Architectural modeling tutorial for MAYA

[deevee84]

aussie dollar went down

so my 2cents are worth nothing

[Mimzy]

Count me in ! I am a newbie to MAYA but I have a great confidence that Maya can create amazing archiviz work too. By the fact that the Vray for Maya is on the horizon, Maya will be even more attractive to archiviz artist.

[richmondlu]

Here is some of my maya stuff

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/25467-maya-mr-interiors.html

 

It would help if you guys could C&C it for me the Max heads dont usally have a clue on how to critique it they just say the usual lighting things because they are either scared of the maya or just dont want to say anything.

[nebojsa]

Maya has excellent tools for polygon modeling. The problem is when you have to move accurately a vertex or face. It only can be done through the command line, by tapping the previous and next position of sub element.

In Max it is very easy to do such a thing.

Now there is Vray for Maya and MR, of course. If you find some script witch fixing that workflow problem tell me. J

[manta]

Here is some of my maya stuff

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/25467-maya-mr-interiors.html

 

It would help if you guys could C&C it for me the Max heads dont usally have a clue on how to critique it they just say the usual lighting things because they are either scared of the maya or just dont want to say anything.

 

Wow...that's an unusually large chip on your shoulder...

[richmondlu]

WELL? one of my posts i think i had like 350 views and 4 replies which i think 3 of them were to do with lighting. You cant say i am wrong for asking people that i know use Maya to critique my work which is done in Maya. 90% of my replies are to people that use other programs, it just seems we get no love being a Maya user? Hence the feeling of being an "outcast". Don't get me wrong i know this is a max, c4d majority site, thats cool, i love to look at peoples works and help them in anyway possible.

[shaneis]

WELL? one of my posts i think i had like 350 views and 4 replies which i think 3 of them were to do with lighting. You cant say i am wrong for asking people that i know use Maya to critique my work which is done in Maya. 90% of my replies are to people that use other programs, it just seems we get no love being a Maya user? Hence the feeling of being an "outcast". Don't get me wrong i know this is a max, c4d majority site, thats cool, i love to look at peoples works and help them in anyway possible.

 

Hi Lucas,

 

I'm also a Maya user. I came across this little gem last week. Not sure if you have it or not...it's an occlusion shader for mr4maya that takes vectors from a given light, so your occlusion has some direction - much better than the omni-directional std occlusion. It's not meant to replace FG occlusion, but it's FAST.

 

Go to this page, http://www.mymentalray.com/mymr_shaders/shaders.htm thengo to the Ray Control section (button on left). Get the "ctrl_occlusion". There's also a quick tutorial/ rundown on the tutorials page, click the "Francesca" button.

 

Hope you like it.

 

S.

[Dav1075]

WELL? one of my posts i think i had like 350 views and 4 replies which i think 3 of them were to do with lighting. You cant say i am wrong for asking people that i know use Maya to critique my work which is done in Maya. 90% of my replies are to people that use other programs, it just seems we get no love being a Maya user? Hence the feeling of being an "outcast". Don't get me wrong i know this is a max, c4d majority site, thats cool, i love to look at peoples works and help them in anyway possible.

 

I too use Maya. You should check out Digitaltutors.com. They have a Urban City tutorial for Maya, a Interior tutorial, and a Mental Ray Interior tutorial. I have all three of them. Also look at Thegnomomworkshop.com they too have some tutorial for Maya user.

[duttyfoot]

hey guys new here too. those digital tutor dvds for maya are awesome. i have all 3 of em.. modeling the interior, rendering the interior, and doing the outdoor modeling. the next two on my list have to do with the mray shader network. for some reason when i check the forum there are no rooms present, i have to click on the post that says surprise to view other posts.

[Elmarq]

new Maya user here with a definite interest in bulit environment modeling. hopefully this forum still gets some use...i'll need a place to ask questions, lol.

 

anyway, just wanted to say hello.

[stylEmon]

hey all, I am a 8 year Maya user... the first think I modeled in Maya was a kitchen (sounds like arch viz to me).

 

What I usually do it, grab a jpg of the site plan and scale it to 1:1. I do the same thing for the elevations and line everything up.

 

I then have to adjust my near and far clipping on all my cameras. (now i have a template scene)

 

Then I just make a few boxes and put in the proper vaules. They are usually called out on the site plan. *Make sure your measuring units are set to feet.(or what ever)

 

Like said above, do like to do some basic clay renders and get my lighting set up.

 

I will just start adding detail to the models. the most common tools used are extrude, cut faces, bevel, planar/cylindrical mapping...

 

At some point, I need to draw my curbs. I have two different curb profiles I use (one for street and one for planters). I take the EP curve tool and trace all the curbs from the plan. Using the Surfaces menu, I extrude the profile of the curb by the path.

 

 

I really like what Autodesk has done with Maya. I was a little scared to use it at first, but once I got into, I really like how they re-arraged things.

 

I learned Maya first, then had about 2-3 years of Max practice... It never really stuck though. I always liked Maya better.

 

I dont think going from Max to Maya (or vis versa) is like using a dull tool, it may just be a tool that you never used before, but has great uses for the job...

[alexanderh]

from the starting your education with maya article found on cgarchitects: "As far as I know, with the exception of some architecture school and Greg Lynn, Maya is really not used in any aspect of Architecture. Digital artists use Maya in feature films to build digital sets including architectural elements, but there are many tools, mostly precision tools that are lacking to most architects. The precision of Maya is designed to get you within a pixel, or half a pixel of accuracy, and it is not as easy to get within an 1/8 of an inch or 1 mm the way that most architects are used to. Also, there are few tools for importing data. All of Maya’s curves are based on Nurbs, while most other packages use regular splines. Is this to say that Maya cannot be used for architecture? I would have to say: absolutely not."

 

I've spent the last 6 months learning maya in school to find that i really like doing architectural. it has kicked me in the pants because the 2006 industry study showed over 50% of architectural renders are created with 3ds max and autocad. Both program which I knew before.

 

I have become rather familiar with a lot of the fundamentals in maya and have found my way around getting accuracy. As far as need to know things for modeling architecture I can't say that there are many differences between the last version of 3DS i worked with and Maya 2008. You are working with the same basic shapes; cubes, spheres, planes, cones, pipes, cylinders and so on. The tools used in 3DS max to modify such objects seem to be the same as in maya often with different names or found in different locations.

 

For arch viz to start what I recommend doing in maya is making the Component Editor your best friend. Where you could edit the specific location of a vertex in 3ds max ni the attribute editor, you edit those same locations in maya's component editor. This can be found in Window >>>General Editors >>> Component Editor.

At the top of this window there are a bunch of tabs, click on the left most tab titled polygons.

when you have a face, vertex, or multiples of either you can edit the location of them in the x, y, and z axis to 3 decimal places.

 

If your scale in maya is set to feet than 1 unit = 1 foot.

If you are doing Imperial arch viz than you want feet and inches. I recommend changing your scales to inches for this because trying to get 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch when the scale is feet really gets to be annoying. You start getting numbers like .333 for 4 inches and .08325 for 1 inch.

 

Overall I've found this to be the best way to start into arch viz modeling in maya so I hope that helps!

 

Cheers,

Alexander

[stylEmon]

to be honest, i never really saw the benifit of modeling to the Nth accuracy, as far as 1/2", or 1/16"... 3d software is for entertainment purposes. Anyone in Arch Viz who is concearned about a 1/16th on an inch is not approaching this from the right perspective.

 

Now, BIM is different, but we are talking about arch viz rendering. These renders are for marketing and to help architects with massing.

[alexanderh]

to be honest, i never really saw the benifit of modeling to the Nth accuracy, as far as 1/2", or 1/16"... 3d software is for entertainment purposes. Anyone in Arch Viz who is concearned about a 1/16th on an inch is not approaching this from the right perspective.

 

Now, BIM is different, but we are talking about arch viz rendering. These renders are for marketing and to help architects with massing.

 

It's not even a matter of getting 1/16 of an inch. But Maya's system handles numbers much more oddly than max. if you put in 3'6" (3 feet 6 inches) into a 3ds max value it will convert it to your scale. If it is in feet, you get 3.5, if inches you get 42, if meteres, , cm, whatever max does the math. Maya does VERY odd things if you put in a measurement.

Considering that any architectural program like Autocad if you put in 3'6" you get three feet and 6 inches. Max matches that idea, Maya does not.

[stylEmon]

I understand that it would be easier to just enter a number and specify ' or cm on the end, and think that now that Autodesk owns Maya, it is a matter of time before it's implemeted.

 

If you know the history of Maya, it was once called something else... I think Animation something or other... So it's always been a vector software geared towards entertainment, not engineering.

 

Remember, you can easily change to the units you'd like to work with in the System Preferences. I dont remember any time I had to enter in meters and feet on the same project... So not sure of any benifit of being able to just specify ' or " or cm or mm.

 

I wouldn't say Maya handles numbers 'oddly'. If you want feet, specify that in the preferences, and so on for cm or whatever.

 

I think since I come from a media artist background... not arch design... It is second nature for me to enter in 3.5 to get '3 feet 6 inches'. I now see a definite value in having the ability to specify your unit on demand tho.

[Adrian Bold]

I'll put my hand up too. Our studio has been using Maya for Arch viz since 2003. It was a touch decision which way to go back then for a little setup but we've grown and Maya has served us well. Most of my key staff were originally max or autocad users prior, given the mainstream software used amongst universities. It's a niche we're in fellas, but i guess it means very little these days. Autodesk have made improvements, (and niggly stupid mistakes too)

 

Agreed that there is alot less talk in forum circles regarding Maya for this architectural use, but as long as industry support remains, we'll be sticking with it.

 

I wonder what this scenario would be like if MR was for Maya only? (another side note: Chaos: hurry up with vray for Maya betas pls!)

[Adrian Bold]

No problems with accuracy - all our work is to the Metric millimetre and its part of the service we offer, whether it be a house, freeway, skyscraper or postbox. (Side note to N.America: dump the imperial system already!)

 

I'm somewhat baffled by why some arch viz providers don't ensure this accuracy, regardless of platform. Its not that hard, and its one of the key benefit to a client to be able to rely on the spatial accuracy provided by CGI over traditional mediums, such as illustrations and scale models.

 

(sorry for double post, just read a few of the latest comments)

[stylEmon]

i agree, I model to the accuracy of the documents provided. Just recently, I was provided a topography map of the site, and finish floor elevations for the buildings. I enjoy translating this information from flat, 2-d drawings to 3d terrain.

 

Also, I anticipate the day when the US will use metrics... makes so much more sense.

What the hell is 3/32"??!?!?!?

[Oluap84]

Hello all,

 

I have been using maya for all my arch modeling for quite a while. Although I feel comfortable with it I have been paying serious attention to MODO 302. Have a look on the Tutorials luxology have available on their website... The tools are just amazing and can do wonders on the architectural modeling workflow... Very precise, robust and incredibly accurate. Even the render engine seem to be very nice. I have been using it for a few weeks now and I can tell you once I get comfortable with it, all my Arch modeling will be done there.

[TANKQ]

Hi all...i'm new on this forum, but i also one of the maya user. all of my works are done with maya and mental ray rendering. lot of people said that impossible done architectural works with maya, but i can tell u here....nothing is impossible, maya also a great and powerful software, it can create anything not exeption of architectural works.

Now i'm using maya 2009, it more powerful then last version.

 

coz this site has a limitation of post for a newbie member, so i can't post my IMG link to this topic before 10 of posts, so i can't post them now.

 

Here's my site link....check it out guys.......

http://www.deyoungs.carbonmade.com

Edited February 2, 2009 by TANKQ

[HamburgerTrain]

Nice work, those are some of the best interiors I've seen with a maya + mental ray setup!

 

Are you using volumetric lights or ies lights for some of those artificial lights? They look great.

[TANKQ]

Nice work, those are some of the best interiors I've seen with a maya + mental ray setup!

 

Are you using volumetric lights or ies lights for some of those artificial lights? They look great.

 

Hi there, many thanks for the compliment. actually i've ever tried to use IES light, but the result is made me really confuse. the light's direction is wrong. don't know why, or it just happened to my maya 2009 alone or to the others too, but from the other site, other user done it very well with maya 2009.

for all of my works. i didn't use IES light, but i only use VOLUME LIGHT. that's it bro.

[shaneis]

...the light's direction is wrong. don't know why, or it just happened to my maya 2009 alone or to the others too, but from the other site, other user done it very well with maya 2009.

for all of my works. i didn't use IES light, but i only use VOLUME LIGHT. that's it bro.

 

The IES direction problem in Maya is because Maya uses "Y" as "up", whereas IES profiles and programs such as 3DS Max, CAD etc use "Z" as "up". It's a simple work around, use a point light, link the IES file to the lightProfile (in the point light's Attribute Editor) and rotate the point light (usually -90 deg. in X).

 

To make it easier on your brain, you can download a simple IES viewer so you can see how the light should look, that will take out all of the guess work. You can find IES viewers via Google. Here's one linked on CGArchitect http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/25911-ies-files-2.html#post178035

 

Shane.

 

PS: Very nice work. Well done.

[prashanth]

Hi all,

 

Am using Maya for all our architectural renderings, am in the field for the past 3 yrs, till date i have not experienced something tht is impossible in maya.

 

The work flow I follow is..

 

1. Convert the auto cad drawing into a decimal number (inches / mm)

 

2. Leave the default maya unit as it is (i,e. cm)

 

3. Change the input transform into 'relative transform' (you can find it in the right hand top corner of the maya interface)

 

4. Now you can enter the value directly into those boxes for any axis (x/y/z)

 

5. You can even move any vertices/faces accurately in any direction

 

Rendering

 

I think MR is the best available rendering engine available as of now for maya. MR 3.7 has pretty nice features in it and its very robust.

 

just check my site and evaluate my method...

 

http://www.waterlemon.co.in

 

Cheers

[FreakiestFish]

So happy to see this thread. I am also Maya user that struggled with Visualization.

 

prashanth, can you put a tutorial for converting the decimal number?

 

Aslo, is that mean we have to model everything from scratch? Or import 3d model from CAD?

 

Thanks