New Gallery Images

The 3DTutorialZone gallery as two new images ladybug and Wood Grill.

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Tip: Unlock Normals

Sometimes when importing and exporting models, their normals get messed up. You can tell this because most likely there will be strange black spots on the model. What sometimes will be a quick fix will be to select the model and, on the polygonal menu set, go to normals>unlock normals. These problems happen sometimes when working with .obj files. A way to find out if this needs to be done is to go to normals>vertex normal edit tool. If the normals (hairs) are yellow, that means they're locked. The reason this happens is because when the normals are locked their X Y Z position hasn't changed even though the model has.

Maya Shaders

Here's a list of Maya shaders I've created.

Weaved Wood

This wood was created using only hypershade. Because of this, the shader doesnt need to have any texture files (one is included if needed). The shader can easily be edited for personal taste. This shader is part of the hypershade tutorial that Im writing for the Area.


link - http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/shaders/5534.html

link - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_shaders/shader_detail/weaved_wood/


snake skin


This is a snake skin shader that was made as a test for a project. It's built completely in the hypershader (no textures needed!). The preview is a screen capture of the shader in the hypershader. It can be edited easily to one's personal taste.

link - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_shaders/shader_detail/snake_skin_2/

link - http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/shaders/5533.html

Glass Block

This shader is good for architectural renderings. Needs raytracing turned ON for it to work. Works best with Mental Ray. Has an attribute so you can quickly set how many blocks you need. The lighting for the preview is this light rig. No changes were made to it. I just imported it and rendered.

link - http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/shaders/5562.html

link - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_shaders/shader_detail/glass_block/

Raw Meat

It's built completely in the hypershader(no textures needed!).
For best results, use on uneven surfaces.

link - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_shaders/shader_detail/raw_meat/

link - http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/shaders/5552.html

Highend3D Signs Agreement with Digimation

Highend3D is now a reseller of The Archive, a product from Digimation. The Archive is a model bank that contains 6,505 models. Click here to read more.

source - Highend3D

UV Mapping Made Easy

If you have a model in Maya you'll know it's a chore to get a good UV map. Maya's UV mapping tool has improved a lot from the original versions, but they're still not as fast as we'd all like them to be. I found this amazing Mel script for UV mapping by Hidra | lab. The Pelting Tools Mel script is great for organic UV mapping. I find it works great for tough to UV map animals like bears. You can download the script here:

http://hydralab.com/pelting/

Or on HighEnd3D here:

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/texturing/3869.html

After downloading this tool you'll be amazed at how many uses for it you'll find.

News: Reflections Part One Is Now On 3DM3

After Emailing the administrator, 3DM3 is now displaying the Reflections Part One and what should be the rest of the Reflections series on their website. Here's the link to Part One.

http://www.3dm3.com/tutorials/noobs/reflections_part1/

And here's the version on my website.

http://www.3dtutorialzone.com/reflections1