Disconnecting Nodes

[acidream]

I have come across this same probelm several times while working on various projects, and I have not found any real solution. This may not help you in this situation, but you can always duplicate your instanced object again without the instance option and delete the original.

sb

[sp0rk3d]

yeah there is no way i know of to do that... it is counter intuitive... an instance copy always does what the first object does....

why not just make a regular non instance copy and deform it how-ever you want..?

[Modulok]

Yeah, I could just make them as coppies and not as an instance. But later down the road I need them as instances. Right now I need to be able to tweak their shapes individually though so they don't look like exact copies of each other. Its no biggie, but would just like to know if there was a way to do so....I'm kind of new to Maya still, so its one of those "getting to know whats in your toolbox" deals.

thanks anyway all!
-Modulok-

[ajk48n]

What about putting a lattice on one of the instances?

[luminis]

Originally posted by ajk48n
What about putting a lattice on one of the instances?

That wouldn't work because a lattice connects to the shape node directly, and all three instances share the shape node, so if you tweak the lattice on one, all three will reflect the results.



Modulok, there IS a way of doing this, I was just hesitant to post it when I first saw this thread because the method I know is really counter-intuitive, very tedious to do, and will not work with all kinds of input nodes - but if you REALLY need to do it, I can show you. Let me know if you're interested in finding out how. :)

[Modulok]

I :bowdown: before the master of hypergraph connections :bowdown:

For this particular project seeings how there are only three pipes and they are just a quick 360 array I don't NEED to know how. However, I never pass up an opritunity to learn something new, even if it is counter productive, who knows, down the road maybe it could save me :cool:

If its not too much of a bother, by all means luminis do show :beer:

btw where did you learn all this stuff bud?


Thanks a ton dude!
-Modulok-

[luminis]

Originally posted by Modulok
I :bowdown: before the master of hypergraph connections :bowdown:

Hehe, that's nice...:):)

Ok, now, by popular request, winning with a majority of votes (1 in favor, 0 against it), I'm posting this.

Keep in mind this is not really instancing, but rather it will "fake" instancing, but selectively. The example I did consists of creating an extruded poly tube out of a nurbs circle and curve path.

The output geometry is called "extrudedSurfaceShape1". Look at the network for this, the two nurbs curves are the input of the "extrude1" node, which is then the input for the "nurbsTessellate1" node, which then goes to the shape node.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/instance/01.jpg

I then copied the extruded tube. It is not instanced, because once it is instanced, there is no way to selectively change inputs, as they will all share the same shape node.

Then, I modified the shape of the second tube (called "extrudedSurfaceShape2") by twisting it around a bit.

---------

So now, there are two different tubes, with different shapes. I'm going to use a face extrusion for the "fake instancing". In theory, this should work with any other kind of action, but I chose this as it is the most visual one.

So I select the first tube, and 'Edit Polygons/Extrude Faces'. A "polyExtrudeFace1" node is inserted between the others.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/instance/03.jpg

--------

Select the second tube, and 'Extrude Faces' to it as well.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/instance/05.jpg


Hmm... It says I can't post this many images on a single post, so I'll have to split it up...

[luminis]

Now, connect all revelant attributes from the first tube's extrude node to the second tube's extrude node.

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/instance/06.jpg

On the connection editor, connect all attributes that can be connected from one node to the other, such as:
Input Components --> Input Components
Translate --> Translate
etc..

Do this for all inputs you can do it with except for "Input Poly Mesh", as doing this would cancel the effect we are looking for.

-------

In the end, you will be able to apply the same extrusion to all objects this has been done for, while changing only the first one - all this while each tube keeps its own unique twisting. This looks like instancing, but it isn't - hence "faking instancing".

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/instance/07.gif

-------

If there are more actions to be done, this process will have to be repeated again (give a similar node to the other object, and connect all their attributes together, so it acts the same way).

If there are more objects, the 'secondary' input nodes can be used for all objects (by manually connecting their mesh inputs and outputs), so that you won't have to connect 20 extra attributes for each object.

Yeah, you're now probably thinking how counter-intuitive this is, how tedious it is, and how useless it can be with certain kinds of actions - but that is exactly what I said it would be like on my previous post. :) But at least it works in some occassions, and like you said, it could become useful later on.

I hope this explanation was clear enough. Let me know if you need some help on understanding any part. :thumbsup:




By the way, in response to your question of how I learned this stuff... I just gather information from messing around with different settings (and connections :)) in Maya. And then I just try to apply what I know to situations like this.

[Modulok]

Thanks luminis :thumbsup: I follow ya on all but one part I'm a bit foggy on, the whole

If there are more objects, the 'secondary' input nodes can be used for all objects (by manually connecting their mesh inputs and outputs), so that you won't have to connect 20 extra attributes for each object.


The connection editor is your friend hehe, just playing with the idea I made a shader that its red color is connected to its X scale, so if you scale it up in X the red saturation turns up :applause:

Thanks man, you've opened a few more possibilities to me :buttrock:
-Modulok-

[luminis]

What I meant by that paragraph was something like this:

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/instance/08.jpg

Following a similar example to what I did before - to connect the second extrude node to the other objects, but as I was preparing this image, I realized this really wouldn't work well, as these other three have the same hidden shape node at the other end of their network, meaning that any 'custom' tweaks they had at the beginning would be lost, and all three would look the same.

To actually have several objects retaining their unique tweaking, but at the same time, have a single input node acting on them - the process has to be repeated the same way for all of them. Like this:

http://www.luminis3d.com/etc/cgt/img/instance/09.jpg

I hope this explained it better a bit. :)

Glad to hear you've been doing some experimenting as well. Keep at it, and you will soon see that it is in these custom connections where you can find most of the power Maya has to offer. :thumbsup:

Really happy to have helped. Let me know if you ever need any more help on this kind of stuff. :)

[Modulok]

Sorry for the late reply...

Thanks luminis, I follow now :thumbsup:

Thanks for going out of your way to show me the light :beer:


Thanks
-Modulok-

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