This is about the next gen of 3D modeling and texturing at ARC, but first, I’m so sorry I’ve been away for so long. I really needed to reset my whole life, and I’ve done so by loving God, loving my wife, and loving my children, putting all their needs first. So, I moved all the extra work to the side… clients, video training, art, research, web dev., social media, …everything. The Next Gen of 3D Modeling and Texturing Last semester, I changed Intro to 3D Modeling. We didn’t just model, but went through a major change of unwrapping and…
This is from my recent teachings of 3D Rigging and Rig Building. What is rigging and rig building? Rigging is the process of articulating movement for a 3D asset, creating controls and tools to be used by the animator for any asset, creating user interfaces within the software environment, and designing the deformation of the character to meet the aesthetic or believability of the project. Rig building is the process of creating tools to support the development of new rigs and rig concepts, such as a tool to create viewport controllers usable by the animator. Due to the frequency of…
I’m so pumped! I made the showreel the same night my students presented their work. Here it is! 2016 3D Character Modeling from Matthew L. Stoehr on Vimeo. One student, Charles Kinter, took it upon himself to 3D print the characters. I’m really excited to hold their work in my hand.
Chapter 9, the final chapter for Intro 3D Modeling in Maya 2nd Ed, is complete! Chapter 9 covers layout, lighting, and rendering for Introduction to 3D Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. Free to anyone who has already bought the Intro to Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. I’ve already sent email links to download Chapter 9. For anyone looking to purchase 2nd Edition, it’s now included in the purchase, and brings the total number of hours in this training series to nearly 33 hours. If you are interested in only buying Chapter 9, then go here.
This version of my Maya 2016 Preferences were created after the completed recording of Introduction to 3D Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. The file paths, recent files, recent projects, should all default to your own directories. Please talk to me, mattstoehr@gmail.com, if you have ANY problems with the preferences. The keyboard shortcut changes are the following: Ctrl + d uses my Universal Duplicate, read more about that here. 8 opens the Outliner. [ uses the Modeling Toolkit – Connect. shift + [ uses the Cut Faces Tool. ] uses the Modeling Toolkit – Quad Draw. Shift + ] uses the…
Mar. 30, 2016 ver. 0.1 This is useful when importing or referencing a lot of content into a single file, like what I teach in Chapter 9 of Intrduction to 3D Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. This will change the subdivision surface attributes for all selected objects. The Attribute Editor doesn’t allow attribute changes for all objects selected, and the Spreadsheet Editor doesn’t list the Smooth Mesh and OpenSubdiv attributes. The solution is a tool that can simply walk though each item in the selection. I’ll refine this more, and add a UI in due time. Edit: The UI is…
Hey Readers and Prospective Students, I want you to know 3D Modeling and Animation at ARC is really REALLY different than it was even 5 years ago, and I want you back in my classroom. I want you to be successful, because your success is my success. And I want that. So, the more I help you be successful, then the more likely I am successful, too. If you’re struggling with getting a job or creating a job, then I think it’s time you joined me in the classroom again. Technology has greatly shifted in our favor,…
This is student work from the course Introduction to 3D Modeling, Art New Media 420 at American River College. This showreel has student work from Fall 2014, Spring 2015, and Fall 2015. 2014-15 3D Modeling Showreel from Matthew L. Stoehr on Vimeo.
Lonan by Piper Thibodeau is a character designed for a 3D animated short film called Sidhe. Piper and I met on the twitterverse. I noticed one day she was struggling to sculpt her cute character in Zbrush. After mentioning I would enjoy creating this character, Piper promptly offered me money to created Lonan. I was happy with her offer, but in exchange I asked to use her character in my up-and-coming Character Modeling training. She gladly gave me permission to use her character in exchange for creating it. In good form, I decided to make the character first, deliver a…
It took a long time, but it’s here. Chapter 8, Solving Modeling Problems with Rigging and Dynamics for Introduction to 3D Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. Free to anyone who has already bought the Intro to Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. I’ll email links to download Chapter 8.
They are yours to use as you wish. The first tool creates a branch-like object based on the length of the curve. Simply draw curves and run the mls_branch MELscript. The second tool is to help speed up the modeling process of the lattice created by the mls_branch script. The instructions are at the top of each bit of code, and are very simple to use.
This is 26 minutes from Chapter 7 of Introduction to 3D Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition where instances are explored and explained in detail. Instances and Instantiation from Matthew L. Stoehr on Vimeo.
The Sherman Tank model is recognized and received Checkmate Pro from Turbosquid.com! Checkmate Pro isn’t easy to get, and this guarantees our models are well made and ready to go. This model took a year to develop, and is modeled and textured by Brian Jacome. Materials, lighting, and rendering are by me, Matthew. I’ve learned more and more about lighting and color management, and the next one should be even better. The next step is to deliver the rigged and animated version of this tank. Congratulations to Brian Jacome, Jordan Kohler (setting up the tread, teeth, and gears), and my…
A couple samples from Introduction to 3D Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. Combining Meshes Using Linear Bridge from Matthew L. Stoehr on Vimeo. This is my introduction to combining meshes in Autodesk Maya. From this lesson we explore many variations on combining various polygon primitives and polygon scenarios. Cutting and Combining Meshes at Arbitrary Angles from Matthew L. Stoehr on Vimeo. This is another example of combing meshes in Maya. This scenario is based on the first video, but adds a few variable changes and tools to solve the problem.
This video is from Chapter 4 of Introduction to 3D Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. This video training is in production, and is expected to release this August 2015. This video covers basic techniques for identifying errors with polygon meshes using subdivision surfaces. How to Identify Problems with a Polygon Mesh Using Subdivision Surfaces from Matthew L. Stoehr on Vimeo. How to Identify Problems with a Polygon Mesh Using Subdivision Surfaces
This version of Maya 2016 Preferences was created prior to the recording of Introduction to Modeling in Maya, 2nd Edition. These preferences are used just after migrating from Maya 2015. They are nearly identical to my Maya 2015 prefs, but with a few small tweaks. Also, file paths, recent files, recent projects, should all default to your own directories. Please talk to me, mattstoehr@gmail.com, if you have ANY problems with the preferences. The keyboard shortcut changes are the following: Ctrl + d uses my Universal Duplicate, read more about that here. 8 opens the Outliner. [ uses the Modeling Toolkit…
Sherman M4A3E2 “Jumbo” Tank is delivered! Two members of my team, Brian Jacome and Jordan Kohler, have been working on this Sherman tank for the last year. Brain Jacome was responsible for the modeling and texturing, while Jordan Kohler lead the rigging and UI development. These last several days I’ve been lighting, organizing, making mistakes, and rendering, and rendering some more. Well, it’s finally out the door. At least, the static model is delivered to Turbosquid. Next I’ll work on delivering the rigged version, maybe with a bit of animation. That’s where Jordan’s work will shine. It’s been a pleasure…
Ian Berget and I delivered another couple illustrations to the Cherrington Construction Company. This time they are used in a brochure to help sell patents for his Horizontal Direction Boring, or HDB, technology for both the large transitional pipeline and the utility pipelines. Essentially, the client wanted me to re-render the previous image with some upgrades, and create another image for the utility pipes. Ian Berget will be taking point on the next big client projects. This image, below, is all Ian Berget’s work. He did a fabulous job. I highly recommend Ian for this kind of work. The black…
A couple weeks back I finished a product visualization of a Horizontal Directional Boring device for the Cherrington Construction company. This was a tough assignment, and I was given 10 days to finish the project. The owner wanted the renderings fast, and produce a brochure to take to a conference in Denver. I managed to finish the project in 5 days. I really had to reprioritize my work and family time. The sacrifice made by my family and my own free time was worth it. Martin was very happy with my work, and said all the brochures were taken by…
A second model made by Form and Space earns Check Mate Pro status at Turbosquid! Congratulations to Ian Berget, the modeler for the Human Brain. A job well done! A potential buyer asked me if all the parts of the brain are separate, yes! they are all separate. Our next task is to animate the Brain to expose all the individual parts. If you’re interested in buying this fantastic model please go here.
This alligator will be sold on Turbosquid, and has taken Jonathan Camacho over a month to model and texture. I’ve spent all day rendering, and going back and forth communicating with Jon on rendering accurate displacement maps. It’s coming together. I’ve trying different lighting scenarios. This rendering took about 5 minutes. High resolution image – 1920 x 1080 – test render
If you are currently in one of my courses at American River College, or you have bought “3D Character Modeling Volume 1”, then this message is very important. I’ve made a major update to my Maya 2015 preferences to reflect the various tweaks that have been made throughout this semester’s courses. Most of the changes are related to how custom scripts are called into Maya. Each script can now be used an a global script, and you are welcome to continue developing the scripts. You can find the scripts in the /2015-x64/scripts folder. I’ve also included the symmetry and live…
This is an excellent addition to my modeling tools. Written by student Chris Talbott. Enjoy! Use this when your modeling organic characters, and you don’t already have a high-res mesh to live model against. I used this technique in class, and Chris compressed the steps into a single click! /********************** Duplicate and make Live Version .03 Author: Chris W.A. Talbott Chris7Talbott@gmail.com Instructions: Select a object you wish to make duplicate and make live run the script. Process: Object will duplicate and rename. New mesh will be made live and hidden in the outliner, Reselects the original mesh you chose to…
This tool is a “must have” addition to your tools. It’s written by one of my students, Chris Talbott. Enjoy. /*************************************************** Cut a Mesh in half Version .01 Author: Chris W.A. Talbott Chris7Talbott@gmail.com Designed with character and creature modeling as the target use in symmetry. Instructions: Define a target edge loop to define as center and run script. Process: Center will be set on absolute X-value of pivot. The mesh will be cut into 2 pieces along the edge loop chosen. The more -X half will be deleted while +X half will be kept. The remaining half will be mirrored…
Siamese Cat Model For Sale On Turbosquid Modeled and textured by Jonathan Camacho Lighting and rendering by Matthew L. Stoehr
Screenshots of my work this summer. More to come. Cat model is modeled and textured by Jonathan Camacho.
This is a HUGE summer sale! Beginning today, from July 11 – August 9, the next four weeks, you can get any training at Form and Space for 50% off! That’s crazy!! Half off?!? Introduction to 3D Modeling in Maya 3D Texturing Volume I 3D Texturing Volume II 3D Rigging and Rig Building Volume I
You are getting the most recent working version of my Maya 2015 preferences. These Maya 2015 preferences have the same changes as my past preferences with a couple of new tools on the shelf. In particular is the Replace/Add Randomized script, with a UI. These prefs also have my standard color changes (small changes to script editor colors) and a few key tool shortcut changes. I have made many changes to the preferences over the years, and I continue to edit it as I use Maya. This release has a few new shelves with a few of my most commonly used…
I just poking around Deviant Art today, looking for Maya content, and came across Mender. It’s a user interface for Blender that is styled after Maya. It seems to be a pretty good rendition of Maya for the Blender artist. I thought this might be nice for the artists at ARC who are using both Maya and trying to get started in Blender. Here’s the link: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Mender-maya-for-blender-BLENDER-2-6-ONLY-360834749
My Maya 2014 Preferences have the standard color changes, and a few key tool changes. I have made many changes to the preferences over the years, and I continue to edit it as I use Maya. You are getting the most recent working version of my Maya preferences. This release has a few new shelves with a few of my most commonly used tools, such as Path Constraint. If you’re using any of my old preferences, then please download this most recent prefs and install them. I do have the Hero Engines “Hero Tools” installed on my end, you can…
Special Thanks to Jordan Kohler. Thank you for helping me to solve the expressions and ultimately solving the trigonometry. I look forward to your future work. This post discusses issues with a set driven key, finding the change in value of where an object was and where it is (called delta, so we’re finding delta), up vectors, expressions, and other issues. Also, this post shows the differences between a direct and indirect expression in Maya, and how to “trick” the expression. The good news is the tank tread video demo has taken off a little bit, and I’m getting a…
Path Constraint version 0.7 is here already! This version came a little early, but it’s too good not to share. It was only a few days ago, March 7th, when I released the version 0.6 of the Path Constraint tool. I shared it on the Maya forums at CGSociety.org when a user named Farcue asked me to add looping functions for complex curves. Farcue asks: If I had a complex path ––say, a helical path bent in a circle and made periodic–– how would I go about animating objects attached to it via your script so that they moved around…
This is my third public release of the Path Constraint tool I’ve been developing for a little over a year. It has gone through a number of revisions, and is now at ver. 0.6. The former tool can be found here, and you can see significant changes have been made to the path constraint. The biggest change is the use of more expressions to drive the offset, start, end, scale, taper, and twist of the objects along the path. Also, there is an up axis for all objects and uniform rotation for all objects. When you run the tool you’ll…
Like I’ve said in class, booleans are rarely taught for a few reasons, and there’s even a piece of literature in my library about digital modeling with a chapter titled, “Booleans Are Evil”. Well, for a long time, I thought that too, but not because I couldn’t use them, or that other artists shouldn’t use them, but because it’s difficult to explain there use. There are problems that arise when using booleans, but with a little foresight, edge loop planning, the boolean can be very powerful and assist with very complex geometric problems. Traditionally a boolean modeling operation is between…
This covers how to collect the UV data in MELscript by selecting a surface point of a NURBS surface. Monday night I was inspired to add a feature to the way I create “hair” or hair guides; widely known as strands. After demonstrating the most recent version of my strand tool, Jeremiah asked me if it’s possible to find a point on a surface, and generate a strand from that point. He explained it would give a more sculptural, artists, approach to designing hair or other complex organic structures. Basically, where I click is where my strand appears. My approach…
I’ve been working on improvements of this. Previously, I attempted to make a tool that would create a neutral pose. It wasn’t very good. What I want to do is set the current selections transformations to 0,0,0 0,0,0 1,1,1 for translation, rotation, and scale. Why do this? Well, it makes it easier to reset an object to it’s default pose when animating. All I need to do is enter zeros and ones into the transformations, respectively. Of course, the motivation behind this tool comes from my experience in rigging characters in XSI. There’s a very nice, easy to use, Save…
This tool will duplicate a single object and move it to multiple locations of a multi-selection. It could easily be modified to do other jobs, like replace all selected objects with instances. I’ve been researching Maya MEL script more and more. I’ve been inspired lately, by a few projects and art going on around me, to tighten up my MEL. I’ve revisited the duplicate and transform tool. It’s now more efficient, does not use “select”, and uses the -matrix flag of the xform command. This makes a very succinct script and it is much faster. Lately, I’ve been reading the…
Here’s a duplicate and match transforms script. Right at the end of class today someone was asking for a way to replace their stack of cups with a newly textured cup. I came up with this. He’ll still need to delete or hide the old cups, but this will match the cups transforms and preserve the inputs for each cup. Note: there are far better methods I’ve created since this was posted. Search for Matching and Neutral pose scripts for more information. /* Duplicate and Match Transforms version .01 Sept. 7, 2012 Author: Matthew L. Stoehr Source: formandspace.com Objective: Duplicate…
The duplicate tool in Softimage is brilliant. No matter what you select, it will be duplicated relative to the object type. I want that in Maya, or at least some of it. So I wrote this tonight. It’s a start. It will work well in modeling processes. I remapped this script to the ctrl+d, replacing the default tool in Maya. More at cgtalk.com /************************************************ Universal Duplicate version 0.2 Author: Matthew L. Stoehr Source: formandspace.com Objective: Create a duplicate tool that can be universally used for all objects and components. Currently this tool can: if the selection is a polygon, point,…
This path constraint script is developed from my former multi-motion path script. It’s more developed, and is simpler for the user. To use it, select all the objects you’d like to path constrain, and then select the curve last. Run the tool. The order of your selection is the order along the path. Each object will be grouped, and the group will be path constrained using a standard motion path. The user’s objects can be transformed, while maintaining it’s connection to the path via the parent group. It’s simple rigging principles. 🙂 You can then edit the curve, and each…
Here’s a tool for Maya that is similar to a multi-path constraint in Softimage, multi motion paths. Make a new scene, create a curve, create a few objects to attach to the curve, select the objects, and run the script below. string $selection[] = `ls -selection`; int $size = size($selection); //change this to your curve name string $path = “curve1”; for($i=0; $i
One of my classroom assignments is to model a spiraling staircase, or iterated transform of objects. I find this assignment to be very exciting, as it introduces my students to modeling with multi-dimensional arrays. Then my one of my students, Casey, found a reference on Google images that I hadn’t seen before. A sculpture by Peter Coffin at the Saatchi Gallery. Untitled (Spiral Staircase) 2007 Aluminum and steel 670.6 x 670.6 x 213.4 cm Peter Coffin Now, this is interesting, and it peaked my curiosity to try and recreate it in Maya. Start with a radial array. A radial array…
Courtesy of a former student’s guidelines, Scott Grasso, here’s a video demonstrating how to set up a mesh for wireframe rendering for a sub-division surface mesh. It’s quite simple, and I like that. This is perfect for setting up your demonstration reel. With a little more planning, the wireframe can be rendered on a white constant shader, and then multiply that render with the beauty pass to showcase the wireframe over the final render.
In this video I cover intersecting polygon meshes at arbitrary angles using booleans. I place strong emphasis on good planning of the geometry prior to the execution of the boolean. In particular, we’re looking for a clean four point polygon and edge loop flow. The boolean itself will not generate the necessary edge flow, so I’ll show you the interactive split tool, duplicating faces (to create the new mesh from an existing mesh), and merging of vertices, using Merge Vertex tool and Merge, to finish the boolean cleanly. I don’t think a person will need the model created, but I…
In this video I cover a variety of methods for combining meshes together. I start with a very simple one-to-one point count using a bridge. I move on through a few more variations on the same topic, gradually building the difficulty of each combination. I’ve published the most critical pieces of my lecture, and the parts that students tend to ask me to repeat most often. This isn’t intended for the advanced modeler, but if you are, you may find this video has a couple of gems in it for you, too.
I’ve completed the next video on modeling the mug. The emphasis here is introducing the CV curve tool, extruding polygons along the curve, the output/input operator location, and how to manipulate the curve and extrusion operator. Also, the radial menu is not showing in my screen capture, however, I’ve compensated by using the Status Line for object and component selections. It should be easier to follow. Again, this video is not for advanced users of Maya. Note: This video is a summary of key points from the lecture. It’s not nearly as thorough, and isn’t a substitute for the lecture.
Here’s is my reading for this evening on Mental Ray. It’s a serious tome of knowledge. I’ve been using mental ray since my first days with XSI 3.0. I knew this book would help me transition to Maya, and further master my skills in mental ray for photo-realism. Out of curiosity, and to save me time on my footnotes, I searched on amazon.com to see if there is a second edition. There isn’t. I did discover that people are selling this book for near 300$! I knew this book was a good source of information, but I understand now how…
I’ve published a short training video focused on the novice modeler in Maya. This video is not for advanced users. In this video I demonstrate modeling a cup using move, scale, and extrude as my primary tool set. I go on to describe the different subdivision levels in preview and render versions of the cup. This is the same demonstration I do for Introduction to 3D Modeling, Art New Media 420, at American River College. This video is available to registered users. Please use your actual name when registering.
After some more time in the hypershade, I made an occlusion shader that has better results (for showcasing models in demo reels) and is about 200% faster in render time.
A render scene, provided for my students, where you can import the models, parent them to the turntable, and have an animation ready for the demo reel. Here’s a look at the quality, so far.
I’ve modified Maya’s preferences to find a more attractive and efficient use of Maya. There are several changes made to the interface, interfacing colors, component and object colors, and there are keyboard shortcuts reassigned to make modeling much faster. I enjoy Softimage’s look and feel, so I attempted to make something akin to SI. Enjoy! Mac and Windows version below. The keyboard shortcuts are: Extrude = d Bridge = alt + b Bridge Options = shift + alt + b Append to Polygon Tool = n Cut Faces Tool = \ Cut Faces Tool Options = shift + \ Split…
Ulysses Unzueta is a student at Animation Mentor, and was a student of mine. He needed the bag rigged for his scene, so I helped him out. After studying his blocked shot I decided it was best to treat the bag as though it were a spine rig. Only thing missing is FK joint chain for the spine. I’ll add it later. Here is Uly’s work in the refining stage. In this shot, the bag and the rig for the bag is my contribution. The character, Stewie, is a character from the Animation Mentor online school. You can have the…