Is there a method of modelling like this in Maya?

[Marcel]

He uses splines to set up the basic polygon control cage, which he then converts to polygons for subdivisions.
I don't see the big advantages of working like this, it's just as easy to start building the low-res control cage with polygons right from the start.

[MasonDoran]

the advantage of splines is that u can use the surfacing tools like loft, extrude, square....etc etc and then be able to extract curves from the resulting surfaces for additional information.

in maya...u can have the surfaces be created as polygons from the get go so its just a working style that some people prefer, probably because u can pickwalk and use some nice nurbs functions while working with splines.

The disadavantage can be that converting the surfaces to polys, and then sewing the edges together and what not and making sure the normals are aligned is an extra step.....and if you have hundreds of patches....that can be significant.

[ceql]

hmm okay, thnx for the input guys! :D

I guess when I looked at it the first time, it looked like some neat, easy-looking magical method... but After looking at 3dsMax's surface modifier, it looks that it works looks alot like how nurbs modelling in would probably function maya (I saw probably, cuz unfortunately I'm a Maya Nurbs n00b atm, doh! :cry: ). Anywayz, in Max, you can make curves and control them with bezier handles and then convert them to Max patches. Max Patches aren't Nurbs, but are similar in that they're scalable... I guess it's Max's way of compensating for it's traditionally subpar nurbs toolset, but one neat thing about this is that Max patches are automatically attached to each other if u want to convert em to polys, saving the work from manually sewing everything together ;)

I think I'll stick to my usual methods then, and I better learn Maya Nurbs sometime soon, too ;)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.