Studio Arts Maya 101 Class 3 8/22/2019

During the last class I did an explanation of Polys/Nurbs (SPOILER ALERT: nobody uses nurbs anymore)

POLYGONS

NURBS

-The only nurbs we use are curves. More on that later!

Polygon Component Mode

-Face, vertex, edge, are the main ones used for modeling.

Google any of these terms and you will find a youtube video demonstrating them.

Modeling Tools

-Modeling Toolkit has many of these tools.

Extrude
-Use to extrude polygons from a selected face or edge. 

-Remember that the extrusion comes with a local manipulator that allows you to move it locally from it's origin. The world manipulator may not be as helpful. 

-Selecting a face, and moving it while holding SHIFT can extrude, but it can cause issues, so it's best not to use it this way.

Edge Loop

-Used to insert an entire edge loop onto an object.  Great for quickly adding spans if you need more topology for modeling.

Multicut Tool

-Used to manually split polys on an object.

Append Poly

-Used to bridge gaps with new polygons.

-Select one edge first, and then the tool will highlight available edges to build onto.

Bevel

-Used to soften corners or edge with added geometry.

Booleans

-Use these operations to create a new shape based on the intersecting input shapes.

-The three operations are Intersection, Union, and Difference.

-Selection order affects the shape that is created.  For example, if you want to punch a hole through a cube using a cylinder, you would select the cube first and the cylinder second.

Deformers

-Lattice deformer builds a cage around a mesh that you can manipulate in component mode.  This allows you to modify your mesh in broad strokes.

-Non Linear Deformers are used to create different deform effects like bend, twist, squash, etc.

Combine

-Used to combine two separate meshes into one mesh.

-This allows for them to be connected together using polygon modeling tools.

Extract

-Used to separate selected faces from an object, resulting in 2 separate objects.

Merge

-Used to merge or weld vertices or edges to each other. 

Normals
-Hard/soft changes the way polys are displayed in maya.  Softened edges are harder to see, while harder edges clearly define the polys.  Sometimes you may need to toggle this when you are modeling when edges are hard to distinguish.

-Reversed Normals, appearing black, makes it's hard to see your mesh.  Sometime this can happen with a bad extrusion, or in other situations.  To fix, just select the face and reverse those normals.
Create Poly

-Tool that allows you to draw vertices to create a polygon.

Nurbs Curves

-Nurbs curves can be useful tools to assist in modeling.

Drawing a Curve

-Allows you to layout CVs (like vertices for nurbs) to create a curve.

Open/Close Curve

-Helps you close an open curve.

Created Meshes from Curve

Revolve

Make Planar

Extrude Along Curve

-IMPORTANT NOTE:  By default these tools create Nurbs surfaces.  I dislike nurbs as you might know, so I like to set the options for these to creat Polygons as Quads, with Count.  Play with the number for Count to see how much is right for you.
HOMEWORK
With object manipulation, grouping, and modeling tools, make any kind of furniture you like!