New Tutorial: Shelves Part 2

If you haven't read Shelves Part 1, click link. In this part, we'll be covering the creation of shelves and learn how to create icons for them.

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maya blog tutorial - Importing .OBJ Files

Step one - Go to window>settings/preferences>plug-in manager.

Step two - Roll down the list and check load and auto load for the plug-in objExport.mll.

Step three - Go to file>import...; set the file of type: to OBJ(*.obj)and locate your OBJ file.

New Tutorial

Transfer maps allow you to take one model and make another model look like that model through normal maps, displacement maps and bump maps. If you don't know what those are, you should read this tutorial on normal maps, displacement maps and bump maps. This tutorial will cover creating a normal map using the transfer maps tool in Maya.

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3D Search Engine

Most of us, when we want to search for a product we use Google or Yahoo. These work great for physical products, but how about digital products such as 3D models? Well, there's a 3D search engine and its called 3DSN.com. I've tried it a bit and it seems to be very good. Try it out.

New Tutorial - Caustics

In this tutorial I'll teach you how to make a picture of a glass using caustics Some knowledge of the Maya interface will be used for this tutorial like shelves, menu sets, attributes editer, basic knowledge of what rendering is, etc. But still this is a beginners tutorial .

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Adobe Photoshop - Pixel Asspect Ratio Correction

Some times when opening images (especially Maya's default image size of 640X480), a message will come up telling you that Adobe Photoshop has changed the pixel aspect ratio.Most of the time we won't want this because it distorts the image. To fix this, go to image>pixel aspect ratio>square. Now the aspect ratio will be set to the way its supposed to be.

New tutorial - The Basics Of Occlusion

Occlusion is a powerful feature in Mental Ray (Mental Ray is a renderer that comes with Maya as a plug-in). It allows you to simulate perfect lighting without creating a light in your scene.

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Maya Tutorial: Making Cushions

Step one - Create a cube and scale it to the size of your cushion.

Step two - Go to edit mesh>bevel. Select your model and open the attributes editor so you can adjust the bevel to the desired offset. The more offset the softer the box will look.

Step three - Select the box and go to mesh>smooth. Open the options box. Set the division levels to 2. Make sure none of the preserves are checked.

By following these steps you'll create a very soft looking object.

Realistic Trees

Creating realistic trees can be hard, so here are some tips on improving your tree modeling and texturing workflow:

1. XFrog: This is a tree modeling plug-in for most common 3D applications. I use it and I find that its a bit hard to learn, but the results are very realistic. It relies highly on the parent/child system.

Xfrog

2. 2Textured.com: This is a great website for finding free textures for trees.

Leaves


Bark


3. Get a book on drawing trees; even if its pen and pencil, it'll still teach you the general anatomy of a tree.

Tip: Download The Bonus Tools

This is just to remind everybody that there are bonus tools that come with Maya and they're really quite helpful. They're made by Autodesk and the can be found on the Area.

Maya 2009 - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_plugins/plugin_detail/bonus_tools_for_maya_2009_win32/

Maya 2008 - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_plugins/plugin_detail/bonus_tools_for_maya_2008_win32/

Maya 8.5 - http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/downloads_plugins/plugin_detail/bonus_tools_for_maya_85_win32/


(All the links to the bonus tools above are for Maya on a Win32 machine)

Help: Why Can't I See That My Objects Are Reflective Even Though I Assigned A Higly Reflective Shader? (The rendering software is Maya sotware)

The reason for this is because for reflections to be computed you need raytracing to be enabled. Open up the render settings (go to window>rendering editors>render settings). In the render setting window, click on the tab Maya software, roll down to the tag Raytracing Quality, and check Raytracing.

Tip: Actually Watch The Essential Skills Movies

A lot of times on forums I see that people wouldn't need to ask basic Maya questions if they had just watched the learning movies that pop up when you first start up Maya. So before you check Don't Show This Message At Startup and close it, watch the movies and then close it. If you want to see them again, go to help>learning movies.

Tip: How Can I Attach Paint Effects To A Pre-existing Curve?

First select the brush you want to use either from the visor of the shelf. Now select the pre-existing curve and, on the rendering menu set, go to paint effects>curve utilities>attach brush to curve.