NURBS, Poly or SUB-D (newby question)

[playmesumch00ns]

I think it's slightly worrying that you're not being taught everything, but to be fair, Maya is really a NURBS package. Poly modelling isn't hard to pick up (but of course it's hard to master) and SubDivs are pretty much the same thing so spending more time on NURBS will probably be worthwhile as they are generally more difficult to get the hang of. If you really want to spend some more time with polys, pick up a copy of wings3d and work with that.

I'd definitely talk to your tutor about why you're not covering polys and subdivs in as much depth (also ask exactly how much time you'll be spending on each). If he/she's got a good reason (like NURBS are still the surface of choice for high-end work), then fine, but if it's because he/she doesn't know anything about them then you should probably be worried.

In short NURBS are still the surface of choice for high-end work, but now subdivs are starting to take over, so you might want to mention that. I think most of the work that's shown on these forums uses polys, but polys are pretty easy to pick up if you get hold of wings or something like that.

[Tom N.]

I agree with playmesumakdjfakkfafj980f00ndmfns, Although you can probably model anything using any type of surface in maya, it's probably easiest to do it in NURBS considering the tools you have with Maya for nurbs. It all depends on what you're going into of course- if you want to make games, then of course you definately need to learn polys. Also like playmesomethinorother00ns said, I have also heard that sub-d's are starting to get big now from my teacher. Sooo its definately something you might want to ask your teacher, also polys are not hard to learn on your own so its not that bad. I learned polys and sub d's on my own and now I use them more than I use nurbs.

-Tom N.

[plotz]

wow. I'm actually fairly impressed that your instructor is teaching heavy NURBS...often it seems like NURBS modeling gets glossed over.

Personally I think NURBS modeling is one of the hardest things to learn from the rules standpoint, so it's valuable experience.

The techniques you use to create surfaces with NURBS will also create polys, the biggest difference is in how things are put together to look/work like one object in the NURBS vs. Polys world. (Well, render preparation and texturing are different too:)

I think it's equally important for you to learn a SubD, or "smooth modeling" technique. People often refer to this as poly-modeling, but I really look at it as a different modeling methodology. It's more like learning to sculpt.

I'd loby for at least a session or two on "box modeling" style work and some info on polygon smoothing techniques and Maya's SubD geometry type.

I'd also ask the instructor point blank if they know anything about it. Often time instructors don't teach things that they don't know much about. So it's better to get your info somewhere else if the instructor doesn't have GOOD info to offer you.

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