Re: Too many polys - ways to correct

[derrhama]

Hi there,

I am new to Maya 7 (crossing over from Cinema 4D) and am currenlty going through the "Sub-D/Poly" monster modeling kit.

My question is this: I noticed that when the instructor changes from subdivisions to poly just prior to detaching and reproducing the monster's back toe, the subdivisions convert quite nicely into manageable polygons. He is able to detach, duplicate, and reconnect at will.

When I try to do it, I convert SubDs to Polys and I get a much more complicated mesh, which makes the duplication, detachment more of challenge. I have tried to mess with the conversion settings, but have been unsuccessful in attaining the very simple polygon conversion.

Any help?

Thanks

[laxman]

There are two main options in the convert sub-d to poly option box. First there is adaptive. That will take each line you see when you hit '3' on the sub-d object and make it an edge in the poly object. By changing the divisions to 2 per face what happens is that each face is divided once (in each direction) creating twice the number of edges in each direction. That will let you make the poly object as dense as you like.

The second option is adaptive. What that does is it make one vertex on the poly object for every vertex in the sub-d object. By changing the vertex level option, you are telling the computer to make one poly vertex for every vertex on level 0 of the sub-d object. If you make the level one, then the poly object will be more dense because there will be one vertex for every vertex on level 1 of the sub-d object.

I hope this makes sense. Now the settings use are probably shown in the vid (I don't have it with me right now) but you should be able to figure out something that works. I'd try using the adaptive option first and see what kind of results you get. Remember to hide the original object so that you have a backup incase something goes wrong.

[derrhama]

Laxman,

Thanks for the very helpful guidance.

I went into the menu as you suggested. What worked best for me was to place a limit on the vertices - that really got the subD to Poly conversion blocky and managable (just like on the Poly/Sub-D video).

D-