Does Maya Have A "Thicken" Tool?

# 1 15-11-2011 , 03:41 PM

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Does Maya have a "Thicken" Tool? If not what feature in Maya will allow me to thicken polygons.

Thanks in advance user added image

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# 2 15-11-2011 , 05:25 PM

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yes. Thicken was added in 2011 I think. However, do not dispare if you do not have it as it only works about 10% of the time. Most of the time when I have tried to use it random verts will go shooting off into space. In the end I end up just moving everything along the normals (z-axis for extrude).

For extrude there has always been a offset and of course for added thickness extruding along the normal (which is the z-axis for some reason) has always been the way to add thickness in Maya. In 2011 or 2012 they added a gimpy version of thicken (I was very excited to see it added) but very quickly became disheartened as it very rarely works properly. I have put in at least half a dozen bug reports on thicken alone.

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

Last edited by ctbram; 15-11-2011 at 05:28 PM.

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# 3 15-11-2011 , 06:07 PM

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Daggomitt

I have Maya 2010 not 11

Ok here's what's bothering me as I go through this user added image

. Why is it that if Maya is behind the 8 ball of what Modo can do with the tools that get us to the finish line faster. Why is it that companies trip like this about Maya only. It makes no sense to me at all.

I mean I am not trying to complain here but my God the industry out there is blindsided about what Modo really is in comparison to the modeling features from one packet to the next. WOW!

Last edited by PenPixels; 15-11-2011 at 06:12 PM.

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# 4 15-11-2011 , 06:52 PM

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Dunno.....if you can just offset your extruded mesh a bit(as per thickness) and then bridge the two borders.....Maybe this helps

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# 5 15-11-2011 , 07:37 PM

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So of you were creating a pipeline what else would you use?

You would model in Modo, what would you use before and after that?
This could be fun, maybe we should make a new thread.

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# 6 15-11-2011 , 07:58 PM

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honestdom-

That would make an interesting thread indeed. However I am on a timer and this employer turns his head to Modo but favors Maya so I m here at the moment to get a few models done by translating what I already know about while modeling with Maya. i happen to think the two would work very well together from a users point of view. However there are companies out there that ignores Modo altogether.

I've talk with several of them already. They like my modeling but they want to see what I can do in Maya.

another thing I am very curious about is once I get to the rendering part. What am I in for. I hear that you can't just rely on Maya as a render you need something else.

Is this true? What is Maya like when it's time to render I wonder.

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# 7 15-11-2011 , 08:17 PM

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Maya was state of the art ten years ago and as much as I rag on it, it still has all the basic modeling tools you need. There are many reasons why Maya's modeling tools are lacking tools found in packages like Modo and Max and I have mentioned a few. What Maya does offer that Modo and other packages do not is support for the entire production pipeline (as HD eludes too).

I would like to see Maya's modeling tools brought out of the dark ages and I honestly think autodesk might do it. The problem as I see currently is they inherited Maya from alias and as a programmer myself I can tell you trying to update someone elses code simply put sucks ass! I spoke to some contacts I know at autodesk that came over from SGI and apparently one of the reason Maya 2012 is so freaking ridiculously unstable is that they are making significant changes to the core routines. Once these are done and stable as I hear it they plan update the modeling tools. We have already seen some of the modeling features of Max incorporated. It is my hope that they might look at newer packages like Modo and incorporate some of its tools. I also believe plugins like Nex or its feature set should be added to the base Maya package, like they added the graphite tools to Max.

Until then Maya is what it is. I continue to use it bugs and all and I do not use any of the other pipeline features so I really could care less about them. I know they are important in a production environment but I do not use them, however, I continue to use Maya because I have become accustomed to its user interface and I have through practice, head banging, cursing, and fits of rage figured out how to do almost anything that I can do in Modo. For the few things I cannot I import to Modo and back to Maya. I even jump in and out of Max and Lightwave. Every package has a couple nice features that can make life easier.

Still waiting for NextLimit to get on the ball and incorporate them all into a single package as he is the resident programming guru!

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

Last edited by ctbram; 15-11-2011 at 08:22 PM.

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# 8 15-11-2011 , 08:35 PM

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Interesting indeed.

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# 9 16-11-2011 , 04:24 PM

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Thanks for the info ctbram.....i never knew it.!! Used to just blame around autodesk for making maya as well unstable........now i'll remember that user added image

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# 10 16-11-2011 , 05:06 PM

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Rick could you tell us your best tools from each package.............dave

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# 11 16-11-2011 , 05:41 PM

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That end up being a good read. Thanks for the heads up on the news for Maya modeling tools.

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# 12 16-11-2011 , 05:59 PM

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Wow! I started to do a reply and got to about 6 pages of stuff and realized this might be a better topic in a fresh thread.

I will try to split it up into the three entertainment packages I have the most experience with Maya, Max, and Modo.

I use Lightwave from time to time and have dabbled with blender and student and trial versions of half a dozen others..

I think most will agree that Maya probably is the best overall package and is why it is so popular in commercial studios. It has a really nice and to me intuitive user interface. Based on other packages I have used I find it has the fewest button press to action ratio and really nice feel to the camera navigation. For modeling it offers almost nothing above what you have in all the other packages. It is very basic. In an odd sort of way this can be a blessing. With other packages (especially Max) I have gotten lost in the what seems like endless list of stack modifiers and side screen menus.

Nurbs and curves used to be an advantage in my view (but my professional background was nurbs surface modeling). But now both Max and Modo have a very powerful and arguably more intuitive spline system. There have been a couple posts recently from someone transitioning to Maya where it is clear extruding shapes along splines and making shapes from spline is far simpler and more powerful in Max. In his case you could still acheive the same result in Maya but it was a much more convoluted solution.

Max has better precision, much larger modeling tool set with much more control over pivots and edge and vert movement. Things like make planar for instance is very difficult to achieve with precision in Maya. The addition of the graphite tools (a set of Nex like plugins) was added to the base package in 2011. Things like pattern selection (not as powerful as Modo) but light years ahead of Maya. For hard surface modeling I would argue Max beats Maya easily because of all the features to control vert, edges, and faces that in Maya you just have to do by feel.

Modo has the best modeling and subd modeling tools and I would argue that to the death! The new pixar subd's almost made me ditch Maya once and for all. But I hate the feel of the modo camera navigation. It just feels unnatural and the UI is dark and I have trouble seeing details. The cut and paste concept had gotten me so bewildered I had to trash an entire days work because I could not figure out how to get a shit ton of stuff I pasted into a layer out. These are all things that with time would not be a big deal though. Modo is more stable then Maya and a little less stable then Max. A short list of tools in Modo that blow both Maya and Max away....

-Action centers (like soft selection on steroids) Max has something better then Maya but not near Modo
-Remarkable pivot and axis controls
-surface constaints like making a surface live but you can push other surfaces onto the constrained surface (I pop in and out of Modo ALL the time for this feature!). For hard surface modeling I cannot live without it. You can kinda use make live but it is extremely tedious.
-adpative sub division that actually works!
-automatic pattern selection. pick any combination of edges or faces or vert and just press the up arrow to repeat the pattern
-built in asset management. You have to buy very expensive third part solutions for this in Maya. How many times have you just rebuilt the same dohicky because you could not find one the fifteen you had built already? With modo reset libraries assembling things with out recreating the wheel is very powerful.
-built in sculpting tools, short of mudbox and zbrush but way beyond maya's turn you mesh into a lumpy bumpy mess sculpting tool.

There is a butt ton more, I just don't have the time and need to sit down and jot them down. This is already getting ridiculously long and I apologize.

That is all I should say in this thread. I will think on writing a feature by feature list in a new thread if I get some time.

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

Last edited by ctbram; 16-11-2011 at 06:15 PM.

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# 13 16-11-2011 , 08:52 PM

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Wow thanks for that. Again I am having issues with getting this hat I am building in Maya to "Thicken"

Thia means I will have to curve an entire edge to wrap around the edge of this hat I am building just to hide the under side of the polygons. Daggblasted user added image

Thicken tool not being here I Maya.

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# 14 16-11-2011 , 09:30 PM

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Pixar SubDs??? I thought maya had those anyway. I used those for years. I take it you are referring to Catmull - Clarks?? Which is the basis of Pixars Subds and still the best.

Max,Max,Max...I hear it has some good shit in there, but half of it is plugins....does the base package offer much in terms of modelling?

Modo: I wish I had....lovely stuff

The one thing that bugs me about Maya is that if you want something and you cant find it, it makes you think its not there....but it is, its just under the hood in the core waitng for some td to dig it out for you like vertex reordering scripts!!!

oh yeah!!

Maya is the best purely because of its flexibility, to tell it what to do and make custom tools thru mel and python etc. This is why its industry standard.

Rick is right about the programme from the Alias days. Its had the odd bit added here and there, but the fur hasnt really been touch nor the sculpting tools, even pfx could do with a workout. What happened to mudbox being incorporated into it.....?? that rumour was soon vanquished.

ahh Maya...we love to hate you!! LOL

J

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