considering NURBS

[musashidan]

Check out This (http://www.npowersoftware.com/) Nurbs specific plugin for Max.

[scrimski]

Agreed. Don't even think about using NURBS in 3dsMax without it, they do suck big time.

[i3dbi]

Rhino (http://rhino3d.com/) = The best nurbs modelling package.

Sure rhino’s ui isn’t great for artists but the results you get are predictable and that’s more that can be said for maya’s nurbs half the time.

Also their site has free info and tutorial videos well worth checking out, even if you’re only using max or maya’s nurbs.

[designingpatrick]

sweet, you guys are going to see some serious mech action in the near future. This was hurtle number 1...

[mmnichols84]

I definatly recommend looking for tutorials for NURBS in Maya. They are really easy to use once you get the concept. Basically it is modeling with planes. There are three basic ways to manipulate the plane using, isoparms, control vertex, and hull. Once you figure out how to use these you'll be set. Also what you can do is create curves and loft them together that would most likely be your best bet to create that piece that you want; because NURBS are really curvy. Good Luck

MEL

[mmnichols84]

If you go into the main forum page. There is a spot for application specific, then go to the autodesk maya thread and it has a bunch of NURBS tutorials.

[gnomadix]

Hi there

word of warning with Maya,

I would say that the Nurbs toolset is very underpowered and that creating
tangency between surfaces (G0, G1, etc) is much faster in Rhino, or StudioTools.

Chances are you will start to finalise your model and then be at a loss to control
blends and stitches. I model in nurbs for my job and I use Maya predominantly
because its the program I started with.

I'm happy with the nurbs workflow now but I use Rhino to bale me out (T-splines would be a useful addition). I find poly modelling a bit sloppy and mistrust the results of 'smooth' command
with a nurbs mesh it is WYSIWYG. If you do need tangency scripts

ya_alignComps.mel and AlignCV are useful

ultimately its useful to understand nurbs or polys and be able to switch between

[tyree]

true enough nurbs in max are difficult at first, especially learning it because of a general lack of interest, for this particular way of modeling. but it is by no means useless. hear are some quick items that would have taken much longer to model if not for using nurbs. if you have a question about nurbs in max throw it out there I may be able to answer it

this uses 3 lines
http://bleed.hereweb.com/blowspread.htm

one line
http://bleed.hereweb.com/blow%202.htm

8 circles for the face, a few lines for the hair
http://bleed.hereweb.com/inthemaking.htm

7 circles
http://bleed.hereweb.com/neckmouth.htm

you will need adobe shockwave, should auto install

[designingpatrick]

Regardless of the simplicity required to create those examples, I don't think that those results have much to do with the kind of modeling that I'm trying to do. The big item is that the models must exist in a run-time environment. In addition, I'm working with solid body modeling.

Gnomadix;
Thanks for the input. I try to stay diverse concerning a range of creation toolsets, my problem with adopting rhino is that it doesn't seem practical to be acquiring another application and jumping into the curve, and forming a dependency on that application for something like NURBS. I could understand such a dependency for something like hair/fur or destructable objects, etc. But nurbs should be a standard across most app's. If it can't be done in Max or Maya, isn't there an inherint issue with either the user or the application?

I started making my shapes with splines, then converting them to editable polygons in Max. This is simple and is working, although it's not perfect....

[Xtrude]

Hi... looking at this shape, I am questioning why NURBS at all... I mean I don't think that you have mentioned actually building a real prototype from said model... thus, this is yet another object that could easily be done up via box modeling...

My humble suggestion is to practice box modeling some more simple objects at first, to become better aqauinted with just what can be done with less mesh, and effort, and more understanding to why this is...

Try doing up a pencil, pen, eraser, cup, plate, fork, spoon, knife, chair, table, scissors, scotch tape dispensor, lamp... These types of objects are very good props to later build scenes with... ;)

By the time you have modeled a dozen or so simple objects you will look at this shape you are working with in a whole different perspective...

cheers

[tyree]

if shape to poly is working for you. run with it but Im pretty sure it could be done in nurbs using the same shapes and not converting to poly but nurbs. but again if its already working for you. there is no need for it. and a edit poly or convert to poly could be used on a nurbs object for a run time environments. a run time environment would most likely convert a nurbs or patch object to a polygon even if you didnt change it before export.

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