I need help making electric sparks using particles in Maya 8.0. Anyone know how? Maybe this should go in the fan art section, where 3D modelers dwell.
Maya help
- Thread starter victor
- Start date
Mord_Sith
Mildly Dipped
I dunno about Maya, I am a Truespace user myself, however you could try using several dozen light motes, and scale them down to the size of sparks, and have one light at it's core that fires out a starburst of about 12 points or so, for the lines it'd be a pain to animate, perhaps you could do some motion blurring for that effect, otherwise you're gonna need to make some bright orange/red arcs with a sweep tool and then NURBS it, it's a pain to try and do it, but it should give you the effect you want
Christ.
Babs, why don't you ask somebody to do the whole fucking animation in your place already? Don't you have professors and assistants to help you out?
Babs, why don't you ask somebody to do the whole fucking animation in your place already? Don't you have professors and assistants to help you out?
Yeah. Too bad the course was laid out by a retarded ape.
I have about one or two classes a week, the rest of the time the professor is rarely in his office. When he is, he just explains everything really fast (since it's obvious to him), instead of coming down to the computer room and showing you, which is basically the only way of learning.
So basically, I'm on my own with this. It doesn't help that some mentally inferior being decided the Uni's exam period should be AFTER the x-mas holidays instead of before, not only turning the holidays into one big study session, but also causing all professors and teachers to be mostly absent from work during said exam period.
The teacher (singular, there's only one assigned to this course) wasn't in his office yesterday. The two things I wanted to ask about remain unanswered, making me unable to finish this crap during the weekend, and it's due on the 10th. So yeah, I'm kind of worried. Especially as it's out of my hands.
I have about one or two classes a week, the rest of the time the professor is rarely in his office. When he is, he just explains everything really fast (since it's obvious to him), instead of coming down to the computer room and showing you, which is basically the only way of learning.
So basically, I'm on my own with this. It doesn't help that some mentally inferior being decided the Uni's exam period should be AFTER the x-mas holidays instead of before, not only turning the holidays into one big study session, but also causing all professors and teachers to be mostly absent from work during said exam period.
The teacher (singular, there's only one assigned to this course) wasn't in his office yesterday. The two things I wanted to ask about remain unanswered, making me unable to finish this crap during the weekend, and it's due on the 10th. So yeah, I'm kind of worried. Especially as it's out of my hands.
Dude. Get his number and get hold of the guy. Don't expect him to show up at your place without previous notice on a whim to teach you MAYA.
That said, you've got motivation enough to do this thing, now you have to (politely and suavely) bitch him into helping you.
I bitch a lot, actually. But I fucking hate bitching. I just can't stand doing it this much. I don't have it in me to say "hey, can you come down to the computer room and check out my problems?".
I am, as of this moment, rendering the parts of the animation that don't require me knowing how to make sparks. At least that's done. I'm far less than satisfied with what I've done, it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped, especially with the lo-res (640x480) requirement. For instance, I managed to make a planet glow a bit to give a feeling of an atmospheric glow, but changed the lighting a bit, and now I can't find it.
I really needed a good grade in this course to keep my average up. The teacher said we just need something to show on the 10th, so he can grade us. He said we can up the grade later. Still, though, I put a LOT of work into this, even sacrificed my other course pretty much, and I'm a little frustrated by the result.
I am, as of this moment, rendering the parts of the animation that don't require me knowing how to make sparks. At least that's done. I'm far less than satisfied with what I've done, it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped, especially with the lo-res (640x480) requirement. For instance, I managed to make a planet glow a bit to give a feeling of an atmospheric glow, but changed the lighting a bit, and now I can't find it.
I really needed a good grade in this course to keep my average up. The teacher said we just need something to show on the 10th, so he can grade us. He said we can up the grade later. Still, though, I put a LOT of work into this, even sacrificed my other course pretty much, and I'm a little frustrated by the result.
Yes, good, but that doesn't help you.
You need to bring up the issue that there isn't enough in-program schooling, otherwise you'll be stuck to sucking up to people who know the program or doing tutorials in your free time. That doesn't mean you have to ask approval for every render, it's a method situation you have to talk over. Dunno about you, but I expect competent people on a professor's level.
You need to bring up the issue that there isn't enough in-program schooling, otherwise you'll be stuck to sucking up to people who know the program or doing tutorials in your free time. That doesn't mean you have to ask approval for every render, it's a method situation you have to talk over. Dunno about you, but I expect competent people on a professor's level.
I have too, for about two years now. The raging incompetence here, not so much in teachers, but rather in course planners and budget dividers, is really getting old.
Mord_Sith
Mildly Dipped
For the spark, all you need is the light to blink correct, or at least quickly fade from dim to bright in a localized area, put down a light bulb / light mote in the area and have it oscillate from dim (5% or so) to bright (30% or so) every 2-3 seconds, that should give you at least a crude spark, do a few of them in a few different places on the strike zone rather than one big one and it should look a tad better.
If you can control the light shape, go for star bursts rather than light halos, it should add to the effect.
Above all else, look for tutorials, google is your friend, throughout my web design course we had hands on teaching, however any advanced stuff we needed to chase down for ourselves, so the teachers would give us the basics, enough to pass, and it was up to us to chase down on our own the rest for the bonus / high marks.
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/collision_emission/collision_emission.html
Google does help, I believe the link above is exactly what you're looking for...
If you can control the light shape, go for star bursts rather than light halos, it should add to the effect.
Above all else, look for tutorials, google is your friend, throughout my web design course we had hands on teaching, however any advanced stuff we needed to chase down for ourselves, so the teachers would give us the basics, enough to pass, and it was up to us to chase down on our own the rest for the bonus / high marks.
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/tutorials/collision_emission/collision_emission.html
Google does help, I believe the link above is exactly what you're looking for...
I found a tutorial, but you had to pay for it. I'll ask the teacher tomorrow. I think he's had it with my questions, especially as I tend to repeat myself.
Mord_Sith
Mildly Dipped
>.> the one I linked to is absolutely free, you just need to read it.
I might try it tomorrow. But there's supposed to be a simpler way of doing it using particles.
*EDIT*
Nope, didn't work. Followed every step of the tutorial, without result. Maybe it doesn't work with NURBS.
*EDIT*
Nope, didn't work. Followed every step of the tutorial, without result. Maybe it doesn't work with NURBS.
Have you checked over at highend 3d?
http://highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/
all very free and good. I saw a cable tutorial there at least. I bet you can find something worth reading. Good luck!
http://highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/
all very free and good. I saw a cable tutorial there at least. I bet you can find something worth reading. Good luck!
The teacher helped me, and we solved it together (although we were unable to do one emitter, it bugged out). I still have lots of things to do though, like a realistic-looking Earth and a big fireball. I hope I finish in time. Going to have to pull a couple of all-nighters for the sound editing. Thanks for the help, everyone.