For my table and chairs practice I did a whimsical design of a frog, as I wanted to explore further than a basic table and chairs. I found it a little complicated to create the curves of the smile for the frogs mouth but I was happy with it in the end. I also added some uneven bars on the back of the chair to make it look a little more interesting.

For the vase, I originally started with two different sphere which I flattened the bottom.  However, I thought that it would be better to make the vase out of one primitive and then edit it so that there would not be an unnessicary join in the middle. I made the bottom half of the vase slightly bigger so that there would be more balance if the object was sitting on a real table. I decided to give it some texture so I twisted the sides so that it created a nice pattern all around the sides.

I wanted to make a flower to go inside the vase, so I used a sphere which i bent to create the stalk and then for the head of the flower I flattened a sphere. In order to create more texture and make it look more like a real flower head I put the object in vertex mode and I pulled each individual point inward to create a dimpled effect.

For the glasses I decided to make a wine glass with a textured bottom. To do this, I started with a sphere polygon which I put in vertex mode and then twisted until I was happy with the pattern. I wanted the middle of the glass to match so I got a cylinder which I lengthened and made skinnier. Finally, I twisted it so that it would match the bottom of the glass. For the cup part of the glass I got a sphere and cut it in half using edge mode. I really liked the way it ended up but it wasn’t completely even. While I liked this from an aesthetic point of view, I can’t help but feel like the practicality wouldn’t be accurate as the glass is not even around the sides and so it could possibly spill.

I also made a chair as practice. The chair was quite complicated as I had to bend the sides of the cushions and armrests. I found it quite difficult to get used to this at first, and It took me a bit of time until I was able to get the model to a place that I was happy with. For the cushions, I made them out of a sphere privatives which I flattened. Two of them I left as flattened spheres, but I wanted to try something new for the third one so I put it into vertex mode and manipulated the points so that I was able to create the shape of a heart.

This week we started getting more used to Maya and how to build items in the software. We started with a group tutorial of making a café, which went over the basics of maya e.g. how to copy, move, resize, move camera etc. This was helpful as I am new to the software and I had only used it for my Cactus so the refresher course was useful. For my café, I chose to try a space theme, based loosely off the Lego stars wars game cantina.

I decided to experiment with making this chair a little different from the others. I made it with just one leg, balanced in the middle, with a little tea tray coming off the side which you can put food on. I like the kind of space/ sci-fi design of this.

Finally, I added a conveyor belt type table for food to move along. I didn’t know how to add a lot of detail or texture as I’m still new to the software, but I was happy with this basic starting point.

When looking at the assignment brief, I decided quite early on that I wanted to create a old well for my project. I thought it would be a good project to test my skills and that it would be something which would interest me.

I started by gathering a lot of photographs of well which I could use as a reference. I really liked the idea of having some branches of old trees curling up the side of the well. I also liked the idea of having different parts of the well made from different textures. These initial references were very helpful for me when it came to designing my own concept.

I had three quite different ideas to start with. One was a space themed well, based on a personal memory of mine which I liked the idea of. However, upon getting the advice of my lecturers and peers I concluded that the construction of this well would not be difficult enough and therefore it would not show off my developed skills very well. The second idea was a fairy well, based on the idea of a fairy living in the top part of the well as a house. I liked this idea, and through it I was able to incorporate the twisting trees which I really liked. There was also a few different elements which I thought would be good to explore and get more used to in Maya such as the sweep mesh tool. The third idea was a well based off the beach and the seaside. I thought it would be nice to create a variety of different seashells to use as pebbles around the well but I ultimately decided that the overall design of this concept was not as well developed as the others. In the end I decided to take forward my idea of the fairy well.