The Official M2K Maya (and general 3D modeling) Thread

[Mew2King]

I'm in Maya class at college and I suck at 3D modeling (missing days probably didn't help). First question is can anyone help me with UV mapping? I have a dreidel I modeled and I just wanna put the 4 symbols on each of the 4 sides (then a basic texture on the rest which is easy).

 

[nipoo]

Oh man I used to use Maya a while back. I really don't remember anything though lol.

Goodluck with that

 

[DavieBoy]

If Maya UVW unwrap is like 3Ds Max than yes I should be able to help, I currently just finished my second 3D modeling class at my college.

Also I finished my first full environment scene as well check it out! The entire project took around 1 week of modeling and 2 weeks to unwrap and texture/Lighting. I was happy the way it turned out for my first scene.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/rendercam2num3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/Cam6Render.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/clayrender.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/Rander3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/Cam7Render.jpg


Edit: Check out these sites they helped me a ton.

http://www.3dtotal.com/
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php

 

[BakaJuice]

If Maya UVW unwrap is like 3Ds Max than yes I should be able to help, I currently just finished my second 3D modeling class at my college.

Also I finished my first full environment scene as well check it out! The entire project took around 1 week of modeling and 2 weeks to unwrap and texture/Lighting. I was happy the way it turned out for my first scene.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/rendercam2num3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/Cam6Render.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/clayrender.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/Rander3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/DavieBoy/Cam7Render.jpg


Edit: Check out these sites they helped me a ton.

http://www.3dtotal.com/
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_home.php

Woah. Good stuff man. Had to squint to make sure a few of them weren't real.

 

[A17]

Davieboy, those aren't bad at all. they've got the initial feel of realism but i notice that most of the not so good looking parts were any entities lacking a cast shadow.

How'd you learn to use 3DS? tutorials?

 

[DavieBoy]

I got taught the basics of 3Ds Max at school but learned the most by watching the video series "AT-AT modeling on the fly" at 3dbuzz, they are free videos under the 3ds max section. Most of the lighting and unwraping techniques I learned with trial and error, it may be a pain at times but I feel it really helps me develop better troubleshooting skills.

3D programs are one of those things you can never fully learn just in a classroom, currently I spend around 1-2 hours a day in Max just messing around (mostly with texture maps and lighting). When working on my project I would put upwards of 40+ hours a week, and now that I know 3D I feel it is more fun to create models for games rather than playing games themselfs.

 

[Spire]

3D programs are one of those things you can never fully learn just in a classroom, currently I spend around 1-2 hours a day in Max just messing around (mostly with texture maps and lighting). When working on my project I would put upwards of 40+ hours a week, and now that I know 3D I feel it is more fun to create models for games rather than playing games themselfs.

I used to mod Oblivion a lot and I surely loved texturing and building more than I did actually playing the game too. Totally with you on this.

As for modeling, I've had far too little experience with it to provide helpful information.

 

[Morrigan]

M2K, what exactly are you doing? 'Cause I've seen an Adobe Director thread you made a while ago and now you're doing 3D modeling. I'm asking this 'cause I'm seeing those exact same things at college (I hate Director).

 

[4nace]

UV Mapping is really difficult to get a hold of in maya, especially if you don't have a good teacher that can explain it to you.

Also the way you go about it really depends on what you are texturing. If you want to put a texture on a mechanical / non smooth object, then seams aren't usually as big of a deal. For doing UV mapping of this nature, this tutorial should help
http://web.alfredstate.edu/ciat/tutorials/TexturingPolygons.htm

However, often times you are texturing a character or something smoother, which if you went about it that way, your character would have seams on it. A seam is when a the texture doesn't line up perfectly because the UVs are not next to each other in your UV Map. What you end up having to do is Unwrap/Unfold your UVs and sew them together so you have one long map with 1 seam that is much easier to control and manage than multiple ones.
Here are two tutorials for that type of UV Mapping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN5dzZmg1SE

And then this one is really in depth and about 6 videos, but helps alot. here is the first one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7r4_5n9WXo


Let me know if you have questions and check out my work at danfornace.com

- Good luck

 

[DavieBoy]

4nace speaks the truth, UVW mapping generally take 1 1/2 to 2 times as long as the entire modeling process

 

[Hyesz]

I'm in Maya class at college and I suck at 3D modeling (missing days probably didn't help). First question is can anyone help me with UV mapping? I have a dreidel I modeled and I just wanna put the 4 symbols on each of the 4 sides (then a basic texture on the rest which is easy).

I never knew you were jewish.

 

[JBRPG]

This reminds me of a youtube user who loves to make fun out of 3D models of Nintendo games including Super Mario Galaxy. Girrtacos