Maya 7 Nooby Questions - Head Mesh From 'hash'

[SNARK]

Hi,

Can someone explain to me how to re-construct splines in a Maya mesh? I have used Hash's Animation Master for decades (it seems) and I really like Martin's modeling paradigm where mouse clicks simply hook and unhook points in a mesh. It makes fiddling with the web directions very simple and intuitive. I have now moved up to Maya and haven't yet figured out how to re-weave my head meshes. I believe I need to be in the Modeling Module in Component Mode but I am unable yet to understand how to hide the parts of the model I want to hide and how to disconnect and re-connect points. Is this 'Nurbs' modeling?

Thanks!

~S.~

[SNARK]

Hi,

The Hash program is a spline based patch modeler where the intersections in the mesh are represented by vertices that can be connected or disconnected and the splines between vertices may be broken and re-drawn in the process of re-weaving the mesh. I assumed I would need to do it differently in Maya but need some basic answers or a basic tutorial on this specific aspect of re-ordering the mesh.

For example, importing the mesh from Hash gave me a head with some holes in it as a result of 5-sided patches not translating. I need to re-build these areas and want to know the mouse clicks and hotkeys for taking these areas apart and putting them back together again. In some places I need to add 'splines' and in other places I need to take them out. I need to change the direction of spline curves. I need to detach splines and re-attach them. I say 'spline' in referring to the lines that make up the basket of the head mesh. I can see from the file info in Maya that the object is a poly object. How do I alter it?

Thanks!

~S.~

[Millies45]

Hi there,

If you are not familiar with Maya yet, then I would strongly suggest that you do a few intro tutorials on how to get into component mode and edit vertices and weld them together in order to reconstruct your model in Maya. Here is a great site that has alot of tutorials on how to get you up and running with maya. Tons of interesting tuts at this site...here is linky.....

http://www.learningmaya.com/

Hope that helps you out :)

Mills

[SNARK]

Thanks, Mills!

~S.~