Maya: Inter lock gears

Gears have always been fascinating to me. All the parts that fit together just right and start a complex function that every pieces play an important part and without just one smallest piece the whole thing could fall apart.

So I wanted to make my own 3D gears animation in Maya.
The first time I attempt this I simply just created 2 gears then make the other one smaller then use the animation function to move them, however there many problems with this method: the two gears are not actually interacting with each other, and the gears are not fitting together properly soo simply i just don't really know how to do it right. So with the power of Google I have found a much simpler way to create a pretty gears.

The simple step are: quick note

Create > Polygon primitive > Cylinder > select every other face > extrude > scale down teeth (local x  Y)

*important note*
Number of segment / 2 = number of teeth.
radius = how big the cog will be

all the other cog segments, face and radius must be a multiple of each other for them to fit together.
ex:
cog 1 : Radius: 10  Segment: 20  teeth : 10
cog 2: Radius: 5 Segment: 10 teeth: 5
*Segment determined number of teeth

Now you get gear that fit together -yay-

12/29/14 ^ - ^!

Maya: 3D Text

There was a time when I try to model each letter one by one.............but!
Today I learned how to created a 3D text in Maya without modeling

First I want to used a new font in this practice I will be using Hasty Pudding font

it it very simple you have to go to
Create > Text > option (box)

Then you will get this window

Here you will insert your desired text and select font, size and Type.

I used font called Hasty Pudding and size 48 so I can clearly see the text, it can always be re-size later, and Curves type. Then click create.

Here is my result:

I learn that the Maya (and most program will make the object as simple as possible to conserve space so that is why shape is all edgy and that why background detail and less important thing are not smoothed out to save space)

By selecting Curve type The text are created with NURBS curves so there are more space conservative because it is not make up of face and take less space. It is appropriated when the etxt is not the main attraction or the detail is too small to be notice, but however curves cannot be render.

So now we going to make it 3D looking. You and change the type to Bevel and more option will appear. 

• Created bevel - Choose where will the bevel take place.This will tell Maya if you only want to bevel to the front (at start) or back (at end) or in both direction.                                                     
• Bevel width -  Width of the edge of the bevel.                                                                                          
• Bevel depth -  depth of the edge of bevel.                                                                                            
• Extrude distance - How thick is the letter.                                                                                               
• Outer Bevel style - The style of bevel on the outer line of the letter                                                       
• Inner Bevel style -    the style of bevel on the inner line of the letter                       

After increase the value of each attribute (randomly) I got this:

Now it is no longer flat and 2D, but wait! this line of text using up 14604 faces! Which is a lot. To save some space we can reduce the number of faces 

To do that we must first separate all the letter so nothing go wrong when reducing faces.

select the text > make sure you are in polygon mode > Mesh > Separate

now all the letters should stand on it own and not all attach to each other.

now we will use reduce tool: Mesh  >  Reduce > option (box)

Make sure you don't reduce too much or some part can be distorted (see how the end of the X is a bit difference) 

This is 20% reduction now we only have 11212 face may not be a lot but it will add up. There also other method to save more space (I just don't know it yet )

And that is how you create test in maya and save up some faces. 

12/27/14 ^ - ^

How to install new font

If you ever want to used a fancier font for your typing or designing purposes here are a simple steps to install new font to your computer.

I download fronts from DaFont there also many website for font download

once you download each font you will have to uncompress (unzip) it. Once you unzip it you should get these files in the folder.

Double click to open the .TTF file (last one)
and this window will pop up

This is the font preview and info. to install this font click Install button at the top

After that check your font folder to see if the font get install.

to acess fonts folder go to your C drive (C:)>Windows>Fonts 

*WinRar is free software for unzip compress file*
*If your font does not show up right away try restarting your computer to ensure installation*

Once your are finished your new font will now be in your font library for your to used whenever you wish.

12/27/14  ^ - ^!

Queen of Flower gallery

I started taking interest in photography and here are my first set of photos. I when to Botanical garden this past Friday and there are many beautiful flower here are my best photos: 

I think they turn out quite nice but I think that I can improve on shooting from different point of view because now that I look at it all of my shoot for pretty much from the same perspective, which allow you to see the entire flower but it not very unique.