http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?u=106564 Digital-Tutors helps you make movies, video games and more with the largest online CG training library of thousands video-based lessons. en Tue, 21 May 2013 13:35:08 GMT vBulletin 60 http://assets.digitaltutors.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?u=106564 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=137 Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:23:33 GMT I recently found a soapbox, so I'm going to stand on it. Certain Latin abbreviations are very frequently used in today's English language. One situation is more common than any other, and that's when one is giving an example. This is done incorrectly so many times that I felt like talking about it, even though I'm not really qualified to be yelling about grammar and punctuation. As you can see, I do it anyway.

If you want to give an example (e.g. listing a few types of materials or lights) you are using the Latin "Exempli gratia" which means "for the sake of example", essentially "For example". Therefore it should be abbreviated e.g. and not ex. (or eg. but that's a minor offence). However the major problem occurs when people use i.e.
I.e. is not a sexier way to say "for example"; it doesn't mean that at all. It gets used as "for example" in textbooks and papers all over, which kind of baffles me. What it really is short for is "Id est" which means "That is..." which means "what I mean is..." or "in other words" which means you should follow it up with something equivalent to the preceding statement, not a few examples.
I could say "Maya uses a 3-axis coordinate system (i.e. X, Y, and Z)". Those are all three of the axes; they are not examples. Or I could say "There is only one situation where you should render as an .avi (i.e. when creating a playblast)". Now that may not be practically correct, but i.e. is serving as "that is...", not "for example...".

So why am I being all hoity toity and pedantic about e.g. and i.e.? I don't really know, but I can say with some confidence that if you're applying for a job and your application is fraught with errors (NB: you're/your), you'll be less likely to get it than if the application was perfect, especially if the employer gets annoyed by lack of attention to detail. I guess for me it prevents smooth reading when I have to stop and figure out if the writer meant e.g. or i.e. It's often obvious, but I still find it slows me down, and I could be doing more important things like writing persnickety grammar blog posts. It's really not a big deal, but how will people know the difference if no one tells them? So there you are (i.e. (e.g. vs. i.e.) :)). ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=137 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=135 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 02:59:58 GMT Create active body 2) Select Container or...]]> You can relatively quickly use dynamics to place objects on surfaces, or randomly place them in containers using this method that ensures objects are resting on, but not penetrating the surface:

1) Select Object (to be placed): Soft/Rigid bodies > Create active body
2) Select Container or Surface: Soft/Rigid bodies > Create passive body
3) Select Object: Fields > Gravity
4) (Optional) Select Container/Surface: Inputs - rigidSolver > Bounciness > off
5) Run your sim for several frames until the object is on the surface (you will have to change the direction of the gravity to plant your object on the surface if it's not directly below it (e.g. something on a wall))
6) Select Object: Solvers > Initial State > Set for selected
7) Rewind your sim to frame 1 and Edit > Delete ALL by type > Rigid Bodies (you can delete the grav field too) ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=135 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=133 Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:52:12 GMT Playblast..., and only those frames will be used to create the playblast. Much faster...]]> Member danjay recently posted a handy playblast tip. All that's required to playblast a subset of the frames on your timeline is to shift-drag over the frames you want, thus highlighting them in red. Then RMB > Playblast..., and only those frames will be used to create the playblast.

Much faster than messing with settings or your timeline range. Thanks for the tip, danjay! ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=133 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=131 Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:20:57 GMT I think pretty much everyone runs into this sooner or later, and the first time it happens can be pretty frustrating until you figure out how to fix it.

You might see something like this and wonder "Why can't I see the rest of my model or scene?" Or you may have changed your scene units, and only part of the grid is visible.

Or you might be trying to get nice and close to your model, but the camera keeps "intersecting" the geometry.

This actually has to do with clipping, which you might be familiar with from video games. For example in an older driving game, sometimes the distant landscape doesn't show up until you get closer, or you might bump up against a wall and be able to see through it to the environment box. It's actually important that these "clipping planes" aren't infinitely far away or infinitely close to the camera, because this increases computation time (no need to calculate something if there's nothing there).

So is there a fix for this in Maya when viewing problems arise? Yes, all you need to do is (from the persp view if that's where your problem is) in your panel menus, View > Select Camera, then open up your Attribute Editor and find the Near and Far Clip Planes.

If you need to see further into the scene (like the first image above), bump up your Far Clip Plane, maybe double, maybe ten times, as your need may be. Simplest, add a zero.
If you want to creep up closer to your model, you can drop your Near Clip Plane down (simplest, add a zero right after the decimal). ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=131 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=129 Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:07:14 GMT I just stumbled on a remarkable phenomenon. If you're aware of cross-eyed stereo viewing, such as in this example, http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase/ihelp.html, you'll know what I'm talking about. However, this doesn't only work with still images on your computer screen.

I've figured out how to do it with your keyboard in front of you. Simple stare at the G and H keys and let your eyes go cross-eyed until these keys directly overlap (the right G copy is on the left H copy). Then relax your eyes into focus and you'll have a fantastic hybrid keyboard in full 3D!! It's very amazing, but can take some practice to get right.

I think it works best on high profile keyboards, but laptop keyboards with a lower profile might work too. What's your favorite hybrid key and how does your keyboard look in 3D?

Sturgeon General's Warning: If you have weak medial rectus or ocular ciliary muscles, or have recently undergone laser eye surgery, please refrain from this exercise. Prolonged exposure to 3D keyboards may result in strained zonular fibres. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=129 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=125 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:07:13 GMT I recently asked DT to change how the "what's new" forum feature works so that it's easy to see what software the thread is about. This would alleviate accidental and erroneous replies to an "Animation" thread that was actually about 3DS Max, when someone assumed it was "Animation" in Maya; also, many people are only interested in a couple software packages, so no need to browse every thread.

Well today that's been remedied and I have to say I am so pleased with this company for actually listening to customer feedback! It makes a world of difference when you feel like you are taken seriously and try to implement user suggestions. And this hasn't been the first or second or third time I've seen changes or fixes made when I've had problems or suggestions. When it comes to other companies, this sort of behaviour seems to be pretty rare when it comes to customer support, I just recently got a very lousy and unhelpful response from an unnamed company who didn't bother to read my question, and who hasn't?

So thank you Digital-Tutors, and keep on going with your method of business; you guys oft make my day. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=125 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=121 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:55:46 GMT I'm all about finding faster ways to access tools and options direct from the mouse pointer (aka marking menus). Well tool options is a prime example of this.

If you want to change the tool coordinates from World to Object or turn on Reflection or Soft Select etc. just hold Ctrl+Shift+RMB and you'll get a marking menu with all those tool options and more.

Well, Ctrl+Shift+RMB is three buttons to press, isn't there an easier way? Well, yeah, there is, but I just stumbled on it by accident a little while ago. If you hold q, w, e, or r, and hit the LMB, you'll get the same marking menu. That's useful for when you switch to the tool and want to change its options all at the same time! And it's only 2 buttons. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=121 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=115 Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:49:52 GMT Has been a little while since I've posted last, as I've been busy with my lego project for the July competition (http://vimeo.com/13793075).

What I wanted to type about was something that I've often not done and regretted not doing. Before you start animating, test your "rigs" thoroughly by putting your characters and objects through the works, including everything you're planning on doing with it (e.g. interactions and constraints with other objects, all ranges of motions etc.).

This may seem very obvious to experienced riggers, but this can extend to the very simplest of rigs that aren't really typical rigs at all, just animated transforms of geometry. For example you might realize (as I have done in the past) that it was a mistake to parent the geometry together, when a point or parent constraint would have suited much better. And if you are part way through animating and some situation arises that necessitates a hack-job of visual trickery (again, I speak from experience) you won't be as pleased as if you'd figured out the right way to do it from the start.

Another thing is to animate your camera while you animate your scene. I'm not very experienced in the field of animation, and others might disagree with this for some valid reason, but imagine animating your entire scene with the thought that you'll create a camera at the end and start framing up the action. You might run into spatial problems which would have been obvious if the camera had been placed at the time.

Anyway, those are just some pointers which may or may not be helpful to you. They seem pretty intuitive, but where they come into effect is when you're tight on time, and you think "I need to get animating, I'll figure out the issues as I run into them". Trust me, you'll save time if you think ahead and do some simple tests beforehand.

Hope I'm not coming across as pretentious and patronizing... I'm really just saying "Don't make the mistakes I did!" I'd be happy to hear comments on what you feel is critical to do before starting animating. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=115 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=113 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:12:07 GMT Select Camera btw) or some lights that aren't visible in the viewport. The...]]> A simple way to jump back and forth between elements in the Attribute Editor is to use the Focus menu. This can be handy when you're trying to modify things that aren't readily selectable, such as the camera (View > Select Camera btw) or some lights that aren't visible in the viewport.

The Focus menu shows recently selected items, which can get you fast access to attributes that you want to change. Note that it doesn't select the node in the viewport, but that's not generally a problem. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=113 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=107 Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:50:55 GMT Short version: Uncheck "Center as virtual Trackball" in the rotate tool settings

Long version:
The rotate tool is sometimes kinda useful to use, you know, for rotating stuff. There are red, blue, and green rings for rotating around the X, Z, and Y axes, respectively (see how I didn't go XYZ? Just to keep you on your toes). And of course the yellow ring around all of them rotates in a plane parallel to the camera (try it, you'll see what I mean if I'm not explaining very well). But all that's just background for what for me is a pretty common annoyance.

If you try to grab one of the rotate handles, and miss slightly, you'll be left with a free tumble that rotates to who-knows-what angle. Annoying, right? To turn that off, simply open up the Rotate Tool Settings (double-click on the rotate tool icon, or hit up the middle of three icons in the top right of the screen). Then Uncheck "Center as virtual Trackball". Now if you miss grabbing the rotate handle, all that will happen is nothing (actually you'll marquee select your object in all probability). If you need a free rotate, just check it back on... OR... Ctrl+Shift+RMB with the rotate tool active and drag down to the same option. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=107 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=101 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:04:08 GMT I'm quite sure this is mentioned in at least one DT training kit, but in case it's not or just for tip-ifying it purposes, this is a neat little trick.

Lights in Maya can not only emit light, they can suck light too, like little black holes. For example, create a point light with a certain amount of falloff. Then just set the intensity value for the light as a negative number, and you will get a localized darker than usual area. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=101 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=99 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:06:06 GMT Duplicate special is an essential command for modelling, at least for me. However, basically every time I use it, I need to input different settings. The shortcut Ctrl+Shift+d uses the most recently used settings, so I find it to be virtually useless. Until I decided to remap the shortcut!... Duplicate special is an essential command for modelling, at least for me. However, basically every time I use it, I need to input different settings. The shortcut Ctrl+Shift+d uses the most recently used settings, so I find it to be virtually useless.

Until I decided to remap the shortcut! Opened the hotkey editor, and instead of having Ctrl+Shift+d result in Duplicate special, I set it to Duplicate special with Options. Now, whenever I use the shortcut, the options box pops up and I can quickly input my desired settings.

I hear some smartypants saying "Why couldn't you just modify the settings in the channel box after you've done Duplicate special?" Yes... yes I could do that. But I like the options box for that command in particular. So there you go. Hope it's useful. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=99 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=95 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:48:55 GMT By default the background in Maya 2009 is some grey. That's fine, but sometimes a change is nice. Alt+b to cycle through various background colors. You might like working with a light grey, blue-grey gradient, black or medium grey background.

Okay, I get that this tip is mostly cosmetic. However, you might have accidentally hit Alt+b, couldn't figure out how to get rid of that black background, and came to this blog before visiting the Maya Help Files (I'm flattered, but that's a really bad idea).

Happy background cycling! ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=95 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=85 Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:25:08 GMT It's frequently useful not only to change the pivot point of an object, but also the pivot point of a group of components that are selected.

By default, maya puts the pivot point of the component selection in some calculated middle. However, it's sometimes most efficient to transform the selection based off a different point. For example, you might want to rotate around an exterior point, or scale to one side, or use some snapping feature to move your selection around.

With your component selection made (e.g. a group of vertices) simply hold down 'd' and move the manipulator as needed. You can combine 'x', 'c', and 'v' with 'd' to snap. E.g. Hold 'd' and 'v' and move your pivot point in one axis to snap it to one part of your vertex selection. I believe the regular 'insert' toggle also works well to go back and forth from pivot point changing mode. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=85 http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=73 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:12:04 GMT If you've got a smaller monitor, or if you just want some more room to work in one of your views, it's pretty easy with a couple shortcuts to open up the potential of your screen to an uninterrupted single pane.

Ctrl+Space gets rid of most of the UI (to get it back, repeat the command, or use the hotbox to turn on select elements)

The next three are easy to remember (but hard to remember which goes with which)
Ctrl+m gets rid of the main menus
Shift+m (or 'M') gets rid of the panel menus
and... you guessed it... Ctrl+Shift+m gets rid of the panel icons.

Doesn't that look clean... now get to work.

It's not really fullscreen since there's still the title bar; if you know how to get rid of that, let's hear it in the comments. ]]> stwert http://www.digitaltutors.com/forum/blog.php?b=73