how to be an hypergraph master ????

[westiemad]

practice and playing are a good way to get it, you can connect things up using the hypershade, as both display nodes.

[mindful108]

Hi Glog,

I can appreciate what you are going through since I am a new Maya user as well and I find the whole node system to be pretty complex. I have been going through the Alias book "Learning Maya - Foundation" and I find it to be VERY helpful. They introduce you to various ways of working with nodes through the Hypergraph, Hypershade, Attributes Editor, Channel Box and Outliner. Also through the Connection Editor and so on. I guess it's confusing since there are so many ways to work in Maya, and they all have their advantages and limitations.

I guess it's fair to say that just about EVERYTHING in Maya is a node, and all the GUI elements are just different ways of accessing and manipulating the attributes of those nodes. Some ways, like the Channel Box are good for animating while the Hypergraph (and Outliner) are good ways to organize the entire scene - as well as make connections. There are also lots of options to limit and expand what you can and can't view in Hypergraph to make working with large scenes more manageable. And I totally agree with you that it is confusing to know what you need to keep and what you can delete (and when, and how, and why...)

I do find the Alias series helpful because they explain the nuts and bolts of the different nodes without overwhelming me with too many details, but enough to begin to get the ideas across. What is also good is that they take you through a series of tutorials that build and progressively introduce you to more and more complex and powerful ways of working in Maya, and of course, with nodes. I suppose that there are other good books but I don't have experience with them. You can always go into your favorite bookstore and look through what they have.

I really think that Maya is very deep and powerful and that it just takes time to really see how it works. I'd say, get a decent book and stick with it for a while, and I personnally can recommend the Alias Learning Maya series, especially starting with Foundation. (When I bought Maya Complete I got the Productivity Pack that has six titles in the Learning Maya 6 series that cover all the basics of the program...)

Good luck!!

[skillet]

start out simple with some basic experaments

cube sphere

cube thranslate y -> sphere translate y

sphere sould act like the cube in y

create a utility cubel Trns y mulitply/divide utility y input
mult/dive y output -> sphere input

double click on mult/div to open in attribute

change value to 2
the sphere should move twice as much now


now that you got that that same mult/div utility can be used for color
since it is a really simple math utility

x y z can also be pluged into r g b they could

multipy x or r in this case an you have more reds an so forth

i'll try to come up with better examples when i get home from work

[digones]

hi glog

I know exactly what your talking about... I have the same problem with maya, I know it is super powerful and everything, but I alway get lost when trying to make "custom" connections or whatever... :(

Yesterday I was trying to make a reflection to react with the incident angle (using a ramp with a sampler in the reflection channel of a phong material, I spent hours trying to make the material look like what I was expecting, but without any success.... the thing is, there are so many connection possibilities that is almost impossible not being lost using them

I bought a very good book (Maya Savvy) wich explains a lot of the connection possibilities and so, I got the basic ideia but I always feel unconfortable dealing with the connections, I always think that I'm doing something wrong and sometimes is awful.

well, if anyone have tips on how to make the life easier with the connections on maya, I'm listening :D


cheers and good luck!

[MasonDoran]

study a lot of rigging tutorials....because they make extensive use of the connection editor.


hypergraph is the fastest way to visualize all of the nodes...but its the connection editor where its all at so learn to get comfortable with it. you CAN make some connections by lmb dragging the small arrows on the nodes in the hypershade or mmb draging a node into a slot in the attribute editor.

also in hypershade

: control+ mmb draggig a node onto another will connect default attributes....


dont forget the outiliner with DAG turned off is very conveniant for finding nodes and cleaning up your files.

[mindful108]

Thanks for the tip 2byts!

The connection editor it is!...

It's funny that you mention to do rigging tutorials 'cause I just got a DVD from Alias called "Character Set-up and Rigging"! It just arrived today — and none too soon.

BTW, I just opened up Outliner and turned off DAG and WHOA! That's a spicy meatball. I'll be perusing the manual over that list! :eek:

[mindful108]

I just looked a little closer at the manual and using the left side navigation tree click "Using Maya > and look under the General section. Inside "Tools, Menus, and Nodes > Nodes" is a complete breakdown on every node in depth. Also under the General section click on "Basics > Nodes and attributes" and there is great breakdown including Outliner, Hypergraph and Node types.

Looks like it's all there with lots of mini-tutorials! A little dry maybe but it looks pretty valuable...

Cheers.

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