Class:

During class, we were introduced to the module, what we would be taught each week and the assignments that will be coming up. For example, The ‘Hard Surface Model.’

I found this class to be informative and reassuring as I have never worked in Maya before and I am looking forward to the ‘Weekly Modeling Challenges’ as they will have step by step tutorials that I can follow along with and, hopefully, gain an understanding of how to use Maya and practice modeling different objects.

 

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Modelling Challenge – Vase:

 

1. Using ‘Pixabay’, I found the same reference image that Alec used in the tutorial videos as I was intimidated by Maya and wanted to follow the tutorials as closely as possible to gauge a better understanding of Maya and build my confidence in using the system.

2. I opened Maya and created a ‘New Scene’, I saved the reference image into the ‘sourceimages’ folder and imported the image as an ‘image plane’.

3. I made two ‘image planes’ and positioned them at the edges of the working area.

Beginning to model:

4. Firstly I created a cylinder in the centre and increased the height to match the height of the vase in the reference image.

 

5. I added 3 ‘edge loops’ to the cylinder at the contours of the vase and scaled the edge loops to better match the curve of the vase in the reference.

 

6. Took a step back to look at my progress thus far. I was really happy with how the model was looking and how easy the tutorials were to follow.

 

7. The model looked low poly so I added more ‘edge loops’ and scaled them to further refine the shape of the vase.

 

8. I added even more ‘edge loops’ to the model, adjusted the bottom of the model and added a lip to the base of the model.

 

9. I bevelled the lip of the vase and used the bevel and multicut tool on the base of the vase to fix the mesh of the model and remove all ngons.

 

10. I used the bevel tool at the top of the model and adjusted it to create the thickness of the vase. I extruded the inside of the model, making sure to contour the inside to match the shape of the vase on the outside. I then removed the ngons on the inside of the model.

 

11. I was really happy with my progress and decided to take a step back. I found a mistake. The inside of the model was clipping through to the outside, leaving a black shape on the model. I returned to a previous save of the model and fixed the mistake. I found that it was because I made the thickness of the vase too thin. 

 

12. After I fixed my mistake, I smoothed the mesh and used the bevel tool to smooth the top edge of the vase.

 

13. The model is complete!

Finishing touches:

14. Now that the model is finished, I deleted the history and reset the position of the model.

 

Final Thoughts:

Overall I think that the modelling process went quite smoothly apart from the small error I made. Even after adjusting the thickness of the vase I still think I made it too thin so I will watch out for that in the future to avoid the same problem.

I feel a bit more confident using Maya now but I still have a lot to learn and memorise before I am comfortable in using the software.

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