- ALIGNED IMAGE PLANES
- ALPHA ONION SKINS
- MAYA CARD TRICKS
- MAPPING VERSUS MODELING
- INSERT HERE WHILE DRAWING CURVES
- EXPLICIT, R-RATED NURB TESSELLATION
- TESSELLATION VERSUS CVs
- LINEAR VERSUS CUBIC HEROICS
- CONSTRAIN THOSE UNRULY CURVES
- THE REVOLUTIONS WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
- BI-RAILING THE MISSING GLASS SLIPPER
- SLIPPER REBUILDING
- SHADY, UNDESIRABLE ELEMENTS IN MAYA
- RANDOMIZE THOSE CVs
- JUNKYARD DUMPING SIMULATION
- USE OF PHOTOSHOP AS A MODELING TOOL
- AUTOTRACING FOR FUN AND PROFIT
- PHOTOSHOP PATHS TO MAYA CURVES
- WRESTLING WITH DISPLACEMENT
- ANIMATE YOUR MODELING
- SET SUBTLETIES
- TRANSFORM TOOLS SHORTCUT
- INTERROGATING POINTS AS TO WHERE THEY LIVE
- FACE PROPOGATION VIA SHELL IN POLY SELECTION CONSTRAINTS
ALPHA ONION SKINS
A variation of the last tip is to map a reference image onto a NURB or poly card instead of using image planes. If the reference image is a drawing or is linework-based, copy the Color channel into the alpha in Photoshop, invert it, save it as a .tif, and then map it with a File Texture to the Color channel in a basic Lambert shader. The alpha will be respected when textured shading is used, turning the card into a transparent onion skin of linework. Next, turn down the Alpha Gain in the File texture node to fade it into the background and align as in the previous tip. Now place them into a layer and use Reference display mode to avoid selecting them during your modeling. They basically become 3D overhead transparenciesa bit more interesting than your garden-variety bar chart, however.