My first (Simple) Model in maya LT

[p4in]

Hey guys, so the last time I did any 3D modelling was abouts 3 years ago when I went to Uni. The only program we were taught was 3DS Max. Since finishing uni I havnt really done any modelling (Couldn't afford the software mostly) and I have had other stuff to deal with. 

I really wanted to get back into 3D as I would love to work in this field (as a game artist). When I researched into what was available I still can not afford the full packages Autodesk offer (3DS Max mainly because I already have had training in this, and Blender was far to complicated to get into for me) however I came accross this Maya LT.

When I attended uni I used to stay clear of Maya as I thought it looked a bit intimidating and hard to use. I couldn't have been more wrong. 

By releasing Maya LT you have made it really affordable for people like myself to get back into the thing I love doing. Although I am just starting out and I am just doing very basic things I really am enjoying myself. I still have thousands of questions and confused about some things but I guess and hope with time and experience that I will learn how to do more complex things.

I thought I would post my first test model here. I know its nothing fancy but with some of the learning material that is provided I managed to make my own simple model within a day. I even learned how to unwrap it in the same day.

Because there is no Renderer in Maya LT I used Marmoset Toolbag 2 to render the model (Never used this either as I would normally have done everything in 3DS Max)

Just thought I would post this as a sort of thank you and just to say to you guys at Autodesk and this community that what you guys are doing is great. £25 a month is a fantastic price and you have made this affordable for people on lower incomes.

I have a quick question actually now after being reminded when posting the render above. Is it possible to bake an ambient occlusion map in Maya LT ? I used to do this in 3DS Max just to add some detail for the diffuse map.

[paulkind]

Hey P4in,

Nice work.  I swear i know your nick (P4in)..  maybe its fairly common.  Anyhow, yea, nice work. 

As for baking AO, thew aswer is YES!  Its actually very easy.  YOu will use the texture baking tab, in there you should find the Turtle Baking tools.  First set up your prefrences (Target Model, Refrence Model)  etc and you can do all your baking there.  There are some specialty settings in there also.  It is pretty straight forward though so Ill let you play with the tools and you can let me know via this forum if you have trouble and where.  If you do not have a high poly and are just baking AO, simply set your target and leave the source blank.  Other than that you should be pretty much good.  Let me know if you find any problems or trouble and ill help you through it.

[p4in]

Thanks for the reply Paul!, I just tried doing what you mentioned but if I click on the Turtle Texture Baking button I get an error saying "The renderer turtle is not registered yet."

I am using a desktop subcription and just downloaded it yesterday is there something I need to do to get the turtle settings registered?

[remimcgill]

Hi, this is likely because the Turtle plugin is not loaded.  Go to the Windows/Preferences/Plugins and turn on the Turtle Checkbox.

Please let us know if this works for you,

Thanks,

Remi

[p4in]

Thanks remimcgill that worked!, is it normal that everytime I open up Maya LT it verifies the license and sends me an email each time thanking me for registering ?

[remimcgill]

If you are on rental it's normal that it checks the license on startup, but it seems odd that it is sending you an email (Although quite polite).

I'll ask about it around here.

Cheers,

Remi

[remimcgill]

I also wanted to note something else about making renders in Maya LT.  It is possible to do nice viewport renders in Maya LT with effects like Anti-Aliasing, Shadows, Ambient Occlusion.  You can do this by using the Windows/Playblast tool, this can make animated previews but also large images.  

Maya LT Viewport 2.0

Shadows you need to turn on in the light you are using as well as the options in the Shading Menu.  Some of the effects you need to turn on in the "Options" menu in the viewport toolbar.

We have the DX11 shader on Windows that allows you to use a lot of different maps, even displacement and image based lighting

Also if you want advanced shading behaviors we have ShaderFX www.shaderfx.com which allows you to create whatever shading graph you would like for custom effects.

ShaderFx Advanced Eye Shader by Ella Svahn

Cheers,

Remi