Toon Shaders

I'm gong to experiment a bit more with toon shading so here's a link for my reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZfoo6GEOCs

Maya Cross Hatching

I've been pondering how to give a less 'CG' look to my film so here's a link for future reference.

The clip of the rotating shape is ace.

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/duncan/crosshatch_shading

Selection Highlighting

A very dumb problem that was getting to me yesterday. Highlighting on selected objects didn't show up in the perspective view (though it worked on front / side / top etc.)

I knew that I must have accidentally checked / unchecked a box somewhere but couldn't find it. I'm even sure that I tried the "show" menu in the persp view but I can't have been looking very carefully because it turns out that - when I looked again this morning - there it was!

So, to solve the problem: in whichever view you're having problems with go to the "show" menu and make sure that "selection highlighting" is checked. (In my case I had to uncheck and re-check it to get it to work.)

Hope that helps anyone else who's temporarily lost in maya menus :)

Worried pacing movie reference

This is great reference for the writer's worried pacing, it captures some aspects of the character really well: stuck in a bedsit, worried about what's going on opposite outside the window.

The source was Getty Images - http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/worried-man-sitting-at-table-pacing-to-bed-stock-video-footage/mr_00056042

mel scripts: select all anim curves & select all keys

These wee bits of mel have proved incredibly useful recently as I've been doing some shot layout:


This selects all animCurve nodes
select -r `ls -typ animCurve`; 


This selects all keys on all animCurve nodes
selectKey`ls -typ animCurve`;

Maya convert instance to object

My street environment was created with tons of instancing - including groups containing instances which were then instanced in turn. I'm not hugely familiar with instancing but it wound up creating problems in terms of flexibility of editing objects and general bugginess so I decided to convert the instances into objects in their own right.

This, it turns out, wasn't as easy as I might have thought.

I tried various methods including the menu item modify/convert/instance to object. My problem with using this is that you seem to need to do it in the 'correct order' otherwise instances of objects just disappear.

In the end the method I used is pretty labour intensive, but it works reliably without geometry going awol.

1) group all of the objects that you want to apply the instance-to-object conversion to - including all geometry that is (or in my case, might be ;) the originals of instanced geometry

2) using the outliner "expand all" in the group (shift and left click on the + sign next to the group)

3) select all items within the group

4) run this mel script duplicate -un

5) whilst the duplicated objects are still selected group and unparent them

6) delete the original group

7) repeat the above until all instances are objects (this is the labour intensive bit!)

Margarita - Blend Shapes

Blendshapes for Margarita are coming together :)

Just have to tweak her smile a bit, and then polish all shapes so that they work together.

Here are a couple of expressions . . . 

Tech Tips - symmetrical modelling with reflection in maya

OK, I can't decide whether I'm pleased to have found this or gutted that I'd already done so much modelling before I found it.

But I've finally figured out how to keep a model symmetrical when I make adjustments to vertices on one side.

Turns out that the move tool had a reflection setting all along! See the pic below for where to find it.

I'm looking forward to some happy modelling and much less "mirror geometry" from now on!

Maya - easily align vertices

1. Select your vertices

2. Select the move tool

3. Open the tool settings (click the SHOW OR HIDE TOOL SETTINGS button above the channel box)

4. Set it to WORLD SPACE and turn off RETAIN COMPONENT SPACING.

5. Hold X to snap to grid, then grab one of the move handles and move it.

Voila.

Thanks faultymoose http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-425652.html

Maya - snap pivot to edge / vertex / grid

Select your object then hit the insert key. This lets you move the pivot around. Now the trick to get it aligned to an edge is to hold the C key then move you mouse cursor over to the edge you want to snap to. Click the middle mouse button and move the mouse slightly while holding the middle mouse button. The pivot will jump to the edge. While you have the middle mouse button held you can slide the pivot along the edge. You can also do this with the V key for snapping to vertexs and the X key to snap to grid.

Thanks pyromania: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37371