Martin Day

Hi everyone,

I have to switch from MAX to MAYA because of my new job.

Do you know any good architectural modeling tutorial for MAYA.
I was unable to find it with google.
There are thousands of tutorials but 99% are heads, characters, cars etc
Nothing about architecture


Regards
Marcin

Dibbers

I was told that Maya was great fro organic modelling, but dreadful for architecture.

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Martin Day

I can see that but I have to master Maya for architectural renderings so I'm looking for a tutorial.



Regards
Marcin

Ernest Burden

I have almost zero experience with MAYA, but I have noticed that it is very similar to Cinema4D. My 10 y.o. son is a 3D genius, and wanted to get ahold of my Cinema. But I cannot put it on another machine even for non-commercial use (EULA sucks). So I got him a copy of MAYA Personal Learning Edition. I watch him create and animate amazing stuff with it. And looking over his shoulder I keep seeing familiar icons, methods.

The vector brushes are amazing, by the way. Paint-on goemetry.

So if you can't find much for architecture for MAYA, look for some beginner stuff for C4D and do a quick read. You will get a head-start for MAYA I bet.

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Ernest Burden III
AcmeDigital
architectural rendering

derijones

Martin
I use Maya, but do almost all my modelling in other programmes - Rhino or Solidworks generally. This is mainly because I come from a CAD/engineering background and find entering values quicker than pulling polygons to shape (and Solidworks is light years ahead in terms of UI and modelling prismatic shapes, but a bit of overkill as a simple polygon creator!) Whenever I try to do something in Maya such as bevelling edges, filleting etc, it does seem to be a hell of an effort - I've tried the demo of Silo and that seems a hell of a lot more intuiative. As the other post said - it's cool for organic shapes and freehand modelling - using a tablet and stylus to be able to mold shapes is pretty powerful, but not massively useful for producing architecture...
Texturing and rendering is now fairly intuiative (although sometimes frustrating - UV planar projections always seem to be 90 degrees out etc), but I haven't used other programmes to compare. Being able to use Photoshop nodes is great - load up your UV map and have layer sets correctly laid out and mapped back to the corresponding bits of your material is cool.
There isn't much about on how to use Maya for someone wanting more than just the basics - it seems to jump from "this is how you create a box and add texture to it....." to "Just write yourself some MEL code and you can do all these amazing things..." -
If you've used Mental Ray with MAx, then you're probably on a head start with getting it to work with Maya - there's a fair bit of stuff on CGnetworks, Deathfall and Highend3D. With Maxwell, Vray and Finalrender offering or promising plugins, the possibility for output should be better, but only if they are better integrated than Mental Ray - it all feels a bit raw.

If you're in to writing code (I'm alergic to it in a big way!) then you might well really enjoy it, but it's slow to set up a decent method for producing good architectural images quickly - it's more a box of bolts, bearings and hinges, from which you can assemble yourself a machine to do just about any CG job than a ready to go machine with a "create cool images" button on the front.
I'm not sure if I'd go down the same route if I was starting again - why do you "have" to move to Maya?
Hope this helps and best of luck with it - there are some awesome things produced with it so I guess it's a case of bad workman blaming his tools!
Cheers
Deri

ihabkal

not necessarily. imagine giving a wood cutter a dull kitchen knife, and telling him to cut down a tree with it...or give a carpenter a fork instead of a chisel.
to each profession its tools.

evian

i would say that maya is very important for the architecture nowdays. it is not so much different from 3ds max, which is very often used for architecture renderings. but it offers a serious of - at least as far as i know - more advanced dynamic features, which are very important for the digital design methods (think of NOX, greg lynn etc..) - means it is great for organic and free forms.

now, since maya is not really meant for architects, there are unfortunately no tutorials made especially for architects, which makes it kind of a frustrating to learn this program - but you can look for books which focus on polygonal modelling.
many big offices use maya, so i would be careful with saying it's "dreadful" for architects ;-) I'm myself writing a master thesis in architecture now which is focused on digital architecture and especially on maya - the role of this software in architecture shouldnt be underestimated.
however, if you are building mainly "boxes" (not meant in a rude way) then there are surely more simple and above all cheaper programs. maya is everything else but really easy and fast to learn (at least not if you want to learn it really properly) but it offers very many possibilities.

maya was only in the very beginning focused on nurbs and free forms and had disregarded the polygons, which are more important for architects- in the meanwhile both features are very advanced and you can build great polygon models with it - also importing autocad files works perfectly.

also, i have realized that having some patience and going through a book focused on building a space ship helps a lot understanding of how to build your first architecture project i can really recommend the maya fundamentals series by new riders, i have the maya 4 edition and that one is focused on building a house (well a very cartoonish one but still and above all it offers videos for each chapter - means you dont really have to learn just by reading, but you can listen to the instructors and watch their every step on your screen.

thanenbauk

actually i use MAYA and Revit

just for pure architecture plan and section Revit is much more efficient even for render great 3d engine

this pictures is from a render with Maya 6.0
only polygones but its not the best actually

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/7...ing21ky0zm.jpg

richmondlu

anyone still around ???

I have some good advise but i feel the max heads have weeded out the maya users here.

tecton3d

someone's always listening
fire away