Working with Maya

In Wednesdays lecture, Gary introduced us to working with Maya. Maya is 3D modelling and animation software, developed by Autodesk. It has become the become the standard in the video game industry, and is widely used in variety of other entertainment mediums. 

Gary gave a brief explanation of the interface, before creating a simple model of a Star Destroyer.

After the lecture, I began working with Maya almost instantly. This was the first time I had used the software, and although I have used Blender for 3D modelling before, it was all very new. I decided to work through the small tutorial first, which had been uploaded to canvas and was recommended to start with. The tutorial guiding through the process of creating a simple house, learning techniques such extruding, offset, dividing faces and connecting edges and vertices.

  

Because I need to model a gun for the assignment, and its a vastly more complex shape than a house, I decided to check You Tube for a weapon modelling guide. Although there weren't as many as I was expecting, I did find one based on a Glock 19 handgun. I found the videos a little difficult to follow as not everything was fully explained, but I still manage to learn some techniques that will certainly be useful.

I used a reference image of the Glock as a guide for the dimensions, and the entire model was extruded from a single cube. Probably the most important skill I have learnt from the tutorial was the use of edge loops. These essentially make it possible to create a complex model from a simple shape.

As you can see from the image above, I have got to point of adding some detail to the model. Using techniques such as splitting the model, and bevelling edges. I also realised that I had some how manage to use far too many edge loops and was having serious problems with vertices and edges overlapping each other. I tried using target weld to eliminate some of the extra vertices, but that lead to further difficulties, such as holes in the model, lots of holes! I may leave this model here now, but it has been a good learning experience, and it has reminded me to save more often, as undo can only go so far back.