- 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
EXPLICIT, R-RATED NURB TESSELLATION
Sorry, nothing too racy here, just a steamy hot tip that can dramatically speed your renders and reduce your modeling. Maya breaks a beautifully curvaceous NURBS surface into a polygonal mesh during the act of rendering, and it usually does a reasonable job of setting the amount of tessellation required. But as with all automatic things in Maya, it is best for you to decide what is proper. Pick a NURB surface, go to Attribute Editor, Tessellation, Advanced Tessellation, and enable it. If you check Display Render Tessellation in the Tessellation box above, you can compare what Maya is suggesting to a more optimal setting that you might make. Use Stick to Mode U, V of Per Span # of Isoparms, and raise and lower the Number setting until that chunky monkey becomes as smooth as a baby's behind. And you thought there was no nudity involved in this tip.