!
I will pay for custom models to be made, but after watching a 7 hour tutorial from Digital Tutors, I would not need all that work done for all the characters I would need for my animation work.
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5
15-04-2011
, 04:40 PM
The thin red line
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6
15-04-2011
, 08:52 PM
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this would be a great model if I was doing an alien movie...., The two screengrabs look so good in comparison to a Carrara render it makes me crazy.
It also appears that all the seperate parts of the texture need to be parented, welded, or grouped together. I tried grouping and parenting but I'm not sure where to go from there.
Any advice?
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7
15-04-2011
, 08:57 PM
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What is a "Avatar Challenge? Mr. Dave"Can poser export a FBX file? if so try that...........dave
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8
15-04-2011
, 09:17 PM
EduSciVis-er
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The avatar challenge was a modelling challenge a while back that Dave won. The current challenge is game characters.
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9
15-04-2011
, 09:35 PM
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My main problem is that I don't know what I'm doing. LOL!What do you mean by the textures needing to be grouped together? Is your problem the black areas on the face? Can you check the face normal direction and also check the UV texture editor to see how the texture corresponds to the mesh? Post a screenshot of the latter if you don't mind.
The avatar challenge was a modelling challenge a while back that Dave won. The current challenge is game characters.
I will figure it out eventually but I just want to put this out there to see if I'm going in the right direction.
As you can see in the 1st picture I uploaded above, the imported model is in a bunch of different sections so how do I combine them together so I can then apply a bone rig. I also think there is already a bone rig in the imported character model, How do I take that out? I can seem to select it.
Last edited by me2011; 15-04-2011 at 09:42 PM.
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10
15-04-2011
, 10:24 PM
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I just deleted the mesh that was creating the black brow but I don't know how that would affect the model....,
Anyways Its obvious I need to read /do tutorial on character modelling. The one thing I kind of dislike is how the models in the tutorials I have seen are always cartoonish. I think it would be very beneficial to see a human character model being made, even if I never make a maya human model and just get them made for me.
Dos someone have a good character modeling tutorial for me?
Anyways, here is the photo. I took a look at the eyes inthe uv editor and I don't know how to adjust then to see the eyes though.... BOOOO for me!!!
ANyways, thanks all for your help so far.
Maya makes these models look so great!!!
Another thing- I got poser to output a solid obj that imports to maya but is all red in color. How would I put the texture on the face, hair and clothing?
Last edited by me2011; 15-04-2011 at 10:28 PM.
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11
16-04-2011
, 01:15 AM
EduSciVis-er
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If that's not it, check the normals. Try selecting an eye: Normals > Reverse
If the single obj mesh isn't UV mapped (it should like not like a mess in the UV editor) you'll have to do that (a pain) but if it is, then you should be able to piece the existing textures together in Photoshop, possibly, and apply it to the whole mesh. Hope that helps.
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12
16-04-2011
, 01:16 AM
EduSciVis-er
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If that's not it, check the normals. Try selecting an eye: Normals > Reverse
If the single obj mesh isn't UV mapped (it should like not like a mess in the UV editor) you'll have to do that (a pain) but if it is, then you should be able to piece the existing textures together in Photoshop, possibly, and apply it to the whole mesh. Hope that helps.
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13
16-04-2011
, 02:50 AM
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This is amazing! I really feel like I'm moving forward now. I tooK your instructions and started playing around with the model and its starting to make sense to me. I figured out that the textures are in the right place, but when Maya imports the model it takes stuff it doesn't understand and turns it into a black blinn. In the case of my poser model a transparent layer to make the eyes shiny was turned black- all I did was slide the transparency up to full and I can see the light!!!Couple options for the eyes, since there was a mesh under the black brow, you could try deleting the "outer" eyes if there are any.
If that's not it, check the normals. Try selecting an eye: Normals > Reverse
If the single obj mesh isn't UV mapped (it should like not like a mess in the UV editor) you'll have to do that (a pain) but if it is, then you should be able to piece the existing textures together in Photoshop, possibly, and apply it to the whole mesh. Hope that helps.
Next stop the eyelashes and hair. In Carrara the eyelashes are sometimes a problem too.
Thank you!
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14
18-04-2011
, 09:39 PM
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I have just started some tutorials re: texturing / UVs / shading networks. When I emerge out the other end of this potential quagmire (giggidy!) of confusing information (to me at least) I will let you know how we can apply this info to those beautiful poser models and kidnap them into MAYA.
I suspect this is one of those things that if you know you are not going to share the info becasue its very valuable, or its too time consuming for people that already know how to build models for themselves so they rather go with what they know.....,
Only TIME......., will tell!
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15
18-04-2011
, 10:11 PM
The thin red line
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Its called the basics, you need to know them in any package, use them maya help line and search here as much as you can then if you are stuck ask here............dave
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