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Polygonal modeling improvement

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Message 1 of 11
szabolcsmatefy7891
2763 Views, 10 Replies

Polygonal modeling improvement

I'd like to see:

 

Bevel that makes no bevel on internal edges in polygon mode

 

Connect that allows you edit the number of segments and curvature simulaneously

 

Connect that allows snapping on edges on specific incidence angles. In Softimage using the Ctrl-Shift modifier allowed us to connect an edge perpendicularly to another. So the new connecting edge hit the edge in right angle. Awesome tool

 

Tweak or Move tool like in Softimage would be really lovely

10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11

Thanks for the feedback.  I should introduce myself; I'm Trevor, I work as a designer at Autodesk focusing exclusively on Modeling & UV workflows in Maya for the past 2 years.  I was hoping you could give me some more information on your post:

 

- "Bevel that makes no bevel on internal edges in polygon mode"

  - Our team worked on improving Maya's Bevel algorithm in the 2015 release and I want to make sure we paid attention to all the problems our users have been facing.  For example, we fixed the fact that bevel no longer loses shader assignments and properly preserves UVs while beveling.  Additionally, our developers worked hard on correcting the math so that newly beveled edges remain parallel (and don't skew in certain cases like they did in earlier releases).  We had a deep look at Softimage's bevel code all last year, making sure we learned as much as we could from it (it does a lot of things correctly).  So, all that to say, I was wondering if you could give a visual description of the problem you're outlining here so I can test it on my end and make sure we covered this problem in our most recent release.  Of course you can try out the same on your end with the latest release if you have it, or download the trial.

 

- "Connect that allows you edit the number of segments and curvature simulaneously"

  - Have you tried the Connect Tool in our Modeling Toolkit?  In Maya 2014 or 2015, open the Modeling Toolkit panel (Edit Mesh > "Show Modeling Toolkit" in Maya 2014, or Mesh Tools > "Show Modeling Toolkit") and click "Connect" in the Mesh Editing Tools section; you have the ability to connect multiple component types (vertices, edges, faces) together in a single operation, edit the number of segments and pinching/sliding on the fly, etc.  Let me know if this bridges the gap you're seeing in Maya, or if I'm misunderstanding you.

 

- "Connect that allows snapping on edges on specific incidence angles. In Softimage using the Ctrl-Shift modifier allowed us to connect an edge perpendicularly to another. So the new connecting edge hit the edge in right angle. Awesome tool"

  - With Maya 2014 & 2015, you can accomplish the same thing in as few steps (of course let me know if you disagree Smiley Happy)

    - Multi-Cut: In Maya 2015, Multi-Cut replaces Maya's old Interactive Split and Split Poly Tools, offering a tool that combines all the features from those legacy tools along with Cut Faces and Insert Edge Loop - kind of like a swiss army knife for poly cutting.  Once you activate this tool (also found in the Modeling Toolkit Panel), you hold shift to snap to percentages along an edge (i.e. 50%) and then Shift-click again to snap to the center of a different edge.

    - Connect Tool: Found in the Modeling Toolkit, select two edges and select "Connect" and a perpendicular segment will be drawn from both parallel edges at the center.

Let me know if you were talking about something else though.

 

- "Tweak or Move tool like in Softimage would be really lovely"

  - I entirely agree.  We're looking into this right now, but if you're looking for some similar features in current releases, you can check out the Custom Pivot Tool in the Modeling Toolkit (again, in the Modeling Toolkit panel, select the Move, Rotate, or Scale tool and select "Adjust Pivot" in the Transform Options section).  This allows you to set your pivot to any component on your mesh.  It's a bit hotkey-heavy (which we're working on improving), so here's some information for you to get started with it:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2015/ENU//?guid=GUID-677E3E8A-3076-4ACA-9736-3E0F47AD6657

 

Keep the feedback coming and thanks again!



Trevor Adams

Maya Design Team Manager, Mudbox Designer, Maya Modeling Designer

Twitter | LinkedIn
Message 3 of 11

This is the bevel issue:

 

http://www.screencast.com/t/oRVaKozn

 

It's obvious that when I bevel a bunch of polygons, their connecting edges are beveled too. In Softimage it works like this:

 

http://www.screencast.com/t/dhpyEQ00

 

Here the connecting edges are not beveled, that's the behaviour expected.

 

Connect issue:

 

In Maya, in the modeling toolkit I couldn't adjust the curvature, just segments/slide/pinch, what is great, but the curvature is missing. There is the Connect Component with the option of Edge Flow. The two function should be merged into one tool.

 

Perpendicular snapping:

 


Multi-Cut seems to be a friend of mine, but if you could add this feature, it'd be my BFF.

In Softimage this is how it works:

http://www.screencast.com/t/9NT7aa8I

The starting cut was cut with CTRL pressed, making a cut in the middle of the edge, the next cut too, but the last two were cut CTRL-SHIFT pressed, wich make the cut perpendicular to the edge to be cut. That is some very nice tool. Consider this as a feature to be add 🙂

 

The adjust Pivot in the modelling toolkit is very cool, I really like it, the only headache happens when you want to deal with an object. In case of object the Pivot is adjusted permanently. It'd be nice, if it would work as in Softimage, so the Pivot could be adjust temporarily for a given transformation, like in this video:

 

http://www.screencast.com/t/5JnlZxCsd

 

That'd be the best behavious of this tool

 

 

And girls and boys, thanks for the help!

 

 

Message 4 of 11

One more thing in pivot subject.

 

If I move the component, the pivot stays in place. In Softimage the pivot moves with the selection, so I do not need to realign/snap it after each transform

Message 5 of 11

With regards to the Bevel issue:

I see what you mean now - thanks a lot for posting the video comparison.  You're right, we need to add a "Bevel Faces" command to Maya that simply bevels the perimeter edges of your face selection.  Currently, all associated edges are beveled and that 99% not what you're looking to do in a case like that.  We'll definitely look into addressing that.  In Maya 2015, we added selection conversion commands that allow you to convert a selection of faces, for instance, to its perimeter (found in Select > Convert Selection > To Vertex Perimeter / To Edge Perimeter / to UV Perimeter.  Also, we added that to the marking menu.  So the workaround right now would be to select a bunch of faces, convert the faces to its perimeter edges (Select > Convert Selection > To Perimeter Edges) and then Bevel.  An extra step in there that we should indeed remove in a future release, so thanks again for the clarification.



Trevor Adams

Maya Design Team Manager, Mudbox Designer, Maya Modeling Designer

Twitter | LinkedIn
Message 6 of 11

With regards to the Connect Tool:


Got it, thanks.  You're essentially asking for edge flow option to be added to the Modeling Toolkit's Connect Tool and for our connect tools to be merged.  I agree.



Trevor Adams

Maya Design Team Manager, Mudbox Designer, Maya Modeling Designer

Twitter | LinkedIn
Message 7 of 11

With regards to Perpendicular Snapping:

Nice.  I like that little feature where you can snap to the perpendicular angle using Ctrl+Shift.  Thanks for pointing this out - we've already got some ideas on how to implement that into Multi-Cut, so stay tuned.



Trevor Adams

Maya Design Team Manager, Mudbox Designer, Maya Modeling Designer

Twitter | LinkedIn
Message 8 of 11

With regards to Custom Pivot:

 

Another great example, so thanks for sharing the video to clarify.  I agree - we need to remove the limitation of the Modeling Toolkit's Custom Pivot tool in Maya only being able to work with components.  Object should be considered as well, especially for a case like you outlined in your video.  Great use case, so thanks again.

 

And yes, I agree, the pivot should update with transformations - that's something we're currently already working on, so as to make the adjusted pivot a bit smarter, so to speak.



Trevor Adams

Maya Design Team Manager, Mudbox Designer, Maya Modeling Designer

Twitter | LinkedIn
Message 9 of 11

If you do these things, Maya will have a better reputation among us Softimage users 🙂
Message 10 of 11

Cool.  Thanks to input from folks like you, we can be aware of certain things that either we never knew about or have known about, but never knew how important/convenient/efficient it was for Soft users.  There's no reason why we can't have the best of both worlds, so thanks again for your input - you've given me some solid ideas to work with, no doubt.



Trevor Adams

Maya Design Team Manager, Mudbox Designer, Maya Modeling Designer

Twitter | LinkedIn
Message 11 of 11
d-e-a-n
in reply to: trevor.adams

hi,

 

i do have a few additional notes:

 

- the "reflection" (symmetry) function in the modeling toolkit, should also be available WITHOUT having to define an edge first. it's really an annoying interruption of your workflow, if you have to define this middle edge, before you can tweak your model. it's of course cool to have this possibility if your working on a posed model or if you want to add or remove geometry. but the other way arround is even more important, as it is more often the case, if you just want to quickly tweak (move, rotate, scale) points. i tried the "tweak mode" within the move tool, but it's not the same. the tweak mode within the modeling toolkit, is much closer to the tweak tool (m tool) in softimage, except for the annoying need of defining the symmetry edge first.

 

- right click should more often be used to "end" or "exit" the current tool, instead of hitting return on the other side of the keyboard, which also interrupts the worklfow, especially when working with a tablet.

 

i think the modeling toolkit is going into a good direction. as a long-term softimage modeler, this makes the transition a lot easier, so thank you for that.

 

generally spoken, within softimage the tools feel way more combined in a very clever way, where in maya very often it feels like having to do twice or more clicks to get to the same result, which means in the end, it takes way more time to create stuff. multicut and quaddraw are very good starts here. transfer this functionality to the other tools. 

 

One example:

in softimage, if your in the tweak mode (m - tool), you get this small HUD where you can also activate slide on surface (j key). btw, would be awesome to have this HUD functionality in maya, because it's so much faster than using the hotbox or the side panel. now, if you press alt + MMB, you can slide a complete loop instantly. no need to select the edgeloop or anything, just press  alt + MMB and then click the edge you want the loop to slide -> SUPER FAST! 

 

another example:

weld points to target/center. in softimage it's basically the same tool. if you select your vertices and then choose weld points, you can either select a "target" vertices or simply right click to weld to center of all selected vertices.

also in the tweak tool (m - tool) you can activate the weld option in the little HUD, so you can very quickly weld points to each other, without having to select something first. again -> SUPER FAST!

 

please take a close look into the tweak tool (m - tool) functionalities in softimage. it's really powerful and a core tool within the modeling workflows of softimage.

 

sorry if some of these points are already integrated in 2015. i'm currently playing with maya 2014.

 

anyway, hope this helps

 

 

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