From my initial designs, I then moved on to modelling my final one with Maya.
So after about a day of watching tutorials and messing around with commands I came up with a basic model of my staff. I really struggled with making the wooden layers at the bottom and so I dragged faces to get the layered effect. I then tried to extrude the top section and somehow it turned into spikes. I was however able to create the leather wrapped around the center by following a online tutorial, it was difficult and awkward but it came through in the end.
However on Friday the 26th, I had a talk with Michael about my model. He told me about keeping my objects and polycount low, to extrude surfaces for the claw instead of creating a new object, the knife tool, to texture the leather straps instead of modelling them and how control edges work. He did also tell me how to create the edges of the wood piece but I didn’t get all the notes down on time and so I had nothing to build from.
With Michaels help I was able to navigate Maya easier and restart my model. I think this one came out a lot better. Below are some images of the basic look I was going for, I just need to smooth edges more and focus on the wood section at the bottom. One part of my model I am really proud of is the twist which is the handle, I was able to get Henry’s help on our 1 to 1 session where he showed me a few ways I could achieve this. The easiest way was to go onto Deform – Nonlinear – Twist. The menu that appears on the right was easy to use to get the twist I wanted. Another feature I’m happy with is the metal rings around the claw, instead of creating a new model and trying to adjust it, I simply extruded a ring of faces and adjusted it to stand out from the wood.
However, after trying to achieve the wooden edges I wanted I couldn’t get the hang of it and so had to alter my design to make it simpler and achievable. I changed the bottom section to another orb and defined the wooden section as the straight piece won’t look nice with the other features. To improve on this I would design a more symmetrical object to make things easier for myself and do more research into creating a cleaner looking claw and to also figure out how to create the wooden effect I was looking for.
Moving on from the modelling, I began my UV mapping. When watching Alec’s tutorials in week three I thought UV mapping wasn’t that difficult, but was I wrong when I came to my model. Some parts were simple, such as the spheres, flat surfaces and cylinders. However, the claw was the most difficult, I had to separate it and UV map parts of it at a time. I don’t think I created them the correct way but I feel I done the best I could on my claw and will definitely invest more time into UV mapping.
I was able to stay consistent with UV mapping once I knew what to do, I got used to using the cut and sew tools as well as learning to unfold shapes. I watched a lot of videos as some spoke of one way to do it and then another saying to do it a completely different way and so it took some time to figure out the easiest and most effective way for me to learn.
One thing I did learn from UV mapping is that smaller portions of a section of model works much better than trying to model the whole section. I also learned about the layout option when using UV that organises it for you which saved me a lot of time trying to organise each UV map individually.
Articles & videos:
Maya Tutorial for Beginners 2020 | Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjpF3phtpHg&list=PLsPHRLf6UN4k0_AfrTzLmK4iDV9J97-qR
How to UV a Complex Object In Maya | UV Map Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpTezpLOXQw&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=77&t=917s
Maya Beginner Modeling Tutorial – UV Unwrap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHUJ-kte1n8&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=76&t=274s
unfolding a ball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlIKWFi5VmU&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=73&t=3s
How to unwrap the UV’s of a cylinder in Maya 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkMEk591sIg&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=72&t=114s
Unwrapping UV’s on Complex Cylinder Shapes in Maya 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GkcTzabxiM&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=71
Maya 2014 tutorial : Wood texturing tips ( Subscriber request ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98E-L163fC4&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=67&t=245s
Speed Modeling | Priestess Staff from Goblin Slayer | Maya 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh_0pES7CNU&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=66
Maya Quicktip: Modeling a claw /nail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTuxkPATLzA&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=64
How to model a Twisted Candle Stick in Maya 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEa1DWcn62s&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=62
Maya Non-Linear-Deformers – for modelling or animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdCwE_m1WhE&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=61
UV Map Anything in 5 Minutes with Maya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5Co6SuzoQw&list=PLxlrQQKwwf9fZs140wIDjrN3xaP_1EADB&index=59