Is it just me or does Maya’s polygon modeler feel less productive and flexible as Blender?
I sure like the construction history but not being able to delete an edge vertex or face where ever I want
seems more than odd and forces me to do extra tricks to get that geometry removed.
I learned Maya years ago and loved it, but now with Blender so well developed I feel it is an outdated software
with inferior modeling tools.
The construction history and the extrude poly along curve among the NURBS tools are the only things I wish Blender’s modeler would have.
i have used maya with my student edition and i disagree about the polygons… its more difficult to learn for sure but once you get the hang of it it feels much more productive.
and i agree about the construction history… personally i would also like to see nurbs loft. there is somthing LIKE it in here now but the nurbs all have to have the same # of verts and stops and bends have to be in the same places
don’t you have to click right on the vertex to select it too,haha.
Its extrude functions are better though,none of that pivot point/extrude individual nonsense when you want scale a bunch of faces at once (unless i’m missing something in blender)
maya is still usable though,as for constuction history,houdini has a node modelling work flow which is far superior (not for organic modelling though)
Good news, Maya can do what you want and its very easy too.
Hold down the space bar or scroll up to the edit mesh menu, and then select delete vertex/edge. Pressing “g” afterwards will select the last action you made so you can keep doing it with one press of a button.
Took a SS for ya:
Selecting and edge or vertex and pressing the delete key offers the other form of edge and vertex removal, which is what you are probably trying.
Modeling in Maya is actually very good and quite easy once you get familiar with it. There is a different approach in maya, where tools are used to edit the mesh. In max, users are used to the modifier system. When using the tools in Maya, changes can be made much like modifiers to some extent within the attribute editor.
Maya´s construction history is pretty darn good actually even so that you can do procedural modeling with it if you know what you do. It is not Houdini but you can pull of some pretty good stuff with connecting the right node in/outputs. And no the modeling tools is not outdated that is just bullshit sry it seems you haven’t given it that much time.
I am really not unexperienced with modeling and 3D packages and I started with Maya. But not being able to delete what ever edge I want because a border edge cannot be removed is more then a pain in the b. I looked into the manual and there it says it as well that not all edges actually can be removed.
I understand that well Maya’s modeling is somewhat node based - but this seems to be extremely limiting when you have to model the way Maya internally only allows you to.
You can delete any edge you come across in Maya (most common action is found in editmesh–> delete edge/vertex command). Dont forget the modify menu as well. For example, sometimes people want to delete the face of 1 plane but leave the edges. Selecting the face and then modify–>convert–>polygon edges to curve gives you that.
Back in 2008 I completed a short animation diploma where Maya was the main tool of choice. I’ve always found Blender’s shortcut key modelling to be faster compared to Maya which relies on dragging the manipulator arrows. Whichever program you get used to though, you will become fast in that program with repeated use. My biggest annoyance against Blender modelling was in how our bevel tool introduced triangles, but this has now been fixed. I’d like to get back into Maya because it’s what pretty much all the industry uses use over here (most of the job offers on nzcgi.com are specifically “Maya modeller wanted”) and I suspect Maya has moved on quite a bit from when I was last using it.
@ Saint
The snapping hot key is nice but vertex, curve/edge, and grid is nearly all you have. There is no snapping to face or napping multiple points individually on a surface below like in Blender.
I am not sure about the edge and what you mean but if you want I can show you the screenshot of geometry where maya even tells me I am not allowed or cannot delete that edge.
@ Lance
The bevel and bridge tool has some nice additional features thats very true
Also that solidify and extrude are merged together. But maya extrude with thickness removes the former surface.
as far as the tool set for maya and blender goes they are both pretty similar. Maya has a clunky interface with icons for everything. MOdeling in maya consits of navigating across hotboxes and/or tool and shelves. Not very efficient as far as blender using keystrokes.
@larmann
Like Blender you can do a lot with hotkeys and you need to set them up.
In addition the interface allows drag and drop for the node connections across everywhere.
Please do, because it shouldnt be happening. Sometimes problems can occur in maya but it doesnt mean they are normal. Maya users, when that happens, generally delete the pref folder and restart maya which solves 99% of the problems…at least for me.
As for the snap to face, did you try holding down D then V, using the middle mouse button to snap the pivot point to an vertex, or c for a curve, then holding down c or v to get it to snap to the surface? There are a few ways to do what you suggest, but its just a matter of knowing Maya well enough to make it happen. I have found the snapping in blender to be lacking, there is a lot less control and just do so some simple things feels like jumping through hoops. Instead of saying there is no snapping to multiple points individually or what not, its better to say “I havent figured out how to do it yet”, because Maya can pretty much do just about anything. Some things require the bonus tools plug in or other plug ins, and its very easy to write your own actions for maya which can accomplish the desired effect. Most likely though someone has already written it, and if its not party of the maya default then its a simple script that can be found online.
It isnt that there is an icon for everything, but a shelf that users can create icons that trigger scripts or actions desired. These can be removed or hidden at any time. It is not uncommon for a Maya user to control + space bar, which hides everything but the view port…and still work using nothing but the hot box, hot keys and custom menus in the same way the hotbox works. It’s far from clunky or confusing.
There was a GSoC project last year that focused on implementing a suite of precision modeling tools for Blender (which would naturally involve improved snapping), I’m not sure if it has been merged yet though (or maybe it is and I haven’t noticed where they are).
I guess if it floats your boat, you can theoretically learn everything there is to know about Maya and just use that package, that is if your finances can absorb the steadily rising costs of using the software. It might even be a plausible thing by now to argue that some of the lower monthly subscription tiers for the Blender development fund seem cheap in comparison.
I guess thats the behavior in Maya I dont understand and find irritating. I know that Maya treats meshes as a volume or surface, so when I delete inner edges it generates NGONS for me. but still kinda odd.
And I had situations I could not remove an edge so I needed to attache the edge to a face so I could delete the face and with it the edge.
And please dont take this as Maya bashing - i want to understand how it works but man thats tricky when you come from Blender.
Here’s the thing with me, I love autodesk’s products, i hate autodesk. AD is a corporation thats been going around nabbing the competition and ultimately trying to create a monopoly in the market. I am not ok with that. While I love Maya to death and prefer to use it, the cost and dealings with AD make it not worth it. It is something that every artist who plans to work professionally in established industries should know though, because most jobs I have found over here require one to work in Maya. For the personal projects… Modo starts looking better every day. That said, Modo is roughly $1200. That kind of contribution wouldnt do as much nor is it guaranteed that it would direct Blender’s development into something that is worthwhile. Cost vs reward still has Modo and even Maya above Blender in terms of what an individual would have to give to make a big enough difference…that of course is a conversation that deserves its own thread though.
Image 1) Logically it makes sense that you cannot delete those edges. This is in part because you are dealing with polygons. Think about what a polygon is. The way around this is to select the edges and convert them into curves. This means you are interested in the edge, the path, but do not need it to be a polygon at that time and place.
Image 2) When deleting the edges within the polygon, it still remains a polygon…though in the form of an Ngon. Maya assumes you either want it this way or will add edges later/merge vertices.
Image 3) When you deleted the faces, you created 3 islands of polygons. The point being they are still polygons.
So I guess the question I need to ask is why would you need to delete the outer edges of a polygon? Generally that would destroy it, thus defeating its purpose…unless you just needed the edges as guides for something else…which in this case Maya prefers curves (which are useful for just about everything, including dynamics).
I very much like Maya it is a software I used before Blender and C4D and being a product designer the Poly SDS NURBS combo is amazing. While to be honest Maya NURBS tools fall behind significantly in the recent years.
Mental Ray and Hypershade and Mayas animation tool are a class for its own. Just the modeling, I am surprised to see you guys find it better than Blender and I am not a go OSS die hard.
I guess Maya is following a strict well how should I say it polygon face methodology unlike Blender which seems more well I dont know edge or vertex orientated? In Blender you can select a vertex and delete the 4 attached faces to it to make a hole. In Maya you need to select the 4 faces to cut it open. While Blender in this case offers 3 ways Maya only has one possible option.
sry it seems you haven’t given it that much time.
