Category: Maya

This was the largest project of the first term. We were tasked with retopologizing a 3D character which we would later wrap, rig and animate.

For some reason I found the process of quad drawing over the 3D model very difficult which is reflected in my first two drafts:

As the wrapping process was unnecessarily difficult due to my bad geometry, I decided to repeat the process and be as meticulous and time intensive as needed to get an accurate result.

I was very satisfied with the end result which almost identically resembled the original model.

After that I found rigging, to be manageable as I coincidentally had some previous experience with rigging hard surface objects in 3DS Max.

I also found a tutorial on youtube for creating facial shapes that luckily used the same model as us:

The process was therefore a little smoother than I expected for the degree of complexity and level my level of skill.

This is the rendered lip-synch video:

Sadly, due to a crash in Maya I has lost my scene and cannot provide more pictures of my work.

For this project we were tasked with creating a hot air balloon that we would also use in our Nuke class.

Along with our previous modelling skills, for this model, we had to employ different ways to created curved objects. I found the bend deformer we used for our ropes surprisingly difficult to use and less intuitive than the other tools we have used so far. Subsequently, I was not very pleased with my first draft.

Along with practicing with the deformer tools, I also looked up a tutorial to help me improve the cage and burners and cage part of the model:

I also tried using a different way to model the basket. After that and our second class working on this this was my 2nd draft:

I was pretty content with the result although there were a lot of small improvements to be made.

I worked on finetuning everything while also following through on the tutorial above and creating yet a new basket, this time as an actual mesh. This is the final result:

This was also our introduction to animation in Maya. Here is the animated balloon composited in Nuke:

For this project were were introduced to curves in Maya.

The class worked on this project during the 1st week, during which I was absent due to an issue with my enrolment. That ended up benefiting me as I worked on it with the added knowledge we got on our second week of classes.

I found this tutorial to help me along the process:

What I found particularly useful was the detailed sketches provided for reference.

I tried to follow the tutorial as closely as I could, however it was extremely detailed and at certain parts I tried to adhere to the blueprints the best way I instead of copying precisely what was on video.

I was quite happy with the wheels, which seemed complex at first but they were just another combination of extrusions and shifting vertices.

I think the final result is decent for now but I am looking forward on getting better at modelling things like this as I am very interested in hard surface modelling.

For our second session we were tasked with create a 3D model of a lego figurine.

This task, although simple at first glance, was a great way for us to learn to use modelling tools in a creative way to derive more complex shapes from basic geometrical ones.

After a little practice, I came to find all these different tools straight forward and relatively easy to use. What I found challenging was creating shapes from imagination – using an image plane as reference is the only way I could get the dimensions right.