question about maya

Hey all. I've been working hard and have what I consider to be a basic grasp of working in maya. One project I'd like to start working on is a sculpted ring.

One thing I'm not sure how to do is, repeat geometry. I'm not talking mirroring, but what I'd like to do is create a torus, and remove all but a section of it, deform and shape it to what I want, then have that piece repeated/duplicated in a circle.

Advice?

If I'm reading you right, what you're looking to do is called a revolve. Basically, you take a shape, and then extruded it along a circular path. In this way, you can very quickly create anything from a wine glass to a spool to a 2001'esque space station, including any kind of ring you could think of.

I wouldn't start by cutting up a torus, though. Instead, start with a NURBS circle. Give it 16 spans, and then shape it however you want either by moving the vertices around, or by using deformers, or with whatever modeling tools you prefer. Just remember to keep it planar (2-demensional). If you make it non-planar at this stage, it might not revolve properly.

When you've got your circle shaped the way you want it, move it some distance away from the origin of the grid, and then move its pivot point (insert key) back to the center. This will allow the creation of toroid, rather than a spheroid, when you do your revolve.

Now, in the Surfaces section of Maya, click Surfaces -> Revolve -> Options Box. In the Revolve Options dialog, set the axis preset to whichever axis you want the extrusion to revolve around, set the segments to 16, and then go with default settings for everything else. Click Apply when you're ready, and presto, you've got your ring.

Here are a few I just made in the last 30 seconds or so:



Remember to freeze & rest transformations, and delete construction history before you export your sculpt map.

I just realized there's another possibility for what you might have meant. If what you're looking to do is duplicate an object some number of times, and have the copies' locations form a circular pattern, that's even easier. Here's how:

1. Grab your source object, and move it some distnace away form the origin of the grid. Then move its pivot back the origin.

2. Click Edit -> Duplicate Special -> Options Box.

3. In the Duplicate Special Options dialog, pick what axis you want the circular pattern to rotate around, and plug in the number of degrees by which you want each copy to turn. It's simple math to figure that number out by the way. Just divide 360 by the number of copies you want. For example, if you want 10 copies, the rotation would be 36. Next type in the number of copies, and click Apply. You'll now have a whole bunch of copies of your object, arranged in a circle.


Again, I'll say don't cut up toruses (or any other primitives). Sculpties require closed surfaces (unless you're doing planes). When you start cutting stuff, you break the closure.

And also again, remember to freeze & reset transformations and delete history before exporting.

your second option is what I was looking to do I believe. I've used revolve before on CV curves etc.

The point for me in cutting up a nurb was to have a section to start off with and then piece it together like I mentioned earlier. I guess in reference to the nurb having to be solid, once I've duplicated the pieces, shouldn't it all be in one piece and solid?

So you know, there's no such thing as "a nurb". NURBS is an acronym. The S doesn't make it plural; it stands for a word. NURBS stands for non-uniform rational basis spline(s). If you remove the S, you render the term nonsensical, since "spline" is the only noun in the whole thing. All the other words are adjectives, describing what kind of spline you're talking about.

The correct thing to say would be "an NURBS surface" or "a NURBS model" or "a NURBS primitive", etc. , not "an nurb".


I really don't get why you'd want to do that, sorry. It seems like a very convoluted approach. There are much simpler and more effective ways to deform a torus, if that's what you're trying to do.

If you explain more about what you're trying to make, it would probably be helpful.


If you duplicate an object, all you end up with a bunch of individual copies of it. If you want them all to be a part of one single object, you need to attach them all together (which is not always easily possible). Otherwise, they remain separate. There's no way they can all become combined simply through duplication.

Hi, I tried your first set of instructions, Chosen, to make a torus and upload it into SL, but I failed. The torus seems to be cut up in the middle in SL. Before I even exported the model, I did the delete history, freeze transformation, reset transformation, and delete history again in Maya. The part where you showed to make the NURBS circle into a Torus in Maya was successful, though.

Here is a snapshot of the torus in SL...



***Sorry for the huge image.

What's your stitching type set to in-world? If it's currently sphere (default sculpty type), change it to torus, and it should fix the problem. In the newest viewer, you can change the type directly in the editor. In older viewers, you'll need to use a script to do it. See http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/PRIM_TYPE_SCULPT for more information on the latter.

wow thank you very much! I forgot to install the new viewer and in the new viewer the torus came out fantastic.