Author Topic: Maya (Read 6285 times)

Neo Bahamut · « **on:** 2002-01-06 00:34:00 »

One of my friends at school says he's got maya, he has broadband so it was easy for him to "get" it (Hint Hint). It was the 3D effects program that made Final Fantasy: TSW, so should I ask him to get me one? And is it easy to use for a newbey to CG?
[edited] 174 2002-01-06 01:35

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #1 on:** 2002-01-06 08:03:00 »

NO! If you're a Newbie, by no means should you get it! I've been working with 3D for years and I had to take a class to even begin to understand how to work with it! And now I don't even use it! (At least for modeling... It sucks for modeling. Haven't done much animation with it...) for a newbie, I highly suggest Lightwave 3D or 3D Studio Max. Both are really good, however they are also difference. I personally use LW3D as my software of choice.

Should you go against my advice, make sure you have a min of 256meg ram, a good 6 gigs of HD space, (for your content. Program takes up about 300-600megs or so...) and Windows NT4 / 2000 Pro / XP Pro. Otherwise, it won't work. (The ram makes it work well. It needs 128min. It requires an NT OS.)

But you are right. Maya made the graphics, not only for TSW, but for all the FF games since 7.

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

Qhimm · « **Reply #2 on:** 2002-01-06 15:14:00 »

You're not entirely right. It's true that different versions of Maya has been used in Square CG production, but that doesn't by any account mean that you can make Square-quality CGs with Maya alone; Maya is only a piece of the puzzle. For example, TSW was made with a heavily modified version Maya in combination with at least half a dozen other 3D suites. Modelling, material creation, special effects, post production, etc etc.

I've used Maya, but I felt it's just too powerful for a single individual. Preferably you would have an entire team working together, each on his part of the project. Otherwise, you'll most likely never be able to fully utilize the functions that differ Maya from the competition.

Just my two cents of course, but I'd really recommend 3DStudio MAX or Lightwave3D to begin with. Should you after a few years find that they're inadequate for your animation needs, switch to Maya (animation is where it really shines IMO).

Darkness · « **Reply #3 on:** 2002-01-06 16:41:00 »

i really wish i was rich

start with milkshape. the ultimately simple 3d modeling program.

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #4 on:** 2002-01-06 22:12:00 »

I know Qhimm. I choose to omit that info cause i didn't feel it was nessicarily. But you are totally right. Square built a lot of custom software to work with Maya in order to create TSW.

But everything, from the explotions, to the image maps, to the sky was completely made in the computer. Not one pixel was from a scan, digitized or comped.

I do think Maya can be utilized entirely by a single person, but you must either be very patient, talented, or crazy in order to think you can get a wonderful production out of it alone. For optimum performance, I agree with Qhimm, work in a group.

Darkness: I wouldn't even consider Milkshape. I don't really consider it a 3D program other than a very nice model converter.

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

halkun · « **Reply #5 on:** 2002-01-07 00:52:00 »

Ok, here's the stright dope.
FF:TSW was made with many many differnt programs. Maya was used for "Project Grey", the proof of concept animation. The plot for Porject Grey was a CG movie short where Aki (At the time her last name was Matsumoto) found the 8 year old girl, Meg who was dying in a hospital. It was alluded to in the acual film. Maya was also used to create most of the blasts (CG storyboards) due to it's real-time animation prototyping system. The only scene that was totaly done in Maya was the one where the army ship came in for a landing in New New York. Now, Keep in mind that each frame in FF:TSW was not rendered in one go. They would render the background, the lighting, the fog effects, the each of the characters one at a time, and any props. Each scene had about 7-10 indivfualy renderd layers to them. (There are scenes where the layers don't line up right)
Also, most of the backgrounds were not rendered in 3D at all, but were acually matte paintings done by a human hand in a computer. If the scene had clouds, or any type rockey terrain, it was a matte painting. Matt paintings were also appied to 3D blasts to make them more realistic. Most of the shots of the out side of New New York city and all of the external Tuson shots were mattes
FF7 used Mostly lightwave the migraton to Maya wasn't until FF8 because if it's NURBS ability The CG in FF4 remake were also Lighwave
Square is also a software comany so much of the "glue code" is in house. That have some pretty wickid plugins for Maya and some coustom stuff for animation. (The terminal was a Solaris workstation running CDE, I'm sure it was grabbing data from the renderfarm though)
IN a nutshell, if you want to learn how to do 3d graphics. Start with povray, that way you can get the concepts down, then move to either blender if you want a free rendering system, or lightwave. I'm sure you are going to pony up the $4000 for a single seat licence. Lightwave plugins also cost $200-$400 a pop. Nurbs is a pain so Maya will probably be you next step of you want to move past that.
-halkun

Oh one last thing, there is *ONE* scanned image in the movie. It's the picture that Gener Hain has of his child and doughter. The picture was of the animater's wife and kid on a beach. The words in the diery were scanned in as well.
[edited] 109 2002-01-07 01:54

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #6 on:** 2002-01-07 03:17:00 »

Lightwave isn't $4k a pop. That's 3D Studio Max. LW is about $2500.

The cheap Maya is about $8k or so, while the full version is roughly about $25k.

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

Darkness · « **Reply #7 on:** 2002-01-07 16:34:00 »

theyre both 800 a pop for me, cuz im a student. stuuuuuudent! hahahaha

Ant · « **Reply #8 on:** 2002-01-08 09:53:00 »

Aren't student editions cut down version of the full versions coz i thought for the student vc++ you couldnt compile?

mirex · « **Reply #9 on:** 2002-01-08 11:20:00 »

What is use of vc++ when you can't compile ? You need compilation to see your program, to test it and to run it.

halkun · « **Reply #10 on:** 2002-01-11 02:43:00 »

There is a "Student" version of VC++ that comes with a C interpriter, not a compiler. You could run a program in the environment, but couldn't make a stand-alone executible If I remeber is was like $15USD and was in a yellow box.

Ant · « **Reply #11 on:** 2002-01-17 14:59:00 »

Indeed, because I remember some bloke posted his source in a newsgroup pleading ppl to compile it for him as he only had student edition.

PurpleSmurf · « **Reply #12 on:** 2002-01-19 06:33:00 »

you can buy complilers, how every sh*tty. like i have a c++ book. one of thoes "sams learn <language> in "days/hours/minutes". anyway it has this half assed attempt at a compiler on a cd in the back.

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #13 on:** 2002-01-20 20:10:00 »

Quote

Me:
Lightwave isn't $4k a pop. That's 3D Studio Max. LW is about $2500.

The cheap Maya is about $8k or so, while the full version is roughly about $25k.

Darkness:
theyre both 800 a pop for me, cuz im a student. stuuuuuudent! hahahaha

I also can buy them for $800, however, they ARE the student versions, and as such, they will stop working after 1 year. Or they won't work at full capaticty.

Either way, you're screwed.

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]