2009
Table Of Contents
- Contents
- Overview
- Maya Basics
- Polygonal Modeling
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lesson
- Lesson 1: Modeling a polygonal mesh
- Introduction
- Setting modeling preferences
- Using 2D reference images
- Creating a polygon primitive
- Modeling in shaded mode
- Model symmetry
- Selecting components by painting
- Selecting edge loops
- Editing components in the orthographic views
- Editing components in the perspective view
- Drawing a polygon
- Extruding polygon components
- Bridging between edges
- Adding polygons to a mesh
- Splitting polygon faces
- Terminating edge loops
- Deleting construction history
- Mirror copying a mesh
- Working with a smoothed mesh
- Creasing and hardening edges on a mesh
- Beyond the lesson
- NURBS Modeling
- Subdivision Surfaces
- Animation
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor
- Lesson 2: Set Driven Key
- Lesson 3: Path animation
- Lesson 4: Nonlinear animation with Trax
- Introduction
- Open the first scene for the lesson
- Creating clips with Trax
- Changing the position of clips with Trax
- Editing the animation of clips
- Reusing clips within Trax
- Soloing and muting tracks
- Scaling clips within Trax
- Open the second scene for the lesson
- Creating clips from motion capture data
- Extending the length of motion capture data
- Redirecting the motion within a clip
- Beyond the lesson
- Lesson 5: Inverse kinematics
- Introduction
- Open the scene for the lesson
- Understanding hierarchies
- Viewing hierarchies using the Hypergraph
- Creating a skeleton hierarchy
- Parenting a model into a skeleton hierarchy
- Applying IK to a skeleton hierarchy
- Creating a control object for an IK system
- Constraining an IK system
- Limiting the range of motion of an IK system
- Simplifying the display of a hierarchy
- Applying parent constraints on an IK system
- Planning an animation for an IK system
- Animating an IK system
- Beyond the lesson
- Character Setup
- Polygon Texturing
- Rendering
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Rendering a scene
- Introduction
- Open the scene for the lesson
- Creating shading materials for objects
- Refining shading materials for objects
- Maya renderers
- Rendering a single frame using IPR
- Rendering using the Maya software renderer
- Batch rendering a sequence of animation frames
- Viewing a sequence of rendered frames
- Beyond the lesson
- Lesson 2: Shading surfaces
- Lesson 3: Lights, shadows, and cameras
- Lesson 4: Global Illumination
- Lesson 5: Caustics
- Dynamics
- Painting
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Painting in 2D using Paint Effects
- Lesson 2: Painting in 3D using Paint Effects
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Brushes and strokes
- Rendering Paint Effects strokes
- Paint Effects on 3D objects
- Creating a surface to paint on
- Painting on objects
- Using turbulence with brush stroke tubes
- Using additional preset brushes
- Mesh brushes
- Converting mesh strokes to polygons
- Modifying a converted polygonal mesh
- Beyond the lesson
- Lesson 3: Painting textures on surfaces
- Expressions
- Scripting in Maya
- Index
Another method for creating NURBS surfaces is to loft a series of curves that
define the cross section of your desired surface form. Lofting a surface works
like stretching a skin over each of the cross sections to create the final surface.
In this lesson, you learn additional NURBS surfacing techniques by using the
Loft tool to create the body of a salt shaker. You will also create the cap for
the salt shaker by modifying the shape of a primitive sphere.
In this lesson you learn how to:
■ Modify the outline of a circle primitive by editing the position of its CVs.
■ Use the magnet snap feature.
■ Loft cross section curves to create a NURBS surface using the Loft tool.
■ Edit the form of an existing primitive object by moving its CVs.
■ Parent one object to another using the Outliner.
Creating profile curves for a surface
You begin the lesson by creating a pair of profile curves. You then create
several copies of these curves to form the skeletal contours of the salt shaker’s
surface.
To create profile curves for the salt shaker’s body
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in
Preparing for the lessons on page 136.
2 Select Create > NURBS Primitives > Circle > . In the options window,
select Edit > Reset Settings, enter the following values, then click the
Apply button:
■ Radius: 4
■ Number of Sections: 24
The Radius sets the size of the circle in grid units. A value of 4 creates a
circle with enough size so that you can use the grid for convenient size
comparison.
The Number of Sections sets the number of CVs in the circle. By using
24 CVs, you can create a circle with the subtle contours required in this
lesson. Display the CVs of the circle to see the 24 CVs.
158 | Chapter 4 NURBS Modeling