Hi there people! Frustration is big with this one. I'm trying to learn 3D for years now, from time to time, making my own indie game and so on. It's so hard learning by yourself and youtube videos and forums. Most of the times I want to search for something, but don't know what to search for. This particular time, it was about the Maya equivalent of another 3D software feature that's called MatchMatcher (I think) that projects a mesh onto another, deforming it so it fits the mesh under it perfectly. Like, imagine armor ornaments that are perfectly horizontal, but you need to apply to a chest armor that has muscles and stuff, this matchmaker feature, projects the mesh onto the armor and deforms the ornaments so they perfectly curve around the muscles and fit. Like in this picture - 
I need to do the same thing, but for another 2 meshes. I want to make this 3D model so I can 3D print it - 
So far, I'm here - 
The next step is what I'm having trouble with. I need to somehow make the logo fit perfectly on the curved visor and then delete it with booleans difference and leave the desired hole. Thing is...no matter what I tried, watched, searched and read...I can't.
And another thing, I tried boolean/difference with the logo and a cube...and they both disappeared. Which means, my 3D logo model is wrong. That's because, to make the model, I scanned an image in Adobe Illustrator to make it a vector, then exported it using old Illustrator format, then in Maya I Create -> Adobe Illustrator Object, then it's an empty curve, then to make it a 3D mesh I Surface-> Bevel Plus, then extrude it and then Mesh->Triangulate.
Ain't that the worst thing you ever heard? That's because...I don't know another way to do this. yeah, for that specific logo...I can make the 3D model itself, it's easy, but when it's a complicated custom silhouette, I can't recreate it perfectly in Maya so I use this method. The issue is that...booleans does not work well with it afterwards.
So, please, teach me the right way to do those things, point me to a video or something...and if nothing else, at least help me make the logo concave in the visor 3D model.
Thanks for reading!
How to project mesh onto another?
Hello!
Short answer to your initial question: By default Maya can't project a 3D mesh onto another like that (as far as I know). You could instead project the original curve on the surface, then extrude from there, and use that for your boolean.
BUT since you want to 3D print this, let's take a step back real quick:
I would HIGHLY recommend doing it in a solid modeling software package instead. It will save you a ton of headache. Maya is a surface modeling software, meaning the objects you create are just surfaces, not solid objects. Boolean operations in a surface modeling application have a tendency to create terrible geometry that is full of holes and weird issues that a 3d printer can easily get hung up on. (i've gone down that path, it is not fun haha).
A solid modeling software will be able to handle what you are after much easier, and will be more convenient. I used Autodesk's Fusion 360 here for a quick mock-up ( Fusion 360 is currently free as long as you're just doing it as a student or a hobbyist). This took about 30 min to throw together, and it is ready to 3d print. Not only that, it has history so I can go back and edit stuff on the fly and not worry about surface topology:
If you want to go down that path, you can probably get up and running on Fusion in a day with a few tutorials. Outside of the basics, this tutorial series might be a good one to start off with since you're doing a helmet-like thing, and it's from Autodesk. Of note, the UI has changed a bit since this series was made, but the principles are the same:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di8pr9w6Dns
Let me know if you have any questions on anything I mentioned, and I hope that helps!
