Exploring Luts and Aces

If you haven't scene the "idiot's guide to ACES from the Toadstorm Nerdblog  then I highly recommend checking it out here:
https://www.toadstorm.com/blog/?p=694&fbclid=IwAR2NsTbqXLkuqQXkFP2LIlVKGdCEoeM8ruCEOrhb_xzIxekJIPC4CUwGmQk

Along those lines.  I've also found this video from ZY productions to be very helpful in explaining how 1D and 3D luts work, and are





I would also highly recommend checking out Arvid Schneider's youtube for working with Arnold and rendering in ACES.


and this live stream he did working with OCIO and ACES

Point Pusher releases Uv mapping in MAYA and Substance Painter Tutorials

Point Pusher has been kind enough to release two great tutorials for anyone looking to learn, or learn more about creating UVs in Maya, and texturing using Substance Painter!

art station link:
https://www.artstation.com/pointpusher/blog/npbA/maya-uv-layout-and-substance-painter-tutorials?fbclid=IwAR3c_oXON-0_UOJoRqE6O2LDMzysKuLQD4p5GVKhvjvklX2Coa4BKtLSHZU

Be sure to follow everything Danny does !




uvBasics from pointpusher on Vimeo.





skinBlockingInSubstancePainter from pointpusher on Vimeo.

Rigidly skin a spring with Harry Houghton

While I normally do this sort of thing with a wire deformer, I really like Harry's technique here to get better skin wts onto a spring. I use a single sided surface to wt and then transfer to a volume surface for other objects, so this technique makes a lot of sence. 

(and I'll be using this method from now on) 

Maya: How To Rigidly Skin A Spring from Harry Houghton on Vimeo.

interesting technique for driving normal maps

If you don't have access to soup , fstretch, stretch mesh, or ideform  I thought this tutorial from rigging artist Ana Uzhovska   was an interesting approach to driving normal maps on  a character.

Top Tips for improving you UVs from Flipped Normals

From Maya 2016 to 2018 Autodesk has spent a lot of time improving the UV tools in Maya, most notably the 2017 addition of the UV toolkit 

The Guys from Flipped Normals show off some of their favorite UV tools in Maya

• setting and matching texel density
• straightening uvs and shells
• improvements to cut and sew (turn distance to 0 ) 
• shift+click to edit tool preferences in the UV toolKit 
• brush style "Sew" tool 
• auto-seams feature !! 

Steven Roselle does a quick look over the UV improvements in Maya 2017

Some pretty nice new tools for UV editing.. actually makes it look enjoyable

• symmetrize UV Tool  ( easier way to make your UV layout symmetrical) 
• UnFold3D layout options ( better packing and layout options) 
• auto Seams  ( automatically generates uv seams)
• pre rotations for uv packing
• multi tile uv packing
• multi object uv packing
• shell vs object uv distortion display

be sure to subscribe to Steven's blog and youtube channel
http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/author/my-oh-maya

Ian Waters just added a whole bunch of MASH tutorials.....

Nixolas experiments with Golaem Character

Wow this is pretty cool,   Artist Nixolas shares not only his how-tos but also his golaem assets for creating crowds with the Golaem plug-in for maya

http://www.nixolas.com/golaem-nx-characters/

https://vimeo.com/nixolas/videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC70KZRbu2VgJVgQHJb87rUw


White Walker NX Golaem Character - Download from Nixolas on Vimeo.

---

Tutorial and assets here: 

Also check out his Pokemon go spawn simulation: 







He also has a pretty great tutorial on unrolling  a tube of toilet paper

---

The deck of Cards Mash setup with UDIM

There are a whole bunch of Mash tutorials on Mainframe's vimeo channel,
here Ian goes more in depth on the deck of cards UDIM  that Lee showed at the May 3rd user group


MASH - UDIMs from Mainframe (North) on Vimeo.

Maya 2016 Ext 2 : Symmetrical Modeling Workflows from Steven Roselle

Steven Roselle takes us thru about 20 minutes of symmetrical modeling workflows 
( yes almost 20 minutes) 





All the Maya Modeling tools are now fully symmetrical compatible

• selections, preSelections 
• connect tool
• multi-cut tool   ( which just keeps getting better) 
• offset edge loop
• insert edge loop tool
• vertex normal tool 
• quad draw ( which actually makes retopo fun 
• transform constraints ( which now has the normal option!!!! )

 as well as some non-dynamic functions for flipping and mirroring, which can also be accessed from the new  blendShape manager tool

• edit Mesh | symmeterize
• edit Mesh | flip
• uv flipping

I didn't seem him mention it in the video, but you also can do all these symmetrical functions based on world space, or by selecting a component on your mesh    

CRASHING MAYA - tutorials tips and tricks from Alex Cheparev

 Local Artist and Modeler extraoridnair and teacher at SVA Alex Cheparev is giving back with  a series of tips tricks and tutorials on his YouTube Channel.

 Check out his page, and be sure to hit up on techniques you'd like to see him cover. 

I particularly like his method for fixing poles on spheres to make all quad models, but be sure to subscribe and collect all his videos, and the ones to come.






another example from his channel

( polygon wedge tool)

Maya 2015 Modeling Improvements ( part1)

Steve Roselle goes over some of the new modeling improvements in Maya 2015

Daryl Obert of Autodesk kicks off MAYA MONDAYS.

Big thanks to Daryl Obert of autodesk and his Maya Mondays with tips tricks how-tos and updates every monday, be sure to check out Daryl's blog on the area for his other informative postings.

I hope Daryl can keep this up.. sounds really good.  



http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/daryl/

---

Monday January 27th ( the first official monday for Daryl)

---

Monday February 3rd ( set driven keys) #2

---

Monday Feb 10th   Depth Of Field #3

---

Monday February : Render Layers , Render Passes , and Post. #4

---

Monday March 3rd : Textures

---

Monday March 10th

---

Monday March 17th :  Artist Janet Echelman  Net Sculptures Maya plug-in

---

Monday March  24th: BiFrost Attribute Tests from Igor Zanic

 http://www.igorfx.com/bifrost/

---

Monday April 1st : BiFrost Shader

---

Monday April 7th : inside the back of the  Autodesk NAB booth

---

Monday April 14th : Maya 2015 now available!
http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/free-trial

---

Monday April 21st : Setting up an environment for VP 2.0 using recap etc

 

---

Monday May 12th :  M and E webinar  "controlling complexity with xgen in Maya 2015"
 MAY 20th

http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/pc/index?
webinar sign up



and in case you missed it.. it will be available for review here:
http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=452932&id=17148448

and the youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_6ApchKwjN8RomN0cLQQT74i1a6sAzKi

---

Monday May 19th :   XGEN index archive tool

---

Monday June 2nd :   XGEN  tube groom for long hair

---

Monday June 16th

 No video this week , but a shout out to the mental ray blog

 Lots of great info on this blog, take a look:-)

http://blog.mentalray.com/

---

Monday June 30th : XGEN Stray Hair

( from Daryl)
The two expressions I used are
Frequency:  stray() ? 1 : 10
Magnitude:  stray() ? 1.5 : .1

---

Monday July 14th : Maya IBL rendering

---

Monday July 28th  : Ocean Shader

---

Monday August 4th : Maya Subscription options

http://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/buy

---

Monday August 18th: XGEN improvements in 2015 Ext 1

---

Monday August 25th : XGEN  spline outputas curve

---

Monday October 20th : EXT 1 color picker

---

Monday October 27th : m2015 nParticle tip/workflow

---

Monday Nov 3rd : Bifrost wet Sand Effect

---

Monday Nov 10th Maya 2015 IBL bug workaround...
 http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/daryl/maya-monday---ibl-bug-workaround

---

Monday Nov 17th Maya 2015 - Deformer order

---

Monday Nov 25th nhair tips and tricks..

---

Monday Dec 10th nhair tips and tricks 2

---

Monday Dec 22nd Tips and Tricks with BlendShapes.

---

Daryl Obert Shares some tips n tricks from AU 2013

If you weren't able to attend Daryl's master class this year at Autodesk University , he was kind enough to put up a tips n tricks video based on his presentation

 I always find I pick up a few little things here and there..  here are some of my favorites:

• in panel view and trans manip hold shift and gesture in a direction you want to constrain movement in 
• in the attribute editor, using cntrl + LMB will move slow, cntrl + MMB will move medium, and cntrl + RMB will move fast..  ( this is different than cntrl and shift in the channel box)
• windows key and arrow left or right will dock your open app, up will maximize, down will minimize
• scene annotation in bonus tools

modeling tips




shelf tips




update ( jan 8th)   Creating the BG for the demo (Daryl is the king of these types of tricks)





4 of 5




5 of 5 Dynamics..

Maya 2014 - joint creation updates -

Steven Roselle goes over some of the new joint creation settings in maya 2014

1. Discover Paint Effects in Autodesk Maya 2013

In case you missed Lee's webinar on Paint Fx the other day

Maya transfer attributes - tips / tricks

Daryl Obert shows us some tips and tricks using transfer attributes

something I use all the time , but it does have its quirks. Hopefully this will help explain some of it

rigging moving skinned joints w Marco D'ambros

Marcos takes advantage of the smooth skin clusters "preBindMatrix" to add joints that wont cause double transformations.

 I've always avoided the "move skin joint" tool, as it tends to freak everything out.. now I have  a way to take advantage of it!

Maya BonusTools 2013 - Make Joints Dynamic

Steven Roselle hits us with another tutorial from his Bonus Tool's Tools

Motion Vector 101

Daryl gives us another decent tutorial , this time on Motion Vectors