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So, I'm finally making an active move to Maya. I'm comfortable with it, my college taught it 10 years ago and I've had the odd job here or there, I'd just like to reach a similar level of proficiency to XSI. I'm trying to get my modelling up to scratch so I'd like to run some of my thoughts by some Softies, see if there are better brains to pick

My normal Softimage workflow for character work was to have a poly mesh of one side of the character, make a live Subdivision copy and then put a Symmetrize on that. That allowed me to work on a cage of the model while seeing the SubD of the 'final' (generally took it to about 70% before adding the non-symmetrical stuff. I was a bit surprised to see that the Maya way is still to work on half, Duplicate Special > Instance with a scale of -1. Is there a better way?

At the moment I'm retopologing a sculpt out of Zbrush. In XSI I used the above workflow with a Shrinkwrap thrown in and everything was good. To give Maya it's due, Quad Drawing in the Modeling Tools seems quite efficient. There are just a few things that seem odd to me. With Quad Draw active I can add or remove complete edge loops but not individual edges. This makes redirecting loops difficult. What I'm doing at the moment is Insert Loop (ctrl click), deactivate Quad Draw, delete edge (delete key), activate Connect, drag between verts, right-click Complete Tool, reinvoke Quad Draw. Please tell me that's me missing a shortcut key or something?

WolfSpinach wrote:Is there a better way?

I think "they" want to convince "us" of using this instead:
Enable topological symmetry in the Modeling Toolkit ;)

WolfSpinach wrote: My normal Softimage workflow for character work was to have a poly mesh of one side of the character, make a live Subdivision copy and then put a Symmetrize on that. That allowed me to work on a cage of the model while seeing the SubD of the 'final' (generally took it to about 70% before adding the non-symmetrical stuff. I was a bit surprised to see that the Maya way is still to work on half, Duplicate Special > Instance with a scale of -1. Is there a better way?

Not really an answer, anyway. Used to use SI Clone operator for many similar purposes, including scale -1. Mainly for hard surfaces. Intensively tried the first Maya 2016 this spring, didn't find any of these duplicate specials (in this version), able to re-assemble SI clone, which functionally is end result of one construction history, used as start point of another one. Occasionally found it as possible, by creating exactly the same functionality in node editor, just plugged the 'out mesh' of one node into 'in mesh' (or something like) of another node.
To be fair, found some Maya features nicer, like painting the smooth, or remembering the last used options. Tilde key for activating the temporary tweak is nice too.
While Maya modeling definitively is closest to what I've used to use in SI, sad part of story is, that complete re-assemble of workflow, simply is pointless and not possible at all. At some point, I'll be forced, just to put some nice habits, existing through decade, into history. Well that's it.

Mathaeus wrote:... Intensively tried the first Maya 2016 this spring, didn't find any of these duplicate specials (in this version), able to re-assemble SI clone, which functionally is end result of one construction history...

You can parent a shape to different transform nodes (sharing the same instance).

1. Select the shape.
2. Select the transform node.
3. parent -s -r -add ;

By the way, this works with ANY shape node (i.e. in rigging we usually add attrs to a shared locator shape in order to recreate Softimage's "proxy parameters"... well, kind of).

Cheers!

csaez wrote:

Mathaeus wrote:... Intensively tried the first Maya 2016 this spring, didn't find any of these duplicate specials (in this version), able to re-assemble SI clone, which functionally is end result of one construction history...

You can parent a shape to different transform nodes (sharing the same instance).

1. Select the shape.
2. Select the transform node.
3. parent -s -r -add ;

By the way, this works with ANY shape node (i.e. in rigging we usually add attrs to a shared locator shape in order to recreate Softimage's "proxy parameters"... well, kind of).

Cheers!

Not an answer, again , I'm afraid. I talked about SI clone, which is what I've described, not instance in Maya - Max style .

Performance wise is waaaaaaay better than having an expensive copyop going on (at least from a rigging POV... we used to copy selectively through ICE as a workaround to copyop slowness on the rigs of the latest production I worked on, not fun at all).

But yeah, haters gonna hate

I think it's about modeling. Closest Houdini equivalent to SI clone is called 'Object Merge' - while H is able to take the start point, anywhere from history, SI takes the end result.
Now I will not ask for legendary, 'how to hide polygon in Maya' - so, not to hide entire object, just some polygons.

@WolfSpinach: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/ ... 4-htm.html

Ctrl + Shift + Click a component

EricTRocks wrote:@WolfSpinach: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/ ... 4-htm.html

Ctrl + Shift + Click a component

Unfortunately that seems to delete a whole loop, unless I'm doing something wrong. I like XSI's use of left-click/middle-click to distinguish, but Maya uses that for delete/move component. Unless I've missed something, which would make me happy

Delete Components in the Help Document : https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/ ... 3-htm.html