Before classes started this semester, we given the task of creating a 3D cactus in Maya. I was nervous to begin this task as this was one of my first times using Maya and there were many things with which I was not yet familiar. Once I started the tutorials, I found using Maya easier than I thought I would, although there was still much to learn.
To create the pot for the cactus, I started by creating a cube and using the smooth button to create more faces. I then turned the divisions up to two to smooth the cube put even more. To create the base of the pot, I then deleted the faces of the top half of the smoothed cube and flattened the remaining faces using the scale tool on the left hand side of the screen.
I then learned how to extrude the edges of the flattened shape by going to edit mesh and extrude and selecting the move tool to move the edges up. Once the sides of the pot were made, I widened the top of the pot, and continued to extrude the edges until the basic pot model was finished. I also smoothed and bevelled the edges of the pot so there were sharp edges. Alec’s tutorial also taught me about how pressing 3 on my keyboard wouldn’t change the shape of the mesh but shows a smooth preview.
To create the cactus body, I created another cube, smoothed it, and placed it above the pot. The reason I did not use a cylinder was when I used a smooth preview, there were dents throughout the cylinder due to the long, thin triangles at the base and top of the cylinder. A cube is much smoother and there are no unwanted dents when the edges are smoothed. I then deleted the faces on the bottom half of the mesh and extruded the bottom edge to create the desired height of the body. Then, by using the multi cut tool, I added more edges throughout the extruded part of the body and used the B shortcut to create a soft blend when I made a section of the mesh wider.
I then created the eyes and arms. To create the needles, I created a single needle by using a cone mesh, then used the placer tool so I could “paint” the single needle across the whole body, making multiple. Creating the body of the cactus took more time than I thought it would, as I was getting used to using Maya, so creating the eyes, arms and needles was the furthest I could go with the model. I feel as though I learned much from these tutorials and will hopefully be able to finish this model during the semester.
