April 18, 2005
Maya Bevel workaround
My last Maya related post, It's Official: Maya's Bevel Tool Still Sucks, focused on the bevel tool's problems. Here's an attempt at providing a cludgy workaround.
We are all familiar with the bevel tools uncanny ability to mangle anything but the most simple geometry. Instead of hitting your head against a wall trying to get this tool to behave, download the excellent Open Maya Toolbox, and try the following.
Beveling this edge to create a chamfer with the Maya bevel tool would mangle this geometry.
Instead, we'll use the Omtoolbox Split Around Edge tool.
Unfortunately this technique requires a bit of cleanup, and you'll need to select your old internal edges.
Make sure you select those bottom edges too.
Now delete the edges using Edit Polygons | Delete Edge (hitting delete will leave verticies behind).
Yay! A nice clean beveled edgeloop :)
To adjust the offset, tweak the Slide parameter in the SplitAroundEdges node attribute editor.
If anyone has any suggestions for streamlining this rather nasty process (other than using a sensible program like Silo or Wings), please leave a comment! :)
Posted by kitsune at 01:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 09, 2005
It's Official: Maya's Bevel Tool Still Sucks
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Maya. 3DS Max was the first 3D software I learned, and at the time I wasn't aware of just how spoiled I was with good polygon modeling tools. Maya is a superior package in almost every respect, yet its broken poly modeling tools continue to let it down. Hi-end CG software should be able to bevel an edge without mangling geometry!
I was excited to discover while reading the list of changed features in Maya 6.5, that the poly bevel tool had been improved.
Have a look at the sequence below, and judge for yourself if there's been an improvement. I'm simply amazed that Alias can't fix this.. it's really very embarrassing.
Created a cube.
Extrude with offset.
Select an edgeloop.
Bevel with default settings.
Extra edge removed with angle tolerance. Nice geometry Alias!
And a top view in all it's munted glory!
Please fix this Alias. I really do want to like Maya, but this fundamental flaw in the program really lets it down.
Posted by kitsune at 01:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 30, 2005
Brisbane
A few renders from our recently completed Brisbane project. You really don't want to know what the polycount was :)
Posted by kitsune at 01:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack