Tollhouse Cookies

[Anm8or]

I decided I would take my hand at this months project. Don't have much better to do til I find some work!

My favorite thing to make on a cold Sunday afternoon is a plate of fresh warm chocolate chip cookies, just like grandma used too! I love this recipe soooo much I know it by memory. And my cookies are quite well renowned and sought after. I also love maya. It doesn't quite bring that warm feeling in your tummy the way a fresh chocolate chip cookie does. But when everything is all done it can be quite rewarding.

So I started my project with a little research on the ingredients. Thought maybe I would get some ideas how to accomplish all of this in the time frame given as well as getting some good images to refer too. I also thought about making a batch of cookies, but I just made some douhnuts so they will have to wait for another day.

Here is some of the eye candy I will be using to help me complete my scene.

yummy

[BlackDeath]

Maya+Chocolate chip cookies= Magical

[brandeil]

LOL, cool !

[Anm8or]

here's a little enticement. and really the star of the show. . .

[DjVoyager]

Excellent choice!

Ah, the craving :D

[Anm8or]

@bravo you must make chocolate chip cookies too, cause you made a great description! ya i definitely need some variation in the tip. . .and i agree that there needs some streaking on the chip. . .also i need to flatten the bottom. . .i think in the scene i am going to have a pile of chips, some chocolate chunks, and some cocoa powder. . .

[Gadgetfun]

I hope to see soon some Preview Renders cant wait to see some progress. :)

[Anm8or]

ok gadgetfun. . .here's a little update per your request. . .having problems importing from RealFlow to Maya. . .which is probably why I havent posted any updates. . .I also have done some work on the chip shader, an egg shader (I am not at all happy with my egg) and a butter shader - I have made a couple of object including a pretty cool oven.

[DjVoyager]

What kind of problems are you having with RF?

The eggs need more rounding at the top but otherwise everything else is looking good. The only issue I have is that you are using very few chips. More chips! :D

[Gadgetfun]

Looking sweet man! the oven is really great. Can't wait to see the finished scene.

[Anm8or]

What kind of problems are you having with RF?

The eggs need more rounding at the top but otherwise everything else is looking good. The only issue I have is that you are using very few chips. More chips! :D
thanks for commenting djvoyager. . .I just don't like the egg's shape at all - I started with a sphere then moved and scaled vertices to shape it and I think I need to redo it using hulls to give it the shape I think it should be.

I actually do have more chips in the scene - or will - the setup I used to export from Maya to RF has 48 chips.

Which now I will attempt to explain what my problems with RF are - I set up my chips stacked 4 x 4 x 4 and above my "bowl", triangulated and exported to RF.

I then made the chips rigid bodies in RF using the mesh option for both the bowl and chips. Simulated the scene and got pretty decent results. . .although I had some object interpenetration I was somewhat satisfied as I was more concerned with some randomization and stacking of objects. I also used low poly objects in RF for the simulation, because I intended to replace the low poly's with hi poly's upon importing back to Maya - this is where the real trouble occurs - if I import without replacing objects the scene behaves correctly. . .if I import and replace objects the scene does not replay the simulation correctly. . .the chips start to fall into the bowl but then begin to behave around what appears to be a centrally located axis and the simulation does not finish or even behave correctly.

I did find that my normals are reversed and I need to recheck in RF if they have been imported reversed as well. . .hopefully this will take care of my problem and not mess with the axis.

Once I have this figured out I can move onto flour and sugar. . .which I have been thinking about quite a bit and have a feeling it will be fairly easy to achieve. . .I got my hands on 2009 and nParticles and the sticky feature is really kewl and I should be able to play with 2009 again in a few days.

[Anm8or]

Looking sweet man! the oven is really great. Can't wait to see the finished scene.
thanks gadetfun. . .I am pretty happy with the oven too. . .need to model a few more things and finish the shader. . .I think the scene is going to have a country feel to it. . .havent totally decided yet and I still have some time. :jump

[Gadgetfun]

i found a nice egg blueprint :redface:

egg blueprint (http://www.aeb.org/kidsandfamily/eastereggs/images/egg_shape6.gif)

Do you put that oven inside a kitchen?

[Anm8or]

i found a nice egg blueprint :redface:

egg blueprint (http://www.aeb.org/kidsandfamily/eastereggs/images/egg_shape6.gif)

Do you put that oven inside a kitchen?
yuppers. . .still have a bunch of modeling to complete. . .surfaces. . .textures. . .lights. . .i prolly need to spend more then a few minutes a day workin on this. . .but its not like I will actually win anything!

[DjVoyager]

Which now I will attempt to explain what my problems with RF are - I set up my chips stacked 4 x 4 x 4 and above my "bowl", triangulated and exported to RF.

I then made the chips rigid bodies in RF using the mesh option for both the bowl and chips. Simulated the scene and got pretty decent results. . .although I had some object interpenetration I was somewhat satisfied as I was more concerned with some randomization and stacking of objects. I also used low poly objects in RF for the simulation, because I intended to replace the low poly's with hi poly's upon importing back to Maya - this is where the real trouble occurs - if I import without replacing objects the scene behaves correctly. . .if I import and replace objects the scene does not replay the simulation correctly. . .the chips start to fall into the bowl but then begin to behave around what appears to be a centrally located axis and the simulation does not finish or even behave correctly.


Are you following DT's poker chip tutorial for this by any chance?
http://www.digitaltutors.com/store/product.php?productid=3334&cat=31&page=1

[Anm8or]

Are you following DT's poker chip tutorial for this by any chance?
http://www.digitaltutors.com/store/product.php?productid=3334&cat=31&page=1
well no. . .but I did watch the first lesson which gave me the idea of using RF for my rigid bodies. . .I may re-try the scene in Maya, but am afraid of the processing and that it will crash my machine. . .when I first tried it in RF I imported the hi-poly mesh and it dumped RF right away after hitting the simulate button!

this is what I found last night when reattempting my scene. . .any help from anyone is much appreciated!

All my objects were transformed - deleted history - centered pivot - freeze transformations - triangulate - export .sd - and this is when the problems begin - the CP for all of the objects (chips, bowl, table top) is at 0,0,0 of the scene when imorting to RF.

I do not know why this occurs, and when I simulate everything works correctly (a few interpenetrations). . .but for some weird reason replacing the geometry in Maya the simulation occurs but everything seems to behave around the axis at 0,0,0. But when I do not replace the geometry the scene behaviors act as they did in RF????????? :confused:

[johnny]

Looking great there Anm8or!!

That oven looks really nice...great job! ARe you heading for an animation or a still? And I wouldn't be so sure about not winning anything, personally I think you're a great contender of course as long as you finish it. Ive spent days on mine already and all I have is a muffin, but the textures have had a lot of work. Anyways looking forward to progress :)

[DjVoyager]

Ive spent days on mine already and all I have is a muffin, but the textures have had a lot of work. Anyways looking forward to progress :)

Let's see that muffin, Johnny :o

[johnny]

Working on it :) Hopefully Ill have a post later...but Ill have to leave the tea out :)

[DjVoyager]

Sorry for the late reply, Anm8or. I couldn't locate my CD, still can't, but as far as I know there is no need to use high poly mesh for your RF simulation. Create very low poly version of the chips in Maya. Position them in rows because the first part of the simulation is to have them fall into the bowl and settle down naturally.
When you are done with the second part of the simulation, I'm assuming it's sprinkling the chips from the bowl, export it to Maya. Parent high resolution version of the chips to the low res version. Hide the low res version.
I don't have RF in front of me but hopefully the above steps made sense. Let me know if you're still facing issues.

[fubar1124@hotmail.com]

your 100% right Dj that what I do it realflow just use a low poly mesh then use a higher poly mesh in maya and parent =]

[shamoii]

Another option is to keep your low poly mesh in maya & smooth with the MR approx editor come render time. Saves having to switch out the geometry which seems to be giving you the trouble. I did similar to this in September fish tank comp with adequate results.

Very nice oven btw. I reckon it looks sweet with ao only. I dont know if I would go texturing it myself.

[Anm8or]

movin along on this slow but sure. . .was hopin to post a nice render tonght but MR isnt playin nice. . .another reason that these little challenges are good. . .everything was goin fine until I started messin with usin PSD networks. . .usually I like to stick with procedural shaders if possible, cause I hate bouncin between programs - so I decided I would do all textures and try to utilize the PSD Networking in Maya. . .I dont know what I did wrong but MR decided it wasnt gonna render anymore for me! so I am gonna start over with new textures as that seems to be my problem!

here's a little scene update. . .added some objects, changed some objects, followed some blueprints, and took some advice. . .thx to all those with input! :bow

[brandeil]

Looking very nice , great job :)

[johnny]

Hey Anm8or, you got some really nice modelling skills there! I really like how those choc chips have come out, and also that you put the eggs in a wire bowl...nice and different. Hope you can get this as far as you can cos it will look good...good luck!

[Anm8or]

Looking very nice , great job :)
much thanks. . .its a labor of love! :jump

[Anm8or]

Hey Anm8or, you got some really nice modelling skills there! I really like how those choc chips have come out, and also that you put the eggs in a wire bowl...nice and different. Hope you can get this as far as you can cos it will look good...good luck!
hey johnny. . .thanks for the kind words - here is a little preview (certainly not my final entry) of my texturing. i just made a list, a little mini war sheet, and have at least 20 things I still need to do. i think i will finish most of them, and the final shot will be similar to what i am posting now. . .i was really hoping to do an animation - but ya know how that goes! :loud_laug

[Anm8or]

how come I cannot post any new images? when i try to upload, i get a quota error? i thought there was unlimited space available?

[fubar1124@hotmail.com]

there is unlimited for the gallery as for posting pics in the forum your limited to 400kb i think...I dont like it either so just deleate some of the old uploads and you should be ok :)

[DjVoyager]

Yes, you can upload any size image to your DT gallery, then right click and copy the link. Put that link as an image in your post here and it should work. Let me know if you have any difficulty in the process.

[Anm8or]

alright. . .I will give that a shot.

Here is my entry. . .Grandma's kitchen and makin tollhouse cookies. I wonder if I had one more day what I would have finished. . .this is the bad thing about the contests!

http://www.digitaltutors.com/uploads/gallery/data/500/Kitchen_Entry_Comp_00000.jpg

[DjVoyager]

WONDERFUL WORK! The models came out very nice given the time you had.

Btw, I forgot to tell you to right click and check properties to get the jpg link, my bad. I've edited your link though :)

[Anm8or]

thanks DJ. . .for the assistance and the kind words. . .the challenge was really a great experience!

[johnny]

ooh yum yum, dont you just love desert! Thats a great job there Anm8or!