newbie student 2nd maya project, would like some feedback

# 1 18-11-2011 , 10:31 PM

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newbie student 2nd maya project, would like some feedback

Hi,
I’m taking an intro level maya class. I’m creating a beer keg, mostly with the revolve tool. I've imported outlines from illustrator. I used the boolean tool to knock out the handles but they don't look right at the moment.

I'd like to get it accurate and the handles on the top bit of the keg are a bit because the metal is bent or curled in around the edges..

The top bit needs to be one sheet of metal and the handles need to be sort of curled inwards.

Here is an example of what I am talking about and what I have done so far as well as a picture of and actual keg which is what I'm aiming for.

keg example

If i redo the top bit to be just one thin skin then add extra geometry around the holes i cold probably extrude and rotate the inside edges of the handles. But i saw a tool that was called edge curl or edge roll back or something... Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

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# 2 18-11-2011 , 10:36 PM

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Have you got a close up wire shot............dave

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# 3 19-11-2011 , 03:09 PM

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hi i'll post up a wifeframe on monday or tuesday when i can get back to class. thanks.

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# 4 19-11-2011 , 06:53 PM

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You just need to extrude an edge up for the inner handle bit you have circled. When you smooth it will be rounded.

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

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# 5 19-11-2011 , 10:15 PM

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k thanks. I will give it a go.

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# 6 19-11-2011 , 11:27 PM

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here's how i made the holes for the handles.
made a rectangle polygon, then applied a bevel to it.
then i did a boolean. For some reason i thought it made the geometry around the holes a bit weird for an extrude.

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# 7 20-11-2011 , 12:14 AM

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Here is a workflow that might give you some ideas that I hope will help you out...

Boolean is probably not the best approach, especially if you are just starting out with Maya.

howto beerKegGeo - YouTube

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

Last edited by ctbram; 20-11-2011 at 12:54 AM.

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# 8 20-11-2011 , 02:50 PM

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CT all I can say is wow. That is going to really get me started modelling properly. I won't be back in front of a machine with maya on it for a couple days but will let you know how I get on. Thanks so much. BTW I'm originally from Livonia Mi user added image

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# 9 21-11-2011 , 06:57 PM

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hi

hi CT,
I've only got to the first part of the tut and allready i need assistance...
Anyway when i extrude the small circle around the larger one it looks a bit wonky.
Check ou the image below. Could you tell me what the rest of the attributes in your circle extrude dialogue box were, i mean the ones that you have to scroll down to see..
Also are you using maya 2012 in your example, the cvs on the circles look a little different when they are selected on your example.
thanks again
Kevin

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# 10 21-11-2011 , 07:05 PM

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sure, I mention that in the video. The big circle has 6-segment so you get the 6-segment wonky tube. Now the tube has history. Select the big circle and then from the edit curves menu pick rebuild curve. check uniform and 0-spans and then set the number of cv's to 30. When you rebuild the nurbs circle the tube that was created from it will also update and become a nice 30-segment tube. I wanted to demonstrate how history works and that is why I did it in two steps like this.

Watch the video again as I covered this and there may be some other good bits in there for you. For instance you are going to want to make sure the tube is a polygon and not a nurbs tube.

Yes, I am using 2012. I have an option for nurbs curves that places an x at all the curve points. It helps when demonstrating stuff. The setting is window>setting and preferences>preferences>nurbs>new curves>edit points

and don't be discouraged it's all daunting at first but I truly believe Maya has one of the most intuitive ui's and you'll quickly catch on to the work flows. Learning proper workflow is the key. I learned by watching lots of video tutorials.

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

Last edited by ctbram; 21-11-2011 at 07:13 PM.

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# 11 21-11-2011 , 11:57 PM

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Hi,
I understand about adding the other segments. but is the six sided shape supposed to look like the one above? it looks off to me.
Thanks again.

I mean does that shape look alright? If so I can continue on myself but it looks off to me.

Last edited by kvnmcwebn; 22-11-2011 at 12:14 AM.

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# 12 22-11-2011 , 03:30 AM

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yep. If you look at the one in the video I made it was also wonky. For some odd reason Maya has its own idea of what "profile normal" means. You can clearly see for only 6 segments the profile curve is clearly not normal to the path curve at the 6 segments and the solution for this (if you wanted a 6 segment tube) would be to manually go in and make the verts normal to the path curve at all 6 segments.

Now if you made the path curve into a 1-degree curve (ie a hexagon) and extruded the profile ends up at the correct angle at each segment except the start/end one ends up off.

It's just a limitation that has been around for a while and shows how bad maya's nurbs and curve tools are. However as you add more segments the error gets smaller and as you can see with 30 segments the profile curve becomes normal to the path at all 30 segments.

I can swear I mention that in the video. That is I point out the extruded 6-segment tube is wonky because of the small number of segments?

An alternate way to do this is to revolve a circle but the path method works you just have to understand that there is a limit at the lower bounds for how many segments you can have and still get a proper extrusion. It's one of the things in Maya that will make you insane if you dwell on it to much because it is unlikely they are going to ever fix it.

The red lines show what I would consider "profile normal" at each of those segment positions.

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Last edited by ctbram; 22-11-2011 at 08:49 AM.

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# 13 22-11-2011 , 11:07 AM

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Ah yes you did mention it looked wonky but i thought you just meant that that it wasn't round. As you were in perspective view i didn't notice that weird offset in the corners. That would have driven me mad but now that I understand it's a bug no problem. All software has them. BTW i really see the efficiency of this method. It lets you control the geometry more than say using a revolve or a taurus. I won't be back in front of a machine until thursday now but will finish it up then. Thanks a million.

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# 14 01-12-2011 , 07:41 PM

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stuck

hi ct,
I'm stuck again, this time on the offset extrude. It is not extruding the faces as one unit and I can't figure out what setting I need to change. See attached. Learning a lot from this just trying to fit it in between my projects. thanks again -

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