More great tutorials

Top Ten Tips of Texturing

Breeze of the Past - Mohamed AbuYhia

Horse - Sergey Priymuk

Model and Texture a Posh Living Room Scene in Maya

Check out this great tutorial on modeling and texturing a living room scene.

It uses the mental ray renderer, so be sure to switch to that from the

maya default in the render settings.

Link

CG Tutorials - Maya Texturing

Here's a robust collection of tutorials on a variety of texturing/shading subjects, including realistic material rendering, such as metal and water. Some of these use an advanced renderer called Mental Ray which we will be discussing in class today. Click on the links below to explore.

cgtutorials.com - Maya Texturing

creativecrash.com - make sure to read "UV 101" under the most viewed section

Studio Day - 9/22

Today will be mostly a studio day, where I focus my efforts with you one-on-one to help you build cool stuff. If you'd like me to repeat a demo or technique from any of the past classes, please ask and I will do so.

Below is more cool CG artwork for inspiration!




Matt Rousell
Alessandro Prodan
Jonatan Catalan Navarrete
Qian Xie
Brian Jones
Carl-Mikael Lagnecrantz - #2
Maria Ivanova
Marta Wysocka
George Pourikas

Common Modeling tools and operations

Below are some of the more common menu commands used when modeling in Maya.

Deformers:
Create Deformers> Create Lattice
Create Deformers> Non-linear > Bend, Squash, Twist, etc

Mesh:
Edit Mesh > Keep faces together (turn on/off to change the way extrude works)
Edit mesh> Extrude (push/pull/scale in/out a selected face)
Edit mesh> Split Poly tool
Edit mesh> Cut Poly tool (use sparingly - can make geometry messy)
Edit mesh> Merge (welds vertexes together)
Mesh> Combine (combines multiple polyObjects into one)
Mesh>Sculpt Geometry Tool
Mesh> Booleans

Surfaces:
Revolve
Loft
Extrude

Misc
Edit> Delete By Type> History - deletes "history and bakes in shape changes
Modify>Center Pivot (moves object's pivot to its center)
"G" hotkey - repeat last command (Ex: Extrude)
"Y" hotkey - repeat use of last tool (Ex: Sculpt Geometry Tool)

Tips for making great models

• Get reference images whenever possible, and texture map them onto planes in the workspace. Align the planes along the correct axis, and assign it to a new display layer.
• Think like an engineer. How would you build it in real life? The solution in Maya may be very similar.
  
• Consider the overall shape you are trying to construct, and select the most efficient construction method you are comfortable with.
• Add less detail in areas that have less complex shape changes. Add more detail to reinforce areas that have more complex shape changes.
  
• Try to keep most polygon faces 4 sided, with 3 sides being the second choice.
• Understand how smoothing works. Select a model, and press the 1, 2 and 3 keys to cycle through smoothing displays. If you are modeling something organic/curved, you will probably want to use this feature.
  
• Starting a complex shape using a simple, low division primitive is a popular modeling method. For example, an artist who was modeling a head could start with a polyCube with only 2 or 3 divisions on each axis. The artist would model this basic shape into the dimensions of a head before adding additional detail, and eventually smoothing the model.
• Modeling only half of a symmetrical model can save time if the model is complex enough. For example, the artist in the example above could delete the faces on one side of the cube, and model only one side of the head. The geometry could later be duplicated and mirrored on the other side, completing the shape.
• Model around the origin. It offers numerous advantages, and many common modeling operations perform better when you create objects centered around the origin. Once you're done modeling, then move it where you need it in your scene.
  

Even more inspiration!

Gate, by Thunder Studio

Horse, by Priymuk Sergey

Ceremonial Cats Li, by Nenad Jalsovec

Furniture on the Run, by Wes Ware

Home Sweet Home, by Iker Cortázar Vitoria-Gasteiz

More inspiration...

Check out Joji Johnson's Mysterious Rider

Cthulhu byChris Nichols

Metropolitan Station, by Margarit Constantinescu

Domo! by Monique Wray

Renewed Escher's Impossible Cube, Pawel Hynek

The Duet, by Balázs Pápay

Stairs, by Sigurd Fernström

Vulcan, by Caleb Ashmore

3d inspiraion

Check out
Untitled 1, Nikita Veprikov
and
Waiting for Lunch, Lukas Zahradka
and
Bigtooth, Serkan Ertekan
at the cgtalk.com
3d still image gallery

Check out Neil Blevins website.

Neil works over at Pixar and does a bunch of cool things.
Follow the link to find out more, and make sure to check out his gallery!

Light and Dark values

Here's a great blog post on how to effectively use light and dark values in drawings to communicate mood, feeling and information. While the post is talking about drawing, the same concepts can be applied to 3d modeling.

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2010/09/quick-primer-on-values.html

Establishing where your light and dark tones are on paper before you start modeling/lighting in 3d can really help you quickly discover ways to create mood and feeling, and is another great reason to quickly sketch your ideas on paper before creating them in 3d.