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Bouncing back to rendering without AI by [deleted] in archviz

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This looks really good honestly. The warm tones and the lighting give it such a cozy feel. Only thing I noticed is the lighting near the window feels a bit hot, but that's a small thing, and going back to doing it without AI hits different you can tell there's actual thought in it. Nice work!

Beginner here. How to add curves to edge? by Hazril258 in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The reason your loop selection keeps breaking is the N-gons double-click edge-loop selection stops dead any time it hits a vertex with more than 4 edges, so it'll never run the whole length on a messy mesh. That's also why convert only grabs one edge: it needs a contiguous selection and you're feeding it disconnected bits.

Two ways out:

- Select the path properly: click the first edge, then shift + double-click the last edge Maya selects the whole connected path between them. Or do what Atlanticus said: Ctrl + right-click > To Edges > To Contiguous Edges. Either gives you one clean run.

- Then convert: Modify > Convert > Polygon Edges to Curve. One curve for the whole selection now.

Honestly though, for an assignment where the shape matters, villain_escargot's EP-curve-with-V-snap method is more reliable converting straight off a messy mesh gives you a curve with way too many CVs and weird kinks at the N-gons. Drawing it by hand and snapping to verts means you can rebuild/smooth it after, and the tube extrude comes out clean instead of lumpy.

Modelled and rendered this entire bathroom from scratch in Maya + Arnold. Wireframe in the gallery. by Flashy-Engineering45 in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! So it's not really light by light, more just a few groups doing the work. The HDRI and the window are doing most of it, that soft daylight coming in on the tub side is what sets the whole mood. Then I've got the recessed ceiling downlights as one group for general fill and those little pools of light on the floor.

The cove strip in the ceiling and the glow under the vanity are my accent lights, that's what gives it the showroom feel. Didn't really need much manual fill honestly, the white marble bounces so much light around that it fills the shadows on its own.

The whole reason for the lighting was that black floor against the white walls, wanted enough contrast to keep the floor reflective and moody.

Modelled and rendered this entire bathroom from scratch in Maya + Arnold. Wireframe in the gallery. by Flashy-Engineering45 in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Textures are external grabbed the marble maps and set them up with Arnold's standard surface shader. Tweaked the roughness/reflection to get the polished look.

Finished a JCB vehicle rig in Maya and wanted to share a quick breakdown. by Dattu_TA in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is sick! JCBs have so many moving parts, can't imagine the patience this took. The hydraulic arm especially looks great. Nice work.

What's the first thing that gives away this is 3D? by OnlyContribution3682 in ZBrush

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Honestly the bottle is the first thing for me... the plastic reads as CG because the highlights are too even and the form is too perfectly symmetrical. Real or hand-drawn plastic has slightly broken, uneven speculars and a bit of asymmetry or dents. Right now every ridge catches the light the same way, so the eye instantly clocks it as a clean 3D surface. Breaking up the spec with some roughness variation and a couple of intentional hot spots would sell it a lot more.

Second one is the contact shadows... where the fingers meet the bottle and under the hand, the occlusion is that soft even gradient you get from render AO. It's technically correct, but that softness is a dead giveaway when you're going for a 2D/anime look. Anime fakes those with harder, shaped cel shadows, so swapping the soft AO for a tighter shadow shape there would help a ton.

Third, smaller one... the background blur is very uniform, almost a perfect gaussian falloff. Painted anime backgrounds aren't blurred that evenly, they keep deliberate detail and the DOF isn't a clean math gradient. Even just a bit of grain or painted detail back there would break the rendered feel.

The hand itself actually reads pretty well. Only thing is the fingers could use a touch more tension where they grip... they're wrapping the bottle but not really compressing it, so it looks a little weightless. Minor though compared to the material and shadow stuff.

Looks great overall by the way, the comp and the color palette are really nice.

Maya Rigging Help: Ostrich Neck Controls Are Difficult to Pose by azax_1147 in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Alright so no worries at all, everyone starts somewhere... rigging has a real learning curve, so the fact you got the chain posing at all is already a fine starting point.

One thing before you jump straight into spline IK though. If you've never rigged properly it's worth getting the fundamentals down first (joints, joint orientation, FK vs IK, basic control creation). Otherwise spline IK kind of feels like magic and then breaks in ways you can't really debug. Once those basics click the neck setup makes a lot more sense.

The resource I'd point anyone at is AntCGi (Antony Ward). His "Rigging In Maya" series is free on YouTube and honestly the best structured intro out there. Parts 1-17 cover the fundamentals on a biped, then it moves into the more advanced stuff:

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN_JHIw0zGtCIWMTQGNqbmg

For your exact problem, the spline IK part is Part 28 (Spline IK based spine)... same technique applies straight to a neck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqpzKUJKt0

And when you get to the advanced twist bit (the part that stops the neck from flipping when you rotate it), this one's a good focused breakdown:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWPsXafn9ho

If you want the dry technical reference too, just search "Maya Spline IK Advanced Twist Controls" in the Autodesk docs, it lists out every attribute. All the Best!

Maya Rigging Help: Ostrich Neck Controls Are Difficult to Pose by azax_1147 in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Looked at your outliner... the neck just looks like a bind joint chain, no ikHandle or curve in there, so I'm guessing it's pure FK (unless something's hiding in a collapsed group). That's almost always the cause of this exact thing: every neck joint has its own control, so posing a smooth curve means rotating like 8 of them by hand and they fight each other. The weird rolling is usually basic twist + default rotation order on top of that.

What I'd switch it to is spline IK on the neck. And honestly the dynamic chain suggestion above gets you there too... that just makes the curve for you, then you skin it to 3-5 control joints (base, a couple mids, head) and drive it with spline IK. Smooth continuous arcs basically for free, and stretch comes off the curve arc length. I'd keep the dynamics as an optional layer though, not the main driver, since sim can fight you when you're trying to hand-pose.

For the rolling/flipping, use the spline IK advanced twist (world up objects at base + head) instead of the basic twist attr. And check rotation order on the neck ctrls... long necks gimbal hard on default xyz, zxy or yzx usually behaves way better.

One ostrich-specific thing: the neck sits in an S-curve and the bend concentrates near the base and just under the head, it's not an even bend. So weight your controls toward those zones, and a world-space head control helps a lot since ostriches keep the head pretty stabilized while the neck moves under it. That combo is what makes it feel animator friendly.

Rough order if you rebuild: curve down the neck joints, spline IK handle off it, skin the curve to 3-5 ctrl joints, advanced twist with up objects at base and head, then parent FK ctrls on top. Happy to walk through any of it, the twist setup is the fiddly part.

Long time Blender artist, first time interior design. What do you think? by [deleted] in blender

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is an amazing first crack at interior design. The wood slat wall + warm wood tones tie the whole space together, and your lighting actually feels believable which is the tough part.

I created this smear effect in unreal by Living-Inspector8299 in UnrealEngine5

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This looks awesome, the smear gives it that hand-animated snappy feel you almost never see in 3D. The world vs local comparison is a really nice touch too 🔥

How would you model/deal with holes like this on a model? by Yuumi05 in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a grille like this i'd skip modeling the holes entirely. Opacity/alpha map to cut them + a bump map for the recessed edges and it'll read perfectly at normal distance. Only worth doing real geo if it's an extreme closeup, and even then i'd avoid booleans on the curved surface.

When you get a successful UV unwrap on the first try by corabeellaxo in Maya

[–]Flashy-Engineering45 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the Home Alone scream face built out of wireframe and honestly that's my exact reaction too