help me.....

[unleash]

this question is about maya so....

when i'm modeling with polygons and i'm extruding faces some of the faces from the object i was modeling with are getting strange shadows who aren't on the right place.

if you know where i'm talking about and you have a sollution please help me.

[enigmatic]

maybe try moving angle and thus back light to diffrent point and fade the shadow before you start...thus go smaller in shape maybe...enigmatic

[unleash]

thanx i will try that, hopefully it helps

[DaRk_f0x]

for me maya is a strange program to work with... complkex, but i got the same problem, and other problems aswell, that were solved only by "go back a few steps in the work, undo it some 10-15 times, and start allover again, and still got nothing really worth seeing..."

[unleash]

wel, i found i "sollution" for this problem,
you can model those things with nurbs or you make them with polygons but you just only use the vertex points....
if you are modeling with nurbs you can if your done modeling that object convert the nurbs to polygons....so you have the benifits of nurbs and polygons
hope it helps o and if there are any questions about maya ask maybe i can help

[ovidiua2003]

u sure when u extrude those faces u didn't select other faces as well? i encountered the same thing when selecting faces and trying to extrude them.

[unleash]

well, no i think i found a part of the answer....i was using the extrude face option while i should use teh bolean option....so it went a bit wrong.

[agentxi]

i know this thread is long dead, but it sounds like no one has really found the answer...

Maya has a nice little tool called "Vertex Normal Edit Tool"

if you are getting weird shading on your polygonal model, then there's a good chance that it's the normals that are getting messed up on the mess, you can change the direction in which the vertex (or vertices, however you call them) face. you just adjust the direction in which it's pointing until you lose the shading.

this tool can be found in

Edit Polygons>Normals>Vertex Normal Editing Tool.

hope this helps for future reference.

you can also play around with the other normal tools in that section...there are a few...and all quite handy

[Copticmike]

agentxi is totally right, but you might want to try something hats much easier then that. Go to: Edit Polygons>Normals>Soften/Harden, and select the options box,(the box next to "Soften/Harden") and type 30 degrees in the angle box, you will get pretty good results! the higher the angle, the smoother it gets. Remember this is just another way of doing it.

[unleash]

Hmm, strange that this is not the answer i thought the question would give

But still very helpfull tanks both of you it does help me, sometimes i still got the "wrong shading" problem...seems i have a lot to learn!!

[agentxi]

oh also just remembered, it was one of the first things that was taught to me when i was learning maya.
Keep New Faces Planar and Keep Faces Together

when i work with poly's i try and keep my faces in either tris (3 sided) or quads (4 sided) it helps with rendering and smoothing down the road, although maya does handle ngons (which is faces with more than 4 sides) it's still a good habit to get into. anyways here's a screenshot of where the tool options can be found. I was working while i was reading this post lol so i just took a screenshot instead.

[unleash]

Hmm, helpfull again....this ine does solve the problem for now
But if I may be so rude to ask, where do you work?

[agentxi]

at the moment I am working for myself, I do freelance graphic design, web and print...

I have done contract animation in the past but got sucked into doing web work for the past few years...

but alas! it is time for me to return back to my love. ...3d

(i've never quit learning 3d while i was doing web, but not i'm making the push to finish a 3d portfolio so i can go work for some film studio of some sort <3)

[unleash]

Hmm, nice you use maya only?
Well, im trying to get an good portofolio in the air as soon as my skils are improved at the moment it wouldn't have any use for me. If you portofolio is done, could you post the link someowhere around?

[agentxi]

hey Unleash,

I just started redoing my portfolio about 3 months ago. And for this project yes, I am only using maya, but i do know 3ds max and Softimage/XSI as well, I've also played with Wings3d and blender over the years. As for having my work online, I do not have anything worth showing seeing as most of my work is well over a year old, and to me is kind of embarrassing to show

I can post what i'm working on in another thread if you'd like, but it's all a W.I.P. (work in progress)

Wow this post is becoming lengthy....just 1 more quick thing, As for advice for your demo reel/portfolio I would advise you on choosing something you love and can see yourself doing as a career and do that to showcase your work. If you want to be a modeller, then show some professional looking models and wireframes they do not need to be animated or even textured (although texturing would be a bonus) Depending on if you want to do film or game the resolution of the mesh would have to be considered as well.

if you want to be an animator, you can download free characters and animation rigs, and then you just animate using those...

the key is to choose something and be really good at it, and to know it inside out. Most companies now will only consider someone with a niche talent, as apposed to someone who is "doing it all" because someone who does it all isn't spending the time to be absolutely great at the 1 niche thing. but on occassion smaller companies will need you to be more versatile.

anyways /end rant.