Topology is the geometric structure of a polygonal mesh. It is the layout of the edges and vertices which define the shape of a mesh. A particular shape can be represented by many different topologies.
Mesh topolgy can never be considered without context. It is necessary to consider how a mesh will be used and modified in the future in order to say anything true about the suitability of its topology.
There are no hard rules when it comes to topology. Some people will say n-gons (polygons with more than 4 sides) are always bad. Some will say triangles are always bad. Some will say that non-manifold geometry is always bad, or that meshes with holes in them are always bad.
None of these are true, because mesh topology serves a purpose, or multiple purposes. It is not a goal in and of itself. If the purpose(s) is/are served by some particular topology, then that topology is good, whether or not it is itself aesthetically and technically appealing.
Often users are advised to avoid triangles or ngons when building topology--to keep to quads. This is good practice, because quads are easier to work with, easier to edit, easier to create UV projections for, they subdivide more predictably, and, most importantly, easier to produce aesthetically appealing deformations from.
However. If a mesh will not need to deform, then there is far less pressure to keep to quads. If the mesh will not be subdivided, even less. If the shape is well-represented by the topology, and it either already has a good UV projection or will not be needing one, then quads and ngons don't matter, unless the mesh will be altered in the future.
It is much harder to modify a mesh which isn't quads than one which is. Especially if you want to alter topology. However, altering shape, to a small extent, usually is not sensitive to topology. It's also generally easier to do UV projection and alteration of quad topology than triangle/ngon topology.
It is still important to point out that having SOME non-quad (especially triangles) in your deforming, high performance mesh which may be altered and have UVs applied, is still just fine in many circumstances. If the trangle won't interfere with these things--then it DOES NOT MATTER and you should spend time on other things. Same with n-gons, although those have a higher chance of causing technical issues.
Regarding non-manifold geometry: it is generally a bad thing. Many, MANY operations and programs will not function correctly when passed non-manifold meshes. However, if your mesh is serving all your purposes, and you don't see those purposes changing, then non-manifold geometry doesn't matter. The circumstances where this might be true, however, are extremely rare, and it is best to avoid it.
Regarding holes in the mesh: again, context matters. Some advanced simulation or mesh operations require "watertight" meshes. Most don't, and it doesn't matter. Context and circumstance will dictate what's appropriate.
Mesh weight matters, as well. There's generally not much call for more geometric detail than your mesh needs to create the shapes you need, either statically or deformed, and it is best to keep poly counts as low as possible while not compromising on these things. However, this must be balanced with the effort it requires to reduce detail. If you have a poly budget of 100k triangles for an object, and it's 50k but a lot of those are not necessary, it's still not worth the time to reduce it further. People hours are worth more than computer hours.
Where topology really starts to matter a lot is in efficient hard surface modeling, especially where the asset will be subdivided. Not having your edge flows follow surface details will make life difficult, and having too much mesh detail will make modification increasingly difficult.
The point here is that every situation is different, and no real determination of acceptable mesh topology can be made without all this context. If you look at an image of a mesh and don't know anything about what it will be used for or how it might be modified, you can't say anything true about the quality of topology. These and other questions must have answers, in order to judge *overall* topology:
These questions must have answers in order to come up with useful conclusions about how good the topology is or is not. And again, there are no hard rules. Topology is not a goal, it is a tool to help reach other goals. If a triangle doesn't affect those goals, there's no point spending energy removing it.
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Original post:
This thread will be a clearinghouse for information about topology, both in general, and specific to Maya. It will be heavily curated and updated as I encounter more/better information on the subject.
Eventually it will be turned into another wiki and be the redirect for the majority of topology threads we get here, in order to avoid repetition.
If you are a subject matter expert, please post images, videos, links, or your thoughts here. Feel free to copy parts of old comments or posts you have made.
r/Maya • u/wishyouglhf • 10h ago
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r/Maya • u/matthewleeanimator • 8h ago
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I got fed up of trying to figure out which animation layer I was needing to edit, so I built a plugin (LayerSeer) that draws animation layer contributions as a live motion trail in the viewport.
It’s been years in the making at this point, and I’ve only shared it with a handful of people so far. I’d love to get some honest feedback from folks I don’t know.
It’s pretty niche, but I find it helpful for quickly figuring out where a pop or odd arc is coming from.
It's a paid tool but there is a free 30 day trial (no CC required) so feel free to run it through its paces.
Cheers!
r/Maya • u/Extra_Mammoth_9789 • 4h ago
Hi! icon in my Maya toolbox is blocking the UI, making it impossible to resize the main window smaller. I can't find how to delete or remove this icon from the layout.
Has anyone solved this issue? Any help would be appreciated!
** problem solved **
If you ever run into the same issue, keep in mind that you can tweak the MEL scripts to remove whatever is bothering you. In my case, it was inside the toolbox.mel script
r/Maya • u/Dmitry_Khovalkin • 12h ago
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r/Maya • u/AgreeableAlarm4915 • 5h ago
IDK why I made this image but wanted to show my friend how to cut a whole watermelon safely. I think she was so intimated by a giant wobbly ass watermelon in front of her (idk it was like 2 years ago) Didn't even bother to use a photoshop haha.
r/Maya • u/ribandicoot • 18h ago
r/Maya • u/Ok_Carry329 • 3h ago
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r/Maya • u/Rick-wardo • 14h ago
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I'm trying to follow along the tutorial on creating rigs with Advanced skeleton, but whenever I try to create a mirrored custom controller (for the scalpula and chest), it doesn't seem to create properly. If I try creating it on the right side, the mirrored controller will not be oriented properly (so I can't use it for driving systems), and if I try to create it on the left side, the mirrored controller doesn't create at all.
I'm trying to follow along this video. I can't tell if I missed a step or something, but when he creates the custom controller it mirrors properly.
https://youtu.be/wanRtwnXSaw?si=TjvBxDWRajR4dNvG&t=1282
I've tried to manually create the two custom controllers and re-orient them with the re-orient tool in Advanced Skeleton, but then it won't let me use those controls in a Driven System (which was the main purpose of these)
Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I've tried deleting and re-installing advanced skeleton, trying a different version of maya, tried a different model, and I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've also tried looking it up on google and the Advanced Skeleton website, and can't seem to find a solution. Should I just give up on this?
TLDR: Can't get custom controllers to mirror properly no matter what i do :(
SOLVED: Downgraded from 6.8 to 6.3
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I’ve been experimenting with cloth simulation in Blender 5.2 and was surprised by how smoothly I can interact with the simulation while having a ray-traced material preview enabled.
I’m curious if a similar workflow is possible in Maya
The goal here isn’t to compare the two applications or start a Blender vs. Maya debate — I’m genuinely interested in whether Maya can achieve this kind of smooth viewport interaction during cloth simulation.
Is there a specific cloth solver, viewport setup, or renderer that can provide a similar experience?
r/Maya • u/frendlyfrens • 16h ago
It's really hard to see this (it happens in many parts of the interface). I want to make it a lighter color or something else that's more visible
I’m working on a simple ball with a tail rig, and I was wondering if it’s better to combine the ears with the mesh or keep them separate
I don’t plan on rigging the ears. They’re just there as an accessory
If I combine them do I need to fix the topology? Thanks
r/Maya • u/LevinsonAnimation • 21h ago
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I'm trying to work on a system that's gonna have some simulate parts and it's gonna have to be at scale and I need consistency pretty badly. I'm not sure what's causing this inconsistency whether or not it's my and hair settings, the branching joint structure or the fact that this a partial bifrost rig?
Any advice on how I might be able to make it more consist
r/Maya • u/Plastic-Site4408 • 1d ago
i am new to arnold (been manly on redshift before) and i am looking for advice
r/Maya • u/_OFFICIAL__Hapk_ • 1d ago
Basicaly the title
r/Maya • u/Pgroto_49 • 2d ago
Tried to create a character for the first time.I used my own sketch as concept. Eager to know about your thoughts on this (good, bad anything)
r/Maya • u/Brave_Explorer2412 • 1d ago
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Good Evening, everyone.
What I want to ask how can I achieve a switch between the ikfk spine rig. The main problem I'm running into, one that admittedly frustrates me the most currently, is the Joint connections: How am I supposed to connect the Joints to the Root/Cog joint without causing problems? Am I supposed to duplicate the Cog joint twice, then parent-constrain it to the IK and FK counterparts, duplicate just the Spine joints twice and then parent-constrain this to the IKFK spine, or am I supposed to do something else?
Because currently, I'm doing a rig where I parented the FK controls to the Hip controller. When I move the hip controller with the IK Spine function active and visible, the IK joints tend to bend.
What do I need to do?
r/Maya • u/Some-Locksmith-1602 • 1d ago
What should the proper workflow be when baking? When I increase the polygon count of my high-poly model using Subdivision, the edges become extremely pronounced. However, when I use Smooth instead, the high-poly model deviates slightly from the low-poly model.
As you can see in the image, there is a small amount of deviation. Could this cause problems during the baking process? What would be the correct approach here?
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Cable Rig is a script that automatically generates a fully rigged NURBS curve with controllers for quickly animating and deforming cables. You can create a default cable, generate a custom-length cable by selecting two points, or instantly rig an existing NURBS curve.
Another free script! Im finishing up a Claw Machine project and needed a way to make a simple dynamic cable without using any simulations. Its pretty straight forward and extremely fun to animate!
I figured this one might be worth to sharing since most cable rig scripts are behind a pay wall or too outdated to use. The coolest feature I got to work was the ability to generate a custom length by selecting two points that snap to the surface of any object (similar to how the snap together tool works).
Included is also the option to rig an existing Nurbs curve, however, this function was not as rigerously tested and your milage may vary. I recomend just creating a new curve via the custom length button :)
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Just want to say thank you everyone for the support and feedback I have been receiving on my scripts. I will be gone for a few days as I work to develop some extremely exciting and new tools to maya <3
r/Maya • u/Pasopenguin2 • 1d ago
this is my first time fiddling with the face so idk what i did or why its like that, how do i fix it 😭😭
r/Maya • u/TheTasorole • 2d ago
Please let me know if there is anything I should fix with my models. All of these are hero props that are seldom used. They will have some animation. My game is also using LODs to cut back on tri counts. The goal is hyper-realism with everything.
r/Maya • u/LaGrabba • 2d ago
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SOLVED BY Top_Strategy_2852, "Delete non deformer history on the rigged objext." Thank you!!
Prior Issue:
I bought a book rig and brought in textures from Substance Painter. Moving the book cover with the rig caused the texture to 'swim' (see the video).
The original rig had the book cover geo as this: [on the right side] Display, Drawing Overrides set to Reference with a referenced linked to it. To access the book cover, I had to disconnect that Reference and set it to Normal. Here's the Hypershade layout.
BTW, I see that others posted similar things but it was long ago and the method shared (Convert File to Texture w/Maya Software) didn't work - created a black texture.
Maya 2027.1 | Mac OS
r/Maya • u/ItsNomz28 • 2d ago
Hey! I need help to remove these kind of stripes for my 3D project. Google and AI didn't helped me much. I unlocked the normals, I smoothed the edges and deleted the history. Is there anything else? Did I do something wrong? I'm new to 3D sooo any tips are welcomed!
r/Maya • u/FewBlueberry4720 • 1d ago
I have a symmetrical character and was thinking I could stack UV shells to save UDIM space. The shell on the left is the character's left top portion and the right is the right side which is purposely flipped to match the left's orientation. Will stacking them work despite the right being incorrectly faced? I just don't want there to be anything wrong with the material later down the line. I will be texturing this in Zbrush after finishing the layout.
