new maya user, low poly question

[wkornf]

Hi Guys,

Ive just started work on maya in preperation for my class im taking next semester. I followed a tutorial making a jetbike so im pretty familiar with the basic workings of maya, but not so much on polygon modelling, since the tutorial basically used subd's and nurbs.

Im having a really hard time figuring out how to connect the limbs to the torso and such. I start with a refrence image and model a cylinder over it. then when it comes to combining legs to torso i get lost.

adding geometry and keeping things organized is my hardest part. which tools should i be using? i recently read mirror is better then duplicate with -1 inverse trick when using poly's so ill try that. ive been using split edge ring tool and some extrudes and merge vertex


any help would be appreciated, ill post a screen of my first model when i get home


EDIT: FINALLY GOT THEM SCREENS ! Plz comment i can use all the help i can get!http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/8708/firstfemalezn4.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/1693/firsthandqd7.jpg


Wayne

[defaultalias]

thats basically all you need to use. split poly is also useful, and i use edge extrude a lot too. things like bevels and chamfers shouldn't be used as they add polys you don't need.

merging limbs to the body is simple. make sure the corresponding area, eg. shoulder to arm, hip to leg, has the same number of verts as the limb. then, delete the faces that wont be seen after the merge, and merge the verts. you'll have to make sure everything lines up though, or else you get a sloppy looking joint.

[madmenno]

Your horizontal wires from the legg should get diagonal. there should go a line from ****** to the outer hip bone (witch is higher then ******). Look at some wire ref from others and you will fix this. And nice looking Butt's are always a pain in the butt :D.

[wkornf]

nice tip madmenno, these little bits of information is what ive been looking for. like i said when i can ill post my first model, since then ive already started over tho.

[Foxter888]

I can help the most important tools are extrude button and split polygons now if you want to mix the polygons meaning as putting the together we got two tools on is the booleans tool and the combine polygons tool for those ones go to Polygons>combine or Polygons>booleans>union....

now there it's a difference on the booleans and combine booleans it's for somple primitives objects to unite and combine action it's for combining two meshes or objects together that are complex...

[Foxter888]

so tell me what it's your knowledge on maya?? maybe we can learn from each other... and hey do you know how I can upload my work here cuz I seem to have some kind of error I don't know what's going on with this... oh well..

[wkornf]

i uploaded very quickly with ImageShack, u can google it and it doesnt even require that you register. My knowledge on maya is just online tutorials. and for christmas i got a couple books, that are a little to advanced for me.

[ChrisInTheBox]

The trickiest part of connecting limbs is making sure you have enough vertices around the limb to the area of the torso you're going to connect. As it was said before, you can use merge vertices tool. I find it easiest to get the limb real close to the torso, and enable snap to vertices to align the vertices together. Just hold down "V" while moving the vertices.