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      INTRODUCTION TO MAYA
          1. Fundamentals
          2. Keyboard Shortcuts
          3. Interface
          4. Tools
          5. Tutorial #1: Pre-modeling
          6. Tutorial #2: 3D Modeling
          7. Tutorial #3: Unwrap & Texturing

  INTRODUCTION TO MAYA
  INTERFACE, MODELING, TEXTURING, & ANIMATION


  Tutorial #2: Polygon Modeling

  Continuing from the first tutorial, build the fridge exterior
  (assumes z-up axis).











Step 1: Create a Cube











Step 2: Create a new layer and add the cube (with the cube selected right-click on the new layer and hit Add Selected Objects).






Step 3: Allign the size and position of the cube to the front and side orthographic drawings of the fridge body:
Enter inputs: Width=3.8     height=9.7     Depth=3.2 and use the move transform tool.



Step 4: Right click on the object and choose the Face component mode. Select the “back” of the block relative to the front texture plane. this will be the front of the fridge. Hide the diagram layer.











Step 5: Activate the extrude tool.












Step 6: Use the scale tool to bring the new geometry inward.














Step 7: In the side view align the new vertices to the diagram. Right click on the model for the vertex component mode. Select AROUND pairs of vertices to move them.





















Step 8: Right click for the face component mode. Re-select the center polygon and apply another extrude. Note the dots which appear along the edges indicating new geometry.











Step 9: In the side view align the new vertices to the diagram. Enter the vertex component mode and select around vertices to grab both front and back vertices before moving them.





















Step 10: Even though it is not in the diagram, create the main interior cavity of the fridge.
Select the face, scale smaller, and extrude inward as shown.


Step 11: Create the door as a box with the following inputs:

Width=3.8, Height=0.2 Depth=9.2














Step 12: To create the handle we start with the Create Polygon tool in the side view.
Trace the profile of the handle and hit [enter] to complete the shape.



Step 13: The pivot for this new shape is created automatically at the origin. To make it easier to move the shape, hit Center Pivot.











Step 14: In the perspective view, select the handle polygon,
hit extrude, and pull it out.















Step 15: In the front view, position the handle to match the diagram and scale it to match the width.













Step 16: Select the front polygons on the handle and non-uniform scale them on the X-axis (red block congtrol) so the outside of the handle is thinner than the inside.











Step 17: Turn on the Split Poly tool.








Step 18: Create divisions along the sides to break the n-gons into quads.











Step 19: If you look at the whole model in the perspective view, you will note that the handle is on the wrong side. In the front view, hit [insert] to move the handle pivot to the center of the fridge and apply a negative scale in the channel box to mirror the position.










Step 20: In the side view use the scale tool to make the vertices at the base of the handle perfectly straight and in the full object mode position the handle so it is exactly on the front of the door.











Step 21: Re-activate Split Poly and cut the shape below into the door. Start with the long diagonal from upper left to lower right.














Step 22: Use the move tool and hold down [v] to snap each vertex into place along the handle.











Step 23: Edges should be as short as possible for the best results in shading. Two of the lines below would be shorter if the were turned the other way. Select them and use the [Backspace] key to remove them, and then use the Split Poly tool to replace them with edges going in the right direction.











Step 24: Use the Split Poly tool to cut in the edges under the handle.













Step 25: Hide the handle in a layer. Select the two faces that will be covered by the handle and delete them.

NOTE: If these polygons are not deleted before the handle is attached they will become Interior Geometry, which can cause bad shading problems.




Step 26: Hide the door and unhide the handle. Select and delete the interior geometry on the handle.











Step 27: Select the door, then [Shift]-select the handle. Hit combine. Note that the new combined object has its pivot at the origin of the world space.








Step 28: Even though the objects were combined, we have doubled vertices where the door holes met the handle holes. Select around these vertices and use merge to fuse the pairs together. Because these vertices were snapped together the lowest level of .0001 should be sufficient.





Step 29: Select the side-edges at the top of the door and the body and bevel them to round the corners. Note that in the example below a value of 0.05 is used for the door and 0.5 is used for the body of the fridge.



Step 30: Select the edges on the handle (except its base) and open the
Edit Polygons/ Normals/ Soften/Harden option box.

Hit All Soft or manually change the value to 180. Hit Apply. The handle is now smooth.





Step 31: In the top view select the door and hit the [insert] key to move its pivot to the left side, where the hinge should be located.



The door can now be rotated open.








Step 32: Delete the History on each object (Edit/ Delete by Type/ History).



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Introduction to Maya Interface, Modeling, and Texturing:

1. Fundamentals   |   2. Keyboard Shortcuts   |   3. Interface   |   4. Tools
5. Tutorial #1: Pre-modeling   |   6. Tutorial #2: 3D Modeling   |   7. Tutorial #3: Unwrap & Texturing

These materials were created for a 2005 class at Pixar University, to teach the basics of Maya modeling, texturing, and animation to the Layout team.
The version of Maya at the time was Maya 5, but most of these notes should apply to all versions of the program.