Rendering Wireframes within Maya

[LittleKatydid]

Thank you so much for posting this! I was looking all over for a wire frame shader and this has proven to be so much easier. Thank you!

[Siemenix]

Thank for this tuto ! :)

[Ann199040]

Do you know how to delete animating of a object? even though I have delete the keyframe, but it's still moving...

[Cambrand]

This aint working for me for some reason. done it before, but right now, im getting a cartoony look, with wirefram on top of the mesh which has colors similar to the texture colors.. really strange.. using maya 2011 subscription pack. Any ideas?

[LittleKatydid]

@Cambrand

I had the same effect. The way I solved it is that if you for instance want a white background with black lines, I made a lambert shader for the objects white and applied it.

[samm565]

1:05 keep it G please

[Kurtssingh]

Cheers quite useful vid :)

[Mixamo3DAnimation]

Great tutorial!! There isn't very many tutorials on vector rendering. Cheers!

[mtranger]

thanks for the tutorial, but one question. how would you render a sequence using vector? or could you just render the uv's wireframe to do that.?

[flyingdutchman830]

can i use this for Counter Strike 1.6

[Ikimono]

Alternatively, UV Editor > UV snapshot

[julianbeaver]

sweet thanks man nice and quick

[jazioblaq]

Thank you very much for the needed tutorial. I've been searching for hours for a good, straight to the point tutorial.

[DannyVos]

i have a problem,

my model seems to be rendered out in tri's in stead of quads. when i select my object is look good in quads but with the vector renderer it makes it all tri's.. anyway to fix this??

thx

[pikamus]

very helpful thanks!

[anakim000]

hatata

[110Mahdi110]

1st Thanx for posting

Just as a tip, you can get wireframe & its alpha by Maya Hardware Renderer too.

To see Hardware Renderer go to "Window/Rendering Editors/Hardware Render Buffer". Then from opened player menu choose "Render/Attributes". In settings change "Render Modes/Draw Style" to "Wireframe" & to get its alpha in "Image Output Files/Alpha Source" choose "Hardware Alpha". Now go back to your player window & from Render menu choose "Render Sequence".

Hope you can benefit from this.

[110Mahdi110]

You don't need to harden the edges of coarse in this method.

[PolyNurb]

110Mahdi110,

Awesome see everyone is learning good stuff in here lol.

[110Mahdi110]

@PolyNurb

Yup that's right  ~.O

[Baldoxxx4000]

how do you render with wireframe including the color? can anyone help? thanks! will sub :D

[110Mahdi110]

@Baldoxxx4000 What do you mean? If you mean the wireframe lines in a different color, you can do that easily in a compositing software by using what you get from what I explained before as your alpha over a solid color node.

If you mean how you can get your shaded geometry along with wireframe over it, just take both layers in a compositing software & put wireframe layer over your beauty layer. (Ofcoarse you may need 1st to make a solid black layer define your WF as its alpha & ...)

[resonate001]

awesome thanks for posting this

[HairyPotter2006]

@110Mahdi110 wow , this is much easier. Thanks.

[LokeshLokesh]

thanks dude, you just saved me hours of searching!

[Tomi1697]

Massive help, thanks very much

[PolyNurb]

ThePearl,

Easy fix I think if its doing what I think it is. Remember only hard edges are picked up by the vector renderer in this instance. Usually when you run the smooth function it sets the smoothing angle to around 180, so you lose all the hard edges, thus no wires render. Easy test, after smoothing harden edges on the entire model and see if the wires show up. If this doesn't work I have some other ideas, let me know.

[ThePearlshine]

no the wires doesn't shows up even now..

[ThePearlshine]

the model gets distorted if i smooth the hard edges

[ThePearlshine]

hi.. am doing my showreel and i want to render wireframes on smoothened model..but its creating a prob. when it is unsmooth it shows wireframes but when its smooth it doesn't show any wireframes..

[PolyNurb]

draxi88,

You can set the render to only render wires facing the camera and cull out all backfacing wires...or have it render right on through and render all of the wires seen right through the model.

[draxi88]

but you don't see the whole figure do you?

only the wireframes that is visible from the camera!?

[PolyNurb]

Yes you need to harden any edge you wish to show up as a wire edge in the final render. In my example I wanted a wireframe for the entire model so I hardened edges all over the model.

[knowles2]

Thanks for this nice an simple tutorial.

[escapeephil]

nice one mate, i used to just use the uv map i had made as a texture but this is way faster.....i new it could be done another way.

[KillerkoUK]

nice and easy way.. thanks.. i just took snapshot when i needed wireframe from maya :o)

[treborwal]

Simple procedure, but how do you go

about wireframe render in mental ray

settings?

Same steps?

[monimoni0147]

but actually you dont need to applicat harden edge

o_O

[KillerkoUK]

if you don't do the hard edges it will not render the edges where the smooth transition between edges is.. so you would have only the outline of the creature in this examples but not all egdes

[fastero]

Render View is under : Windows/Rendering Editors/Render View

[belebelen]

How useful! Thanks you so much!

[timeintransit]

i love you

[celark]

wow thanks, needed this pretty badly

[leenahyena]

damn, I don't have the Maya Vector Render plugin! Is there another way to do this?

[calebp9503]

Windows > Rendering Editors > Render Settings

[Reitheneko]

Thank you this helped a ton!

[fantomas81]

render the wireframe of my DICK! good quick tutorial. thanks broski!!

[steveN111333]

DUDE !!! this rocks !!! Thankyou very very VERY MUCH !! :)

[hyeng87]

thanks!!! its clear about that rendering.

[pchackal]

Window -> Rendering Editors -> Render Settings

in case if anybody wondering

Anyway, nice video! :)

[Erdenbek]

I am using Maya 2009, and I don't have Maya vector in render settings, nor in plugin manager. Help!

[leenahyena]

did you ever find a solution for this? I don't have the plugin either.

[Gartwork]

Thank you! i need this tutorial.

[SafaTharib]

oh my god, just get to the part I need.

[4stringdj]

Cheers :D great video!

[ondatellurica]

grazie mille!Tutorial ottimo!

[snarfen]

Great video!

Been searching for ages on how to do this!

Thanks a bunch!

[3DChris82]

Can you do this with NURBS without having to convert?

[varek3d]

Nice tutorial, However my model only triangulates, is there anyway I can keep it quadratic like yours?

[JDubeta]

I always get the same problem as well... if he responds to this can u let me know? Cheers, J.

[megachoir]

make sure you've selected "outlines" in the vector render globals (under edge options => edge style => outlines). if you have that selection as "entire mesh" it will render triangles.

[JDubeta]

I managed to figure this out already, but thanks for replying, i appreciate it. Cheers,

Jd

[linandra]

very nice tutorial..

it helps me alot.

thanks man..

[spencesucks]

Thanks, very useful.

[strtthshw]

Whenever I try to render my wireframe object, my computer freezes. Does anyone know why it does this? :(

[edwardcsargeant]

Ah, thank you so much. A great method that worked really well. Exactly what I was looking for!

[PolyNurb]

Sebatian,

You wouldn't by chance be using either Maya 2008 or an Intel based Mac would you? This error message is a known glitch for those computers using Maya 2008 and I think Maya 8.5. It has something to do with licensing for like the cloth and the vector renderer....Google it and you'll find all you need to help you fix it.

[SebastianK94]

when I try to activate vector rendering this error comes up "// Error: does not match the current architecture (VectorRender)"

Can anyone help??

[freestyluz]

thanks for taking time out to do this tutorial.

[kenny8992002]

nice tutorials, very helping..thanks alot...

[falipeti]

Nice,thanks :) Maya is great,only if they put in next version spline modeler like Max users have.

[PolyNurb]

I think Max's modeling toolset is better than Maya's..BUT Maya is easier to use all around and generally a more robust program for modeling, lighting, animation, texturing and the like. Out there in studios there is a real mix...and most place ask for experience in either/or Maya and Max. So it's a toss up. It used to be Max was used more in the gaming industry and Maya is used mostly in film projects...but with technology advances everyone is using both softwares or switching back and forth.

[headSwarm]

I find that the modifier toolset in max is more fogiving than maya. But even so, maya teaches you to be more forward thinking, and mental ray rules.

[snowboarding1234]

which one is better maya or 3d studio max

[Omecle]

Thank you very much, that is a good way to do it. By the way, I know it doesn't really matter, but you can get to render settings in the Render Editors menu under the Window menu.

Also, to others who have no idea why people like to see wires -- it's to show how well the topology of the geometry is flowing. Employers and critics will definitely want to see how clean and flowing you make your topology, as it usually makes for better geometry.

[PolyNurb]

If you are indeed pursuing becoming a modeler you definitely need a good way to produce excellent and crisp looking wireframes. Every good demo reel you will watch for modelers will show wireframes during the reel...it's the practice as "stephenGunit" actually mentioned that employers can gauge that you know how to produce clean geometry. You cannot tell if the geometry is animatable or a clean mesh just by looking at a shaded or textured modeling.

[PolyNurb]

Forgot to mention how this is done though. First you definitely show your shaded model or textured model foremost...this way they can gauge that the model does look appealing and has character and that you can texture nicely. Once this is established it is common practice to overlay the wireframes over the model commonly using a "Screen" or "Multiply" function in After Effects or Shake. You can experiment with this effect in the Layer Styles of Photoshop first.

[stephenGunit]

why would you want to do that??..well if you want a job in CGI modeling, potential employers NEED to see your geometry..it allows people to gauge your abilities.

[KonstantinosKIR]

And the reason to do that are?????

[silentmaster]

really cool, thankx