- 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
AUTOTRACING FOR FUN AND PROFIT
Frequently, we are asked to do things we would rather not do, such as trace the entire shoreline of every continent on Earth. If you are paid by the hour, this might seem like a good deal, but another approach is to automate such menial tasks, which, if I remember correctly, is why computers were invented. Unfortunately, we do have to trace intricate artwork primitively on occasion with NURBS curves, so a rather nice alternative exists using a package designed primarily for graphic artistsAdobe Streamline. After scanned raster artwork is vectorized in this package, most graphics users will fail to see why DXF is provided as an output file type. 3D geeks will certainly see this as a GOOD thing in Martha's words, so at the push of a button, the work of a million monkeys is performed, and all the coastlines are yours in very fine detail (CV count) if desired. Remember that Maya DXF import in version 5.0 requires you to load the Dwg Translator plug-in from Window, Settings/Preferences, Plug-in Manager.