..my model..

[Obsydian]

Okay I need some help, serious help please.

I saved my model constantly, many many incremental saves. Then I closed and reopend maya because I was having lag issues. I open up the file...only the nurb eye was there.
Okay.

I opend up my increments, same thing.

PLEASE help this is serious

[Jeremy]

I'd offer to help, but since you're using Maya 8 I don't think I can... Maybe you can save into some type of format that Maya 7 users can open... and hope nothing else is lost in translation...? Good luck.

[Bucket]

Yeah, upgrading for the sake of upgrading isn't a good reason to upgrade.. Especially considering it is maya. Maya never changes. There is no reason to upgrade maya, ever. It is especially bad to upgrade when the client/teacher/school might be using an older version of some piece of software.

If the semester is over. Time to learn a new package. Maya is bad bad bad for modeling. I cannot stress enough how bad maya is as a modeling package. Even c4d is a bit sluggish in some ways. You'd be better of going with a dedicated modeler. Wings and silo are designed only for modeling and they do it rather well.

[Pharoah]

Did you open up the outliner to see if your mesh was in there?

[Professor Watkins]

Yes Ben, we all know you don't like Maya - but it's not very helpful in this thread.

We actually worked it out; it had to do with a NURBS to polygons conversion and a bad Delete History.

[Will]

Time to learn a new package. Maya is bad bad bad for modeling. I cannot stress enough how bad maya is as a modeling package. Even c4d is a bit sluggish in some ways. You'd be better of going with a dedicated modeler. Wings and silo are designed only for modeling and they do it rather well.

I would like to stress that its the artist over the tool. And if you arnt all that great at the art, the key is more practice, not more software. I stand firm there and will not continue this arguement.

[Obsydian]

Yeah, NURBS hate me. Re-did it, good thing I had enough to work from. :D

...Okay, I like modeling in Maya, though, well I don't think I can truthfully say I like Maya right now after the stunt it pulled on me!

The first 3d program I modeled in was MilkShape. Learned how to bone figures and animate in it too. Then the trial expired, bum. I loved that thing though.

[Bucket]

I would like to stress that its the artist over the tool. And if you arnt all that great at the art, the key is more practice, not more software. I stand firm there and will not continue this arguement.

I used to agree with this argument but not anymore. Funny thing about this age old argument is that you are comparing apples to oranges. Your argument assumes that modeling is part of the design process. In high end production the design is done on pencil and paper and sometimes redesigned on clay. By the time a modeler begins to build the production mesh there is no design work to do or artistic element to it. The design is set in stone. It's tracing in three dimensions. It is either right or wrong and it is not up to interpretation. When George Lucas approves a character design do you think there is leeway when the character is being constructed in three dimensions? The people that build the physical house don't get to decide that a garage goes on the roof instead of the ground floor. Nor do they get to say that a room is going to be larger or smaller than it was designed to be.

The very best designers know the depths of the character and can draw it in any perspective. The 2d design will actually translate to 3d. When the design don't translate it is the fault of the designer.

The big question is...

You can plow a field with a spoon but should you, when you can use a tractor?

[Professor Watkins]

*sigh*

This is such a silly argument all around. Use what you like best. Or, go fight about it in another thread. The point is, she was asking for help on a specific Maya issue - not an analysis of my tool is better than yours.