Software: maya
Subject: modeling with polygons
Notes: fairly simple model but issues were in how to make finger nails and adding details I will be taking this model up one more step and practice rigging it . Okies 4.5-5 hours spent but i now know how to make finger nails woohoo.

Maya: Grimoire

Software: Maya
Subject: imaginary book for my animated clip
Reference images: olympic medal, ornate books.
Issues: lol plenty I couldn't figure out how to "cut" metal so I left it as a square. The metal filigree omg that took me 1-2 hours to do! I took a cylinder or pipe and hand curled it.

Time: 8-9 hours!

maya nurbs portrait

Software: maya
subject self portrait (using nurbs)
comments: WTF? okies this needs alot of work. but it does sort of look like McCain with it's lumpy jaw.

maya: modeling

software: maya 2008
suject chapter 4: modeling

Yea book 3 so this is starting to look familiar. Book: maya 4.5 by john kundert-gibs and peter lee ISP 0782141099. I really like this book it assumes nothing and explains everything in layman words. Note: this book was published in 2003 aka 5 years ago but i like it's way of explaining stuff.

Software: Maya 2008
Subject: Animation: curves, coloring, texture, lighting, stretching, squashing, gravity, and impulse and animation of course.

Comments: Okies i took a 2 week maya break and now i'm back. this was a very simple rocket using curves and resolved shapes the main focus was the animation. I actually had alot of fun watching my own creation.. you know flying a rocket for the first and accidentally crashing it! Wow for the first time maya was actually fun!

I even got to fiddle a little bit with movie making. That i didn't want to get too caught up but i mastered the basics so i could upload stuff as later on i'll be wanting to make mini clips and upload those to youtube. It does look like i need to pickup more movie making skills .. there's no way to shoot an animation w/o it.



My very first animation too! complete with sound track and edits

Maya Problem - no textures!

New thing learned!! my invisible textures!! 2d extures wouldn't show up .. duh #6 is called turn on textures.

Tea Kettle: NURBS

Software: Maya
Subject: original Tea Kettle
Issues: too many to count. but here it your basic tea kettle this one I paid more attention to ti's detail and tried to be true to the original.

ORIGINAL REFERENCE PHOTO

lazy kettle

Completed: Nurbs Red Rocket

Software: Maya 2008
Subject: Red Rocket - Nurbs Modeling

I perfected the nice smooth wheel bump which is a profile curve and lofting.

Issues: (solved) Stitching Nurb Edges -- Maya kept crashing and giving me the Fatal Error. Attempting to save to C://xyx. I tried a few things upgraded video card driver, then created a simple sphere and lofted some surfaces and tried just about every combo out there to stich and see if it crashes or not. It's not like i can skip the stiching tool because to manually move vertexes would be a nightmare.

Solution: upgrade videocard driver. All stuffs being stictched must meet these criteria: all NURBS, curves that is entirely of one type either profile or regular but not a mix. Maybe number of loft span should equal the span amount being stitched.

Nurbs Modeling: Red Rocket

Software: Maya 2008
Subject: Nurbs Modeling - Red Rocket
Lesson: Editing nurbs sufrace, project curve on surface, trimp and untrim surfaces, attach surfaces, detach surfaces, insert isoparms.

Issues .. lol like everything. There were a few small discreptancies between the book and what i needed. Ex. Book would say front view while all i had to work with was top and side views or it would say on Y axis and clearly that can't be right. Also there were a few places where the book said use 6 spans in a sphere while i counted thier example and it was more like 16 spans.

Issue #2 i'm still having trouble with the wheel cover .. my curve isn't working so will continue work on the cover but otherwise this is at 95% completion.

Time: 2 days

Maya: Keyboard Short Cuts

Hi hi,
Okies this is particular post is both for my own convenience and sanity. I use this shortcut menu to figure out how to get my menus back because I accidentally press enough keys to lose my UI, menu bar, more UI parts .. and then have to spend time googling for help to get it back. This is one of those really basic problems that is so low that you won't find it in any helpfile yet its important just the same.

---------------------------------------
May 16 2008
Maya keyboard shortcuts

Published by admin at 5:47 pm under 3D Modeling, Maya, Technology, productivity, software

To verify or change any of the following shortcuts in Autodesk Maya (8.5 and 2008):

Window -> Settings / Preferences -> Hotkey Editor

SNAPPING OPERATIONS
c Snap to curves
x Snap to grids
v Snap to points
j Move, Rotate, Scale Tool snapping
Shft+J Move, Rotate, Scale Tool relative snapping

PAINTING OPERATIONS
Alt+f Flood with the current value
Alt+a Turn Show Wireframe on/off
Alt+c Turn Color Feedback on/off
Alt+r Toggle Reflection on/off
u+LMB Artisan Paint Operation marking menu
b Modify upper brush radius
Shft+B Modify lower brush radius
Ctrl+b Edit Paint Effects template brush settings
i Modify Artisan brush Stamp Depth
m Modify Max Displacement (Of Sculpt Surfaces and Sculpt Polygons Tool)
n Modify Value
/ Switch to pick colour mode
‘ Select cluster mode (Of Paint Weights Tool )
8 Open Paint Effects panel
o+LMB Poly Brush Tool marking menu
o+MMB Poly UV Tool marking menu

TUMBLE, TRACK or DOLLY
Alt+LMB Tumble Tool
Alt+MMB Track Tool
Alt+RMB Dolly Tool

DISPLAY
4 Shading > Wireframe
5 Shaded display
6 Shaded and Textured display
7 Lighting > Use All Lights
d+LMB Display Quality marking menu
1 Low Quality Display setting
2 Medium Quality Display setting
3 High Quality Display settin

DISPLAYING OBJECTS (show, hide)
Ctrl+h Display > Hide > Hide Selection
Ctrl+Shft+H Display > Show > Show Last Hidden
Alt+h Display > Hide > Hide Unselected Objects
Shft+I Show > Isolate Select > View Selected

TOOL OPERATIONS
Return Complete current tool
~ Abort current tool
Insert Enter tool Edit mode
Shft menu+Q Select Tool
Shft menu+Q+LMB Component marking
Alt+q Select tool
Alt+q+LMB Polygon marking menu
q+LMB Mask marking menu
w Move tool
w+LMB Move tool marking menu
e Rotate tool
e+LMB Rotate tool marking menu
r Scale tool
r+LMB Scale tool marking menu
t Show manipulator tool
y Select last used tool (Excluding Select, Move, Rotate and Scale)
j Snap Move, Rotate, Scale tool
= or + Increase manipulator size
- Decrease manipulator size

ANIMATION OPERATIONS
s Animate > Set key
i Insert Keys tool (for graph editor)
Shft+S+LMB Keyframe marking menu
Shft+S+MMB Tangent marking menu
Shft+E Set key for Rotate
Shft+R Ser key for Scale
Shft+W Set key for Translate
Alt+s Cycle handle sticky state (for IK handles)

PLAYBACK CONTROLS
Alt+. Move forward one frame
Alt+, Move backward one frame
. Go to Next key
, Go to previous key
Alt+v Turn Playback on/off
Alt+Shft+v Go to Min Frame

HOTBOX DISPLAY
Space Hotbox
Alt+m Default Hotbox Style (Zones and Menus Rows)

WINDOW AND VIEW OPERATIONS
Crtl+a Toogle Attribute Editor and Channel Box
a Frame all in active panel
a+LMB History Operations marking menu
Shft+A Frame All in all views
f Frame selected in active panel
Shft+F Frame selected in all views
] Redo view change
[ Undo view change
` Set keyboard focus to command line
Alt+` Set keyboard focus to numeric input line
F1 Help > Contents and Search

MOVING SELECTED OBJECTS
Alt+Up arrow Move up one pixel
Alt+Down arrow Move down one pixel
Alt+Left arrow Move left one pixel
Alt+Right arrow Move right one pixel

TRAVERSING THE HIERARCHY
Up arrow Walk up the current hierarchy
Down arrow Walk down current hierarchy
Left arrow Walk left current hierarchy
Right arrow Walk right current hierarchy

MODELING OPERATIONS
Crtl+Up arrow Display coarser Sub-d level
Crtl+Down arrow Select/refine Sub-d component
Crtl+F9 Convert poly selection to Vertices
Crtl+F10 Convert poly selction to Edges
Crtl+F11 Covert poly selection to Faces
Crtl+F12 Convert poly selction to UVs

FILE OPERATIONS
Ctrl+n File > New Scene
Ctrl+o File > Open Scene
Ctrl+s File > Save Scene
Ctrl+q File > Exit

SELECTING MENUS
Ctrl+m Show/Hide main menu bar
Shft+m Show/Hide panel menu bar
h+LMB Menu Set marking menu
F2 Show Animation menu set
F3 Show Modeling menu set
F4 Show Dynamics menu set
F5 Show Rendering menu set

EDIT OPERATIONS
z or Ctrl+z Edit > Undo
Shft+z Edit > Redo
g Edit > Repeat
Shft+G Repeat command at mouse position
Ctrl+d Edit > Duplicate
Shft+D Edit > Duplicate with Transform
Crtl+g Edit > Group
p Edit > Parent
Shft+P Edit > Unparent
Crtl+x Edit > Cut
Crtl+c Edit > Copy
Ctrl+v Edit > Paste

SELECTING OBJECTS AND COMPONENTS
F8 Switching between Object and Component Editing
F9 Select Polygon and Subdivision Surface Vertices
F10 Select Polygon and Subdivision Surface Edges
F11 Select Polygon and Subdivision Surface Faces
F12 Select Polygon and Subdivision Surface UVs
Ctrl+i Select next intermediate object
Alt+F9 Select Polygon Vertex/Faces
<> Grow polygon selection region

Chair Modeling -- freehand

Software: maya 2008
Subject: chair

here's my first free hand modeling of a chair. the original is the one in color. Granted there are still problem issues like why can't i apply textures and colors. Sheesh this is one very uncomfortable looking chair oh and it's really small .. like 2x2 inches. I forgot about sizing and started working with the default 1x1 inch cube instead of making it bigger. I only noticed it when i was trying to stretch something and the compy kept pulling too hard.

Choochoo Train 90% Completed

Software: Maya 2008
Subject: modeling Polygons
Issues: missing the wheel pushing slabs - I got tired so leaving that for another time.
Time: 5 hours

Choo Choo Train!

Software: maya 2008
Suject: Train modeling round 2
Issues: None its just very time consuming 5-7 hours this took. and it's 1/2 way done as there's still the engine and wheels to go with it.

Project: Hollow Mask (day 1)

mayaSubject: 3D polygon model of Ichigo's Hollow Mask
Software: Maya 2008 and Photoshop CS3
Issues: many .. from drawing to modeling
Drawing: Traced from source images.

I will be posting a daily progress update on project "Hollow Mask" is taking place. (ON HOLD)
-- I'm holding off this project until i've completed more studies because i lose too much time tryign to figure stuff out.

These are black and white line drawing .. I admit to tracing them because in 6-12 months of not drawing much my skills have atrophied so I can't draw on demand. I drew for a good 3 hours trying various ways of duplicating the mask in side view. Zah more practice needed.

The ugly one is my free hand drawing so after a few false starts, bad results, and soso results it occurred to me to go speed watch some bleach looking for a decent side view of the ichigo mask. and I did find some after a few minuets lol i got caught up rewatching some anime vs. getting reference materials but who could resist? it was so temping. Ok then next it was save, cut off background clean it up a bit print it out, on 8x11 paper, put under light box, trace onto good drawing paper, rescan back into digital form.. and let the modeling begin.

Problem: front view and sideviews do not match up exactly. Maya software requires that side and front views match exactly inorder to do its magic so i will be making a mask from only 1 view. I'm just about out of ideas on how to make it match up. The short answer fiddle with it on photoshop a little nip and tuck a few recontructions and walla they're sort of similar. Long answer go retrain drawing skills.


These bottom pictures are my drafts which I did not use because they dont look close enough to the front view. Btw all are traced sorry i can't demonstrate my drawing skills just yet lol its laughable I'd say.

Maya Expressions (chapter 12)

Hihi,
so yah i've been slacking off but zomg it was labor day weekend!! who doesn't? ok its an excuse but this part is a bit dry and very confusing. Ok to show you what i mean by dry & confusing

The color red is gotten from this gibberish:
BubblesShape.rgbPP = <<1,0,0>>;

random colors flickering at every 1 second is:
BubblesShape.rgbPP = sphrand(1);

OR perhaps this is to your taste:
Ball.scaleY = time/2 + 1;
Drum.scaleX = time + 1;
Drum.scaleY = time + 1;

Translation: Ball's Y vaules "Length" is equaled to the frame's time divided by 2 plus 1. So at frame 4 this ball will have a length of 3 (frame 4/2+1)as a size. While at the same time Drum's X (width) Drum Y (length) vaules will be equaled to frame time 3 + 1. so 4.

Actually this shorthand of an expression is very efficient why write more than you need to?

Questions: RGB colors? .. eh what numbers = what colors? it would be nice to know. So a sphrand is this math thingy that assigns a random color to each partical .. okies what other math formulas are built in and what do they look like cuz i dont think sphrands alone will cut it.

Upside is that this is chapter 12 out of 13 .. so i know hold basic beginner's knowledge in my head. awesome.. and now to put it to good use. lol hit up the real books now that i got through the pdf tutorial

Maya 3D painting -- DINOSAUR

Software: Maya 2008
Subject: 3D painting on a dinosaur with bumpmap texture for it's skin
Mode: it was premade .. i only painted on it.
Issues: I couldn't paint on the dino! i still dont know exactly why but me NOT adding the blank texture first actually worked .. it's very strange but the book said add texture first then you can paint.
Comments: how important is it to know the why ... damm i might need to figure out why if not for my own curiosity