Modeling: Is this character workable for a 3D Maya Model?

[stallion151]

picture not working.
nothing is not un-attainable, you just need to keep trying :banghead: and getting better in the process.

[Vidar3d]

Try this link, I am having a hard time figuring out how to post anything on CGTalk

http://www.geocities.com/rex_irae_az/character.jpg

Thanks

[stallion151]

still nuttin.

[Garma]

CGTalk is not the problem you are posting right but your server doesn't allow remote linking to images. Solution: copy/paste the url into a new browserwindow.

for the image: nice image but I would do it different indeed. I usually work with reference without colthes (it's a good thing to add clothes after you finished the model). Also you better have refs with the arms stretched if you want to animate, adding joints this way can be a hard time.

I'd say take this as an idea you want to work towards but for anatomical ref find other pictures and put them in your imageplane.

good luck

[Vidar3d]

Garma,

Thanks for the advice, and I see what you mean about changing the pose to more of a spread eagle position.

So, say I model him first without clothes, do I eventually end up merging the the mesh of the character and that of the clothes together or do they remain different meshes?

I hope my question is clear, and thanks again for your earlier reply.

[Garma]

The way I do it they remain separated. Lookup the "cloth" function in maya, that one is handy. You can get really realistic results with it.

But the meshes stay seperated, indeed. What cloth does in fact is (sort of) forming the cloth to the body using iterations

[Vidar3d]

Thanks for the tips and advice. Sadly, I use Maya 5.0 on the Apple's OS X so I don't have access to Cloth. Do you know of another plugin one could use?

[Doogie]

http://syflex.biz/

Syflex is the other main cloth simulation package (plugin for OSX is avaliable)

[Vidar3d]

Thanks for the link Doogie.

Wow! It looks great but at $2200 per license, its well out of my pricerange. They have a $400 learning edition which (of course) on Windows platforms only.

Do you or anyone else know of any other plugins? Or how bout a link to a tutorial of how to "fake it" without the plugin?

[Doogie]

I was going to suggest softbodies, but I don't think thats avaliable for Mac either.

I cant think of any tutorials here =/

[kiaran]

No softbodies on the Mac? Thats not even an unlimited feature. I feel limited enough being on a non-unix system I can't imagine putting up with all the MacOS limitations. Don't get me wrong, the OS is fine and dandy but without a road who cares how nice your car is?

I just realized this thread is not about MacOS. Sorry if I got off topic.

[Vidar3d]

Kiaran,

Thanks for the sympathy. I love my OS X. It is outstanding! I am primarily a compositor using Shake and After Effects so the Mac is an ideal solution for me. Hopefully Alias will come out with a more powerful version of Maya for users like myself with the next release.

Until then, I am stuck with what I've got, so does anyone have a good method for doing baggy or flowing clothes on a Maya character without the benefit of a cloth pulgin?

[kiaran]

Well, if you don't have cloth and you don't have softbodies then I guess the only thing left to do is create the cloth object with nurbs (for smooth interpolation). Make a cluster on each vertice, then parent these cluster's to proxy rigid bodies and apply gravity and proper collisions to the rigid bodies. This should roughly simulate cloth but it will be much more difficult to control and will not give the same realism.

Good luck, let us know how it goes. And just out of curiosity, what other Maya Complete feature are left out on the Mac? You do have dynamics right?

Kiaran

[kiaran]

I forgot to add that the rigid bodies will need contraints connecting them. :D

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