I'm diving (back) into Maya 3D

Lalilulelo

2008 version, only took one semester of it in college
So I'm trying to teach myself this shit so I can be more marketable.
First thing I did, picking up with what I know and before I jump into serious tutorials and the book I have, was modeling a helmet from Stronghold. Anyone here who does Maya work, please dive right into this.

immilesaway

chamfer your edges... is there a sketch to go along with this model or your just kinda winging it?

Lalilulelo

No I'm winging it.
Also, I don't know what chamfer means. what function are you referring to?

Note: I haven't finished the underside of the helmet at all. This is a stopping point, really.

also- smooth shading rounds out everything, but what do you do when you want some edges to be rigid?

Apothe0sis

Lalilulelo wrote: »

also- smooth shading rounds out everything, but what do you do when you want some edges to be rigid?

You Chamfer them.

Back in the day Maya had the Bevel edges tool, which you could employ for such a task, but I think that a for real chamfer tool has been added in recent versions.

EDIT: Alternatively you can use the fold vertices tool if you're using the right primitives and smoothing, which achieves the same thing, I think.

It's been a while.

Angel_of_Bacon

In Maya terminology (at least in Maya 7, which is what I use), your bevel edges and you chamfer vertices. It just means widening out a point or edge into a face using a face. If you select an edge/vert and shift+right-click, you'll see the option.

To get hard edges, you can either select your whole model and shift+right-click and select the soften/harden edge>soften/harden option box. This lets you put in an angle, at which point the edges will turn from soft to hard- this is a pretty quick way of doing things. Or, if you want to set them manually, you can select specific edges you want to be hard, shift+right-click, and select soften/harden edge>harden edge.

Lalilulelo

Thanks dudes and dudette. I'm jumping between this (Maya) and working on issue 6 of the book. So I haven't touched it in a couple of days. Will resume it soon though.

Is there a way to select an edge loop once it's been split into subdivisions or do you have to select each edge every time?
What do those 'S's mean that show up around your model?

Sihu

The S, if I remember right, means that the soft select mode is on, and I think it you delete your history it'll clear them up for you.

As for the model itself, it's a good start! I'd recommend hardening some of the edges around the visor part of it to really clean things up and help define areas. It's a good habit to get into using the hotbox menu, and both harden and soften edges are in there. Keep going!

immilesaway

i figured chamfer was a technique in maya. i use 2d studio max. shouldn't be that much of a difference in terms.

plus, you probably shouldn't wing it, should probably know what you want to do first, unless your really good. which you said you've only taken 1 semester... Its not impossible, but gluck finding free "good" tutorials.

Lalilulelo

Well I knew what I wanted to do first and I've drawn this particular design a thousand times which is why I went with it. And it's a simple enough object that I wouldn't end up gouging my eyes out. (see: comic in sig) so It was just a matter of sculpting half of it and then mirroring it, to get the form down and going from there.
Here's an update.

Kewop Decam

You can chamfer edges (Maya this is beveling) or you can use supporting edges.

Here's an example

Big image.
http://www.bentateonline.com/Tut_Videos/Understanding_Support_Edge_Placement_BenTate.jpg

Lalilulelo

Hey that's pretty helpful. thanks.