Gnomonology Blog » Maya

Maya Modeling: Modeling a Muscle Car Part 1: Modeling the Wheel

RyanKingslien — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:23:59 +0000

In this video Christophe Dess shows us how he models the wheels for his super-charged cars. Using Maya’s polygon modeling tools, Christophe creates all the components necessary wheel, rim, tire tread and hub. Once modeled, he uses XNormal and Photoshop to create a tread pattern which he later uses as a bump map. Finally, he lays out his Uvs and brings everthing together in a final render

Maya Scene: Realistic Skin Material with Subsurface Scattering w/ HDRI

RyanKingslien — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:20:23 +0000

Ian’s Realistic Skin Material with HDRI lighting is a complete scene file using using Mental Ray’s MISSS Fast Skin shader and Final Gather. It includes a low resolution male head, a color map, a displacement map and a normal map as well as the original ZBrush sculpt.

Maya Light Rig for Fake Global Illumination

RyanKingslien — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:15:26 +0000

The Daylight rig simulates Global illumination without using GI. It is fast, simple, and all you have to do is import it into your scene and the default presets yield great results. The rig works with Mental Ray and all you need is Maya 8.5 and above. The rig comes with three presets to get you started, sunrise or sunset, mid day and late afternoon.

GI looks fantastic for stills, but once you try to have a character move through the scene, you will often get a lot of flickering and speckling because of the nature of GI. It is possible to minimize this by increasing your GI samples or by adding Final Gather to the solve, but not without increasing render times. To solve this problem, Leonardo came up with a solution - make a daylight rig that looks like GI, that wont flicker, and that renders quickly.

Modeling a Next-Gen Weapon: Colt 1911

RyanKingslien — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:44:50 +0000

In Modeling a Next-Gen Weapon, Joe Simanello takes us through the modeling and rendering process using his Colt 1911 Next-Gen game model. He begins with a low rez model then sculpts a high-rez version for specific details in the gun barrel and other parts of the weapon. He then moves on to demonstrate how to lay out your UVs for texture painting, how to generate your normal maps and how to trouble shoot common problems with your normal maps. In the final chapter, Joe shows how he adds details to the normal map using Photoshop and Photographic reference. This is an in-depth look at creating an in-game model using Maya and Photoshop and perfect for anyone wanting to learn more about game modeling afor Next-Gen titles.

Christophe Desse Releases the First Chapter of Stylized Muscle Car Workshop

RyanKingslien — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:50:39 +0000

In this video series , Christophe Dese will show the detailed workflow involved in the creation process of his acclaimed stylized muscle cars.

Maya Tutorial: Transfer UVs in Maya 2008

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:52:51 +0000

In this tutorial, Ryan Kingslien shows us how to transfer UVs from one mesh to another with the exact same vert order.
Maya Tutorial: Transfer UVs in Maya 2008

Maya Modeling Foundation Tutorial: Modeling a Basic Hand

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:49:03 +0000

The Maya Modeling Foundation Series covers basic modeling tools in specific real-world examples. Each tutorial is designed to provide a basic overview of the most important tools for a modeler working on a specific task.
Maya Modeling Foundation Tutorial: Modeling a Basic Hand

Maya Tutorial: Modeling a Heroic Human Base Mesh

RyanKingslien — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:47:59 +0000

In this tutorial, we use Maya to create a simple but very useful base mesh of a humanoid male that is 8 heads high. 8 heads is the ideal proportions for heroic figures and perfect for comic book characters.
Maya Tutorial: Modeling a Heroic Human Base Mesh

Artist in Action: The Making of Trin by Alex Alvarez

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:13:38 +0000

Trin was started to create a high-res 4k still image, yet evolved to become a looping ten second animation rendered in vertical HD at 1200×1920 to be displayed on a wall-mounted digital display. Starting from a personal sketch, Trin was created in twenty hours using Photoshop, Maya, Zbrush, UVlayout, Bodypaint and Mental Ray. The entire process was recorded and is demonstrated using timelapse footage, where I explain every step with an emphasis on both the technical and aesthetic thought processes. Level: Intermediate.
Artist in Action: The Making of Trin by Alex Alvarez

Maya Tutorial: Rendering with SSS_Fast_Skin Shader

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:01:33 +0000

Rendering skin with the natural appearance of translucency, specularity and reflection is achievable thanks to the Mental Ray Fast-Skin material. This tutorial demonstrates how to build the necessary shading network and manage the many attributes available. While the Fast-Skin material does have integrated control for specularity and reflections, we also look at how to implement a layered shader that allows for higher level control over these phenomenon. Using a female head as our example, we start from scratch and observe every step of the process, while explaining the logic behind our creative decisions.
Maya Tutorial: Rendering with SSS_Fast_Skin Shader

Maya Tutorial: Creating Believable Eyes

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:58:37 +0000

There is no question that eyes are one of the most critical elements of a character. While there are several way to approach the creation of eyes, this lecture presents an intuitive and quick technique that ensures believability and realism. Starting from scratch, we discuss modeling, texturing, shaders, lighting and rendering with Mental Ray. We analyze photographic reference to determine the anatomical structure of eyes so that our textures and shaders create natural color, bump, transparency, specularity, reflection, refraction and highlights.
Maya Tutorial: Creating Believable Eyes

Maya Lighting and Rendering Tutorial: SSS Shaders, Tone Mapping and Motion Blur

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:56:43 +0000

Styrofoam Helicopter covers mental rays Physical Sun & Sky and issues revolving around its use including texture gamma, proper use with sss shaders, tone mapping, and rendering with clouds and backgrounds. We also explore linear motion blur as it applies to complex rotation.
Maya Lighting and Rendering Tutorial: SSS Shaders, Tone Mapping and Motion Blur

Maya & ZBrush Tutorial: Rendering 16 bit Displacement Maps

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:44:14 +0000

This tutorial covers the following: 16 bit Displacement Maps, Multi-Displacement 3, Setting Up a Mental Ray Render, Using Maya’s Approximation Editor, Using the Imf_Copy Utility
Maya & ZBrush Tutorial: Rendering 16 bit Displacement Maps

Maya Rendering Tutorial: Learn to use Subsurface Scattering

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:39:49 +0000

Translucency is a characteristic of many materials, both natural and man made. From leaves and murky water to wax, sandblasted glass or skin, many objects that may be opaque will still absorb light into the surface. Subsurface Scattering is a rendering technique that allows for the simulation of translucency in Mental Ray. This lecture introduces the misss Fast Simple material and gives an in-depth demonstration of how to set-up and work with the shader.
Maya Rendering Tutorial: Learn to use Subsurface Scattering

Maya Lighting & Rendering Tutorial: Rendering with Jeremy’s Procedural Plums Scene

RyanKingslien — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:38:59 +0000

Procedural Plums discusses how to build rich, useful procedural networks, making efficient use of your time in IPR, displacement mapping water and water material, and a simple sunlight lighting rig.
Maya Lighting & Rendering Tutorial: Rendering with Jeremy’s Procedural Plums Scene