Tools transition from LW 2 Maya

[ACFred]

Well, I'm not 100% sure what the 1st item means, but I can answer your second question.

You'll have your best results converting from poly to sub-d if your polygons are all quads -- and the best is to have vertices with no more than 4 intersecting edges. 5 is OK in places. Any more than 5 and you should redo the topology in that area.

Hope the helps.

How's the Shazam project coming? I dig your Billy Batson model so far. Shazam is definitely an under-utilized super hero and one of the coolest. I'm sure you caught the Alex Ross Shazam book....phenomenal stuff.

That's all.

Alec

[CIM]

Why model in Maya? Why don't you just export your models (as .obj) to Maya and do your animation/dynamics work there? When you're done use the Maya2LW script to export your animation back to Lightwave for texturing, lighting, and rendering.

BTW, Maya should recognize your object as a poly object. If you're using LW 7.5 .obj exporter, this may be your problem. Revert back to an earlier version of the plugin. Also, you might want to give Deep Exploration a try.

[Julez4001]

Hiya CIM, just trying my hand at starting/finishing a scene in Maya. Yeah I was gonna give tise scripts a try. What ver. or date should i look for the obj exporter.

So anyone know of a drag tool for maya. In xsi, you hold down M to drag points no mater what you are in.



AcFred, the Shazam project is coming a little slow. About to get married next week so lots of wedding stuff. I am in the middle of trying to solve cloth problem. The wizard robe is a little stiff in my animation tries. Messiah is solving that problem but the overall connection thin in Studio:Advance is still shakey so I am investigating what I can do in Maya. After Oct 22, I should have new stuff up. Wish I had a laptop to being on Honeymoon but my wife2be would kill me.

[MDuffy]

I believe what you are looking for in your first request is found under Preferences->Settings->Selection->Click Drag Select. I don't know why this isn't checked by default, because it makes modeling MUCH easier.

I also turn off that little square in the middle of faces with Preferences->Settings->Selection->Polygon Selection-Whole Face. Greatly reduces the visual clutter.

Hope this helps,
Michael Duffy
mduffy@Ionet.net

[Julez4001]

Nope thats not it.
Basically you just can move a point in 1 step rather 3 to 4 steps.

What I wanna do

u see the point and u click/move it.


What i don't wanna do

No go vertex mode , click the point, hit w for move and then actually move it. Thats too long.

[Crode]

i know exactly what you mean

so far i have not found anything in maya that will do this function (which is partly why i model most stuff in XSI) Closest thing is selecting the vertex and use the yellow square for a freehand move. So really its only 2 clicks, but 1 would be ideal


It should be easy to mel script if someone has the time.... but im not much of a coder myself

[wedge]

you guys are lazy... haha :thumbsup:

[Julez4001]

No you just have to realize after coming from Lightwave ith its inherent subdivision modeling that its a time saver to just pick a point and go. You just move faster without a lot of mindless clicking ..... once you model something complex that needless clicking stats to add up.

[CIM]

Just use Lightwave if you have access to it. It's easy to see Maya doesn't match up to Lightwave modeling wise (as well as on a bunch of other tools).

Use what's best for the job or get by with whatever. :-)

[wrend]

click-drag works that way: you see the obj/component, you swoop in on it with your pointer, you then engage it by depressing, and holding down, the button - at which point you may take it for a ride until you release it from your depressing grasp! bit dramatical.

to facilitate the component selection process, you might: a. play around with your click box size, b. turn whole face selection on for faces as mentioned above, and c. reduce the size of the transformaiton manipulators (+/- keys) to prevent unwanted handle selection.

you can do selections when your in the context of a transformation tool btw....so you needn't do a q, select, w, move...just select when your in move or whatever context.

when your doing click drag, it'll be using screen space for rotate, uniform scale for scale, and screen for translate (or last constrain axis state manip was left in, as in ctrl-clicking one of the axes. ctrl-clck yellow sqaure to resume screen).

is this not similar to the mode of interaction you are use to?

[bentllama]

Originally posted by CIM
Lightwave or death!

CIM, if it is truly Lightwave or death, then what are you doing "slumming" in a Maya forum? ;)

[graphiouz]

maya and lightwave are different softwares, one has it one has it not, Get that?


And CIM what the hell are you modeling that makes lightwave so
überfantastic?

[Sibben]

selectPref -clickDrag true;
selectPref -clickDrag false;

Put these two commands in the shelf, on a couple of marking menus or hotkeys and get on with your life... :hmm:

[Julez4001]

Thanks wrend and Sibben, I give those techiques a try.

I just wanna prep myself for any incident where I won't have LW available to me for future projects. I got Messiah for character animation and its access to Maya will probably save me for that. But I think from just using PLE and Wrkstation version that maya animation tools are easier to setup and execute than modeling.

[XanderFX]

You could always just right click on the poly and select vertices from the marking menu. Tjis will save you from having to press F8 for component mode and if you have 4.5 you can use the marking menu to switch back to object mode.

Your best bet for improving workflow in Maya is to set up marking menus and hotkeys for your most frequently used functions. Once you have worked with them for a bit it really becomes second nature and your hand becomes trained to just move to the right quadrant in the menu and select the option that you want.

I personally use my marking menus and hotkeys for almost everything and then my shelves for the rest.

[ACFred]

Oh, what the hell do you know Mr. XanderFX! You live in Concord....

muahahahahaha......


:insane:

[roger]

Julez4001 - I think MDuffy is right. If your looking to just click/move a vertex/point just like in LW you need to go to Window->Settings/Preferences->Preferences-Selection->Click Drag Select.
That should do it.
If you spend enough time with Maya's modeling tools you will find the are pretty good :)


Roger
http://www.fxstation.com/monsterlab/

[Tudor]

I'm a long time LW user aswell that has been 'forced' to learn Maya.. Maya is good, I must agree, but I prefer LW.
Why?
The answer i habit. You work the fastest with the tool you are most used to. I really don't care what program people use as long as they can produce stuff with the least amount of problems. I always tell ppl to try LW. Who knows. They might just like it as much as I do. If they don't there is probably another program out there that fits them better.

2 things that I always do when sitting down in front of a newly installed Maya:

Get the bonus game plug from the AW website. It gives you a bandslice kinda tool.
in polygon/tool settings: Place the keep new polys planar/together on the shelf. It is like the difference between bevel/smooth shift in LW.

[roger]

Tudor - your right! :)
"Habit" has a lot to do with liking/hating a new/different 3d program. I used to use LW for all my 3d work, but as I moved to different 3d companies I now mainly use Maya. After using just Maya for over 6-months I needed to use LW for a commercial. As much as I used to like the LW modeler I found I was missing the Maya modeler....because of HABIT!


Roger
http://www.fxstation.com/monsterlab/

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