Landscaping Roads and paths with Maya

[HamburgerTrain]

Does anyone have a hard time when dealing with big landscapes with Maya?

 

I find it hard to draw roads and paths so in the end I gave up now I use a projection texture from one massive photoshop file. The problem then is that I can't have different shaders for the roads, grass and paths and gardens etc...

 

How does everyone else go about landscaping in Maya?

[shaneis]

NURBS - excellent for roads, kerbs, paths and displacement.

 

What is it that you find hard about roads and paths?

[HamburgerTrain]

I think the hardest part is not "drawing" the roads, but connecting them up with gutters and also connecting roads with other roads at T-Intersections and making sure they sit properly on the ground.

 

- My process is that I usually start off with a bash mesh, which is just the bare earth imported from something like AutoCad or Sketchup.

 

- I then make the ground Live and then I draw on top of this all the paths and roads with curves.

 

- I then loft the curves together, convert to polys and extrude them to give them a height. They never really look good closeup but from a distance I can get away with it, almost always the paths clip through the ground and I have to go in and manually clean them up.

 

The other problem is that it's very difficult to join roads together and also to keep a nice consistent profile between the gutter, roads and path at intersections.

 

I was just wondering on how other people go about this workflow. Thanks Shane.

[Antisthenes]

you could always use Bentley InRoads

 

http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/InRoads+Suite/InRoads-Site.htm

[shaneis]

I think the hardest part is not "drawing" the roads, but connecting them up with gutters and also connecting roads with other roads at T-Intersections and making sure they sit properly on the ground.

 

- My process is that I usually start off with a bash mesh, which is just the bare earth imported from something like AutoCad or Sketchup.

 

- I then make the ground Live and then I draw on top of this all the paths and roads with curves.

 

I wouldn't go with the "Live" surface option here. Instead, switch to your "Top" view and import your plan view drawings, set it as an Image Plane.Now either trace the outline of the roads/ pathways or lift the curves from your CAD plans - whichever is relevant. Select the resulting curves and switch to CV mode, select all the CV's and grid-snap them (hotkey X and middle mouse) to the nearest grid line in the Y axis. (This is to set up the curves for creating a planar surface - all CV's need to be... well... umm... planar. Also make sure the curve is closed.

 

Select the curve and choose Surfaces>Planar. If your curve was correctly created, it will fill with a planar trim. Don't worry about any angular corners. Now remove the history between the curve and the Planar surface and then rebuild the surface to a level of detail that smooths any angular planar trims. Once the NURBS surface is of a high enough detail, you can then fit the surface to your ground plane. Once that is done select the trim edge of the road (Right click the surface >Trim Edge), then NURBS Curves>Duplicate Surface Curves to create a curve path for your kerb/ gutter. Create a profile for the kerb and extrude along that path.

 

I apologise - this must sound like the ravings of a madman

To make it simpler, the work flow is this...

 

1. Trace the outline of your road with a CV or EP curve and use planar to create the road surface.

2. Break the history between the curve and planar.

3. Fit the planar to the ground and add detail to the planar to smooth it's oultline.

4. Create an new outline curve (Trim edge) so you can use it as a path to extrude the kerb, gutter, aprons and footpaths.

5. Clean up/ add detail where necessary. The break all history.

6. You can texture from here on or convert to polys/subD if you like and go further.

 

If you can understand what I mean...Well Done! If you have any questions, let me know and I'll make a snappy little PDF for you and post it here.

 

...almost always the paths clip through the ground and I have to go in and manually clean them up.

 

If your "ground" is a NURBS surface, you can project a curve and Trim the "ground". If It's a poly mesh, you can cut the mesh and delete the unneeded faces or use a Boolean.

[HamburgerTrain]

Woah, I didn't get an email for that reply. Thank you very much this should be a big help. Sorry for the late reply Shane.

[AFK_Matrix]

Hi,

 

I am slowly coming to grips with Maya but still class my self as a beginner. So I understood some of what shaneis said but not the whole lot. I have tried to find a good tutorial that I can go through step by step but haven't turned anything up yet. I have seen some tutorials about transforming planes into terrain but thats not really what I am after. I will eventually be working on Airport layouts etc so some tutorials on road layouts etc would be awesome.

 

So can anyone point me in the direction of some tutorials?