- 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
TESSELLATION VERSUS CVs
As we just covered in the previous tip, subdivisions are a necessary parameter to define adequate rounding of NURBS curved surfaces. Many fail to consider, though, that within modeling, the biggest factor affecting render times is subdivisions (tessellation settings) and how they are related to CV count. One can easily magnify the render time by multiple factors if subdivisions are not properly understood. For instance, many surfaces have a flat component where a subdivision of 1 is all that is necessary. Remember that subdivision settings are relative to the span between isoparms, not the length of the surface. Therefore, if isoparms and the corresponding CV count are high, fewer subdivisions are needed. The inverse is true as wellif you have fewer CVs to describe an object (a good goal), then more subdivisions are required. You can see this is a push-pull relationship, and there are no magic numbers to define just how many CVs are necessary. Typically, it is best to rely on setting finer tessellation instead of adding CVs, which will build up the file size. The main point is to understand what your settings accomplish and optimize just to the point of noticeable faceting, as dictated by the proximity of the object. Setting manual subdivisions is a tedious affair, but if you integrate it into your workflow after each element is built and drink a pot of coffee at each sitting, it goes unnoticed.