Symmetry in Modo
polycounter lvl 6
Sup folks. I'm having this big problem while learning modo.
As you can see in the image, I have half of a model. I want to mirror the other half and work symmetrically like I would in max.
I know modo can mirror sides, but it isn't working as I thought it would be.
What I want to have is a max-style operation where the middle verts are merged, creating a symmetrical model. Symmetry mode appears to work well when I do mirror it, but even after averaging out and "planarizing" the middle edges with a script, the other half doesn't align properly.
I also want to be able to merge the two halves.
Is there a way to create a symmetrical model like in max?
As you can see in the image, I have half of a model. I want to mirror the other half and work symmetrically like I would in max.
I know modo can mirror sides, but it isn't working as I thought it would be.
What I want to have is a max-style operation where the middle verts are merged, creating a symmetrical model. Symmetry mode appears to work well when I do mirror it, but even after averaging out and "planarizing" the middle edges with a script, the other half doesn't align properly.
I also want to be able to merge the two halves.
Is there a way to create a symmetrical model like in max?
Replies
I am pretty new to scripting so I am not sure which cvar in the script to map to a hotkey. I just mapped the script itself to a key but I'm guessing that's not the right way to go about it. Which cvar do I select to simply mirror the half on the x axis?
Will quickmirror merge the two halves together as well?
EDIT: finally got it to work. I was using a base mesh from maya (silly maya) and trying to align the central verts/edges just wasn't working in modo
I imported the mesh into max, made planar the edges along the x axis, brought it back into modo, ran the script, then used the merge tool to weld the two shells together. Symmetry works fine as well.
Btw Ben what is the equivalent tool to max's "make planar" in modo? I just wanted to know how to properly align the middle edges/vertices of a model's half so I can mirror and run symmetry properly in modo.
To make planar to the world axis:
1. Set you Action Center to Element and your Action Axis to Auto.
2. Select whatever you want to be planar.
3a. Place your Action Center on a vertex that you wish to make the "plane" at.
3b. If you are uncertain of your vert's location or wish it to be at 0 on one of the world's axis then use the Center Selected menu on the Model tab to move it to 0.
4. Scale to 0% along whatever axis you want.
To make planar to the workplane:
1. Select some elements that will define your plane.
2. Align Worlplane to Selection
3. Select whatever you want to be planar.
4. Set you Action Center to Element and your Action Axis to Auto.
5. Place your Action Center on the vertex you wish to make the "plane" at.
6. Scale to 0% along whatever axis you want, which in this case is probably "Y".
Mirroring with quickMirror.pl
Seneca refers to script variables as CVARs they simply mean adding something after the script command. So the most common ways to run quickMirror.pl are entered like this on the command line:
@quickMirror.pl x
@quickMirror.pl y
@quickMirror.pl z
I've just assigned those commands to a custom pie menu which I bound to a hotkey. It makes mirroring anything along any axis super fast.
You can just run the script without anything selected in which case it'll mirror across the world X, Y or Z axis at position 0.
Or you can select an edge or pair of verts to define the mirror plane and run the script with the X, Y, or Z CVARs to get different results based on your selection,
Also, symmetry seems to be weird for me in general. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In some cases, it will select some polys but not others. Even fixing the item center doesn't appear to solve the problem.
Otherwise, I've only scratched the surface of modo. It seems really powerful and so far has been very fun to use.
As for symmetry, I actually don't use this feature at all. I mostly work with environment props and since mirroring is so fast I don't find it that useful. There are some Modo users around here that have mentioned using it to great success though.
Modo is kind of a alien experience compared to Max/Maya. Stick with it and every once and a while you'll get some "ah ha!" moments where things make perfect sense. I'm still learning new things about Modo all the time and I've been using it for ~2 years now.
Like now, I just made a curve. I'm trying to extrude along that curve like in maya but hey it's part of my "item" now and I can't select it separately!
What? I can't scale this polygon on the x-axis for some reason?
What? my symmetry disappeared again?
I think it's better if I just treat it as its own thing instead of expecting it to work like max or maya.
Trying to make a creature from a box and not really succeeding yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it out...
More scripts LOL!, but seriously this guy pretty much found out all the fast ways to do many common tasks in Modo and scripted them already.
It would probably be worth your time to take a night and go through them to see what you can use and what's possible. There is an installation video and a few tutorial videos and animated gifs on his site and a few other videos he's done posted on the Luxology forum (I think), check em out.
I'm having a little bit of trouble with a new model I'm working on. I kept finding weird artifacts showing up on my mesh. So I used deletehalf.pl and I think it messed up modo a bit, creating lots of duplicate polys and such. The subdivision preview is also acting weird, not totally smoothing the model, even after most of the duplicate polys are deleted.
Pic related, notice the weird sub-d preview.
I have to say though, despite all this weirdness, I'm really enjoying modeling in modo.
http://www.sabpro.com/modo/
http://www.sabpro.com/modo/index202.html
Seneca's mesh cleanup script is a "Must Have" and is perfect for removing all that pesky duplicate geometry. I like to run it like this:
So that it doesn't automatically merge the geometry together at the end.
New issue. I deleted half of the model, imported it into max to straighten the middle line, brought it back into modo and noticed the subdivision style changed to be like max's instead of the nice subdivision style I had in modo. Is there any way to change it back? See pic.
That's probably the "Surface Normal" map that gets applied when importing OBJs, find it under the Lists tab Other Maps and delete it.
EDIT:
Dropbox would be ideal for that sort of thing, in case you didn't know about it.
1. Select the mesh layer that your character is on.
2. Go to the Shader Tree Tab and under the Render Node Delete the "01 - Default (Material)" Node.
I think this material is created when importing via FBX from another app. Modo is probably trying to recreate the exact material from the other app (Max) but is failing at some point.
3. Go back to the mesh layer that has your character under the Items Tab.
4. Switch to polygon selection mode and select all then copy.
5. Create a new mesh layer and paste.
That should be it to fix the shading issue.
There are a couple of other things that might be causing you problems:
1. Your model is not centered to the world X axis. You can fix this by selecting all your polygons and using the Center Selected tool with the X dropdown menu. Center Selected should be on the left side of the Model or Model Quad layout just under the primitives and transforms UI buttons.
2. There is a strange "bakeWgt" Morph Map under the Lists tab that looks like it could be deleted, though it probably won't cause any problems either.
In the right hand side, where it lists your edge weight maps, UVs, vertex colour maps, etc... there should be a "normal" one under Other. Right click on and delete that.
Got a new question. I've modeled organic characters successfully in Modo, no problem. Now I'm going to make a mecha type thing. When I made stuff like this in max, typically I would shift-extrude polys, shell modify them, detach, reattach, stitch and sew verts together to build stuff, etc. What would be a similar workflow with modo's poly tools? Or more generally, how would you modo users go about building a mechanical character made up of many small little techno bits and joints?
I'm not asking for a specific explanation or hand-holding, just a general idea of how to go about it.
also, it gets really crashy when I try to make renders and assign materials. I'm using Vista, anything I should be checking to prevent this? Could just be that my sorta old dell laptop can't really handle it.
EDIT: yup, it's gotta be my laptop and its dinosaur of an integrated chipset. I hate this thing with a fiery passion, can't wait to save up for my own rig and fully enjoy the wonders of modo...