Edit Mesh > Bridge Problem

[totten]

Hey

I've just gotten Maya and am following the tutorial that came with the program. I am curently working on a helmet that if it was real I am about ready to stomp on it, if it even was whole to start with, which is the problem.

I am about to join two pieces together with the Edit Mesh > Bridge tool. Now, they are combined, I have followed the tutorial religiously so I have gone back and double checked and checked again to make sure all is correct, but when I click "Bridge" sure it creates one, but all the polygons are crossing over one another in an exact opposite way than wanted, creating one meeting-point in the middle, pinching everything together. I can't figure this one out. Help would be MAJORLY appreciated, what am I doing wrong?

[gmask]

Sounds like the normals of the two faces you are trying to bridge are opposing one another.

display the normals with Display>Polygons>Face Normals

and then use Normals>Reverse to flip the normals of the other side

[totten]

It didn't work. Now it told me that it couldn't be done because equal amount of faces needed to be selected when doing the bridge. Yet I had the usual 5 face-edges on the helmet, and the other 5 of the front piece that's to be bridged. And I also saw when I did what you suggested it added a bold line on the row behind the edge row, so it kinda looked like I now had 2 edgelines, if that makes any sense. It also added a bold line in a place that made no sence, on the other side of the front piece, that is not supposed to be bridged.(Sorry if I am not using better terms, I still am not completely sure what everything is called in this program)
I'm completely stumped.

Basically what happens, is... imagine it in a side view, I'm gonna connect the left piece with the right, there's 5 edges on each side, from top to bottom, they cross like this

Left face-edge1 > right face-edge5
Left face-edge5 > right face-edge1
And so on

[gmask]

I'm having a hard time following what you are doing.. is this an online tutorial or from a book? Could you post a screengrab of what you have selected?

Also when reversing the normals it has to be done on the entire shell not just the face you have selected

[totten]

http://img67.imageshack.us/my.php?image=helmetxb2.jpg
So this is the image of what has happened, the problem.

And the tutorial I am using is the one that comes with Maya. Polygonal Modeling. I'm at:

"Getting Started with Maya"

Polygonal Modeling
Lesson 1: Modeling a polygonal mesh
Bridging between edges

Can be reached from the Help > Tutorials.

[gmask]

Looks like the normals are flipped on one of those piece of geometry.. can you show me a screen cap with the normals displayed?

[totten]

Um... how do I do that?

[gmask]

display the normals with Display>Polygons>Face Normals

you'll need to select all the faces of the second piece of geometry and then reverse them

and then use Normals>Reverse to flip the normals of the other side

[totten]

Wooohooo!

It was a problem with reversed faces, BUT, it didn't work fixing it, as the two pieces were combined already for the bridging, but now after your last message I separated them and then reversed on the front piece, which looked a bit wicked when I displayed the normals. Then I combined them again and did the bridge again and VOILA! Thanks so much, I was ready to pull my hair out

Look, isn't it beautiful! xD

http://img367.imageshack.us/my.php?image=helmet2yc2.jpg

Meh, uh... how do I UNdisplay those normals now?