Week 1 Challenge – Vase / Jug
This week, we had to watch the videos provided and try to model a vase / jug of our own. Our first step was to find a vase we wanted to use as reference using https://pixabay.com/. I decided on this image because I liked the shapes, I focused on the middle one.
After setting my project and my scene up, I set up my reference images using the orthographic views – front and side. I aligned the bottom of the vase with the grid, and put my vase in the direct centre.
To start modelling, I inserted a cylinder and scaled it roughly to the same proportions of the vase. I was introduced to the multi cut tool, probably the most useful (or at least used) tool when modelling.
I used the mutli cut tool, adding divisions (edge loops) along the main contours of the vase, the thinnest and thickest parts, and scaled it to match my reference. From there I would add another edge loop in the middle of these points using ctrl middle click, to better match the shape of my reference image, and have a less jarring transition.
I then had to change the top and bottoms of my model. as using the cylinder as my base made this an n-gon. This is to help avoid errors with the mesh during exporting. To do this I selected the vertex in the middle of the face and bevelled it, then connected the remaining vertices alone the bottom/top in a straight line, with one horizontal line through the middle.
Then at the top we used the extrusion tool in order to hollow out our vase. The extrusion tool lets us manipulate this face, moving it down within the vase. Using G to repeat this extrusion, I moved/scaled the faces down at each major change in contour from inside.
I encountered my first problem in this section, something I did caused Maya to unexpectedly crash. I didn’t lose a lot of progress, maybe 15 minutes, but from then on I learned to save a lot more often.
When I tried to render an image of my final vase, it made the whole scene black even after adding lights to my scene, I guess I’ll learn why in the future, for now I just took screenshots in my viewport to show how my vase ended up. Next time I would probably have chosen to do a more complex vase. I like how the vase came out but it is very simple, and without the flowers it could be hard to identify.
