Polygons and SL (Maya09)

So im trying to import a sculptie a really basic one i asume. I go through the process of exporting into a bmp and the spiky hell awaits me on SL. Now I went to SL wiki and the advanced upload method tutorial not only seems confusing but the advanced import tool does not seem to work and the optional gui url is broken.
I seem to be running out of options now and im getting a little desperate for some help.
here are some images of what i have.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/falconlegend/1.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/falconlegend/2.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/falconlegend/3.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/falconlegend/4.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/falconlegend/5.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/falconlegend/6.jpg

if anyone wishes to go the extra mile and wants to see the actual maya file just say so. Thanks.

use nurbs instead of polygons
if you really wanna use polygons, make sure your uv fits the entire uv space
you can do this by creating a nurbs sphere for eg. and then converting it to poly
but dont extrude nothing

You seem to be misunderstanding how sculpties work. Sculpties are basically origami. Everything has to be unfoldable into a perfect rectangle. This is one of the primary reasons the exporter was optimized for NURBS instead of polygons. NURBS are ALWAYS rectangular, so there's very little margin for error.

That extruded L-shape in yor sixth picture could never work. You can certainly make an L, but not the way you're doing it. And in your fifth picture, you combined meshes. That's a big no-no. Separate objects need to remain separate. The basic shape of the main object itself in pics 2-4 might or might not be workable. It's hard to tell from the angles you've shown.

You're going to need to learn a new approach to modeling if you want to do sculpties. The traditional poly-modeling techniques you're used to are not applicable. It's all about deforming existing spheres, cylinders, toruses, and planes. That's it. And NURBS work about a thousand times better than polygons, due to how the exporter is set up. If you've never used NURBS before, now's the time to start learning how they work.

There's a ton of material on this forum to read, and I'd also recommend Xenius Revere's classes, which you can sign up for at xeniversity.com.

This thread is as good as any to get started with: /8/bf/343081/1.html. Take a look at the fourth post, in particular.

Note, at the time of this writing, ImageShack seems to be having some server problems, so one sequence of images is missing from the sword tutorial, unfortunately. I didn't keep my source images for that one, so I can't easily fix the problem. Hopefully, they'll straighten it out. If anyone still has it in your browser cache, if you could re-upload it to imageshack.us, or to any other hosting site, and post a link, that would be much appreciated.

use sculpty maker to make precise sculpts with maya..

make a fresh mesh 32 32 (yes poly, with uv (normalization off)), move the vertexes where you want them , don t add cut or else just move or fold (or snap them on the object you want to reproduce) then at least center pivot, move the whole in the center of the grid, not too big not too small, freeze transform, export as obj.

open in sculpty maker set 64 resolution save..

done..

for oblongs use other mesh resolutions.

to have them lod resistant, forget each 2nd vertex on the mesh raw to define the basic shape, mean vertex 1 3 5 etc are shape relevant when far from the sculpt, 2 4 6 etc are only to use for detailing..

Thanks for all the answers guys. There is one thing I want to know based on chosen few's answer. If i start modeling in Nurbs. Do I model of a pre existing shape or can I start with EP curves and such and loft them together?I cold probably make something similar with lofted curves and maintain it as a Nurbs.

Again so far thanks a bunch for the answers.

Simple lofts can work, but there's plenty of opportunity for error with them. The order of operations becomes crucial, and close attention must be paid in order to make sure sculpty-compatible geometry is maintained.

Deforming existing primitives is infinitely more reliable. And once you get used to it, it's at least as fast, if not faster, than lofting.

Deformers are your best friends. They require a bit of almost backwards thinking, if lofting from curves is what you've previously considered to be forwards. But once you've gotten some practice with them, you fly.