Maya Sculptie Question

I have a sphere and want to flatten the tops of it and want to know if there is a tool that will do this or if I need to do it manually? Also is there a way to twist it so its like a spiral and lastly is there a way to align selected points automatically? I am using Maya 2009 thanks in advance

Also if I create a nurbs sphere and split in half down the middle isoparm duplicate an instance of it so what I do on one side affects the others then join it back together will this work? I am feeling my way through all this and there just not much of information out there

Sounds like someone skipped the introductory tutorials. If that's the case, I'd strongly encourage you to drop what you're doing for the time being, and go through all the Learning Maya tutorials in the help file (and I do mean ALL of them), in order. Whatever you're working on now will still be there when you're done. But 99% of the stumbling blocks you'd encounter along the way to completing the project (and all projects) will have been removed.

Those tutorials are the absolute best way to get started with Maya. Do not make the mistake of undervaluing them. Don't skip over any of them. Maya is is not something you can just figure out on your own without first acquiring the necessary solid foundation in its basics, no matter how smart or talented you may be.

Unlike with most other programs, Maya's help file is actually helpful. A significant part of Maya's price tag goes to pay for its fantastic documentation. You paid several hundred dollars for that help file. Use it.


In any case, to answer your question as asked, the simplest thing to do is just to select the vertices you want to move, and then snap them into alignment with each other. Maya allows you to snap to grid, curves, points, and view planes. You'll find the buttons for that, right across the top of the screen, near the center. The hotkeys for them are right across the bottom of the keyboard, in the same order, as x, c, v, and b.




There are about a thousand ways to do that, but the simplest would be to use a twist deformer or a bend deformer, depending on what exactly you mean by "twist". You'll find defomers to be invaluable time savers for sculpty modeling. Learn to use them well.

The Create Deformers and Edit Deformers menus are in the Animation section of Maya. They're there because their primary usage is in anaimation (for example, when you see an animated character's eyes bug out when a pretty girl walks by, the inflation of the eyeballs is often done via the application of a sculpt deformer, or when you see a character's lips move, that's often done via a wire deformer), but deformers also make great modeling tools. As with almost everything in Maya, they have many, many, many uses.

To apply a twist deformer or bend deformer, select the geometry you want to affect, and then hit Create Defomers -> Nonlinear->Twist, or Create Deformers -> Nonlinear -> Bend. Notice the deformer itself is a separate node fr0m the geometry, and as such it has its own attributes. You can move the deformer around, and/or adjust its attributes, to change the alter the shape of the geometry in various ways. Experiment to see what does what.

If you delete a deformer, the geometry will return to its normal, undeformed, state. If you want to preserve the deformed shape, simply delete the geometry's history. The deformer will disappear, and the deformation will be made permanent.

Play around with all the various types of deformers, to learn what they do. They're very important tools. Once you get a handle on them, you'll be able to cut your modeling time by at least half, if not more. As I said, they're tremendoush time savers.




I'm not sure what you mean by "automatically". If you mean snapping, then I already just answered. If you man something else, please explain.


By the way, in the settings for the Move tool, you'll find a checkbox for Retain Component Spacing. If that's enabled, the selected group of vertices will move as one unit when snapped into place. The center point of the selection will align snapping, and the other points will keep their relative positions around the center. If its disabled, then all the selected verts will move independently, to jump into alignment with the snapping on their own. Since your goal is to flatten the top of a sphere, not just move the top as a whole, you'll want it disabled.




If you're careful, then it should. But if you're not careful, you can end up with fully or partially inside-out geometry, which will bork the sculpt map. For best results, I don't recommend operating that way.

If it's symmetry you're after, you're better off using the reflection settings in the Move tool. Move a vertex on one side of the model, and the corresponding one on the other side will move in the opposite direction, across the chosen axis. The only catch is you obviously need to be working with geometry that is symmetrical to begin with. Since you're using a sphere, you're all set. Just make sure the symmetry is the first thing you apply. If you need to make any part of it asymmetrical, that's a detail that should be added later.

Thanks I will try that I actually did look in the help menu I get file not found when I click tutorials and everything I could find on the Autodesk site was for 2008 so I am not sure where they are hiding the ones for 2009. I have searched high and low for info on nurbs but the only thing I have been able to find is information on curves and lofting.

Sparkle, the url is [http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2009help/index.html].