#maya 2013

[jami-c]

this is my youtube let's play rendering using mental ray speed run! pls like and subscribe

[seanpavlichek]

The Building of an X-Wing: Part Three

So, those who have been following me know that I've been slowly building my own little tribute to Star Wars - a 3d model of an X-Wing. I crafted the body of the ship today... Well, twice, actually. I built it once, and Maya decided that it was going to copy and paste the ship 3 times and then merge all of the sides together so that I couldn't even correct it. Very strange. But at long last, the X-Wing is almost parts-complete! All I have left to do is add detail and color, and it should be good to go. I may try to animate it once I finish that, too...

Here's what the front looks like now:

Yes, that is a cockpit you see. The transparent texture was easy. Making the chair/consoles? Not so much. I had to take a cylinder, flatten part of it, and then mess with the faces of the cylinder until it resembled something feasibly believable as a cockpit.

Here's a view of the back:

Yes, I'm aware the back of the main body is a bit of an epic fail. I'll add more detail later.

Here's a side view.

And lastly, my favorite view, the top down view. You can see a bit of the detail I started adding on the back with the pipes and cables here, too.

[seanpavlichek]

The Building of an X-Wing: Part Two

So, today I decided to continue building my X-Wing so that I can fly away from this crazy planet. Things went pretty well today, I'm starting to figure out little nuances in Maya, and it's easier to get it to do what I want. One thing that is still a bit tricky is having transforms as an actual subgroup... It screws me up when my object deforms as I rotate it! I had to learn to ungroup the transform.

I decided to start adding colors today to begin making it look slightly more like an X-Wing. I gave up on making it look completely like the original, as the source material I've been able to get my hands on doesn't have the kind of resolution I need to figure it out (and I'm also still having issues making small details... Maybe I should eventually watch a tutorial?)

Anyway, here's what we have so far. I'll start with the updates I made to the engine to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

The engine from the front. I recolored the recessed areas to make them look more like they're in shadow:

Here's a side view:

Here's the back. I had a lot of fun making this look like a real ion engine:

Next is the wing. I took a bit of liberty with the part that goes under the engine.

Here's an overall view:

Here's a good look at the laser:

Finally, after making 4 sets of wings and engines, we have something resembling a finished product, although it is missing the central piece and some textures. Here's a front view:

Here's a back view (looks like it's almost ready for takeoff with the engines warmed up like that):

[seanpavlichek]

The Building of an X-Wing: Part One

So... I have decided that for my next act I will create an X-Wing in Maya. It's a tricky proposition, with so many moving parts and everything, but I think I can handle it. The problem with Maya is that sometimes it doesn't do what you expect... Take splitting a circle, for example. It always seems to want to create starbursts inside of the circle, rather than logically splitting the circle into regular pieces. This makes it rather awkward when trying to make a pattern inside of a circle... So don't expect this X-Wing to look EXACTLY like what you see in the movies. (If anyone has an idea of how to fix my circle splitting problem, let's hear it! Until then I'm stuck with more interesting textures.)

So I started with what I figured would be one of the more complex pieces: The engine. I like how the ends both have an interesting look, rather than just being holes like some ships depicted in sci fi, so I had a lot of fun recreating the engine. I'll add more detail to the sides of the engine as I go, but so far I have the ends and the general shape. Here are some pictures:

The front face of the engine:

A side view:

The back of the engine (I know this doesn't look much like the original, I will try to fix it at some point):

[seanpavlichek]

First Thoughts on Maya 2013

So this week I started a Design Tools class at Full Sail. I was extremely excited to start this class because I believed I would be learning tools I would use to actually make games, right? As I looked over the list of programs, my heart sank... Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, and Maya. Correct me if I'm wrong, but by the 5th month of any degree, shouldn't you already be reasonably competent at Microsoft Office or an equivalent program suite?

Maya at First Glance

Not to be discouraged, I looked up Maya to see if I had found a useful program. And I certainly had. Maya is a 3D modeling program by Autodesk. Not only can it create and render 3D objects, but it can do animations, lighting, and I'm sure that if I look hard enough, I can find a means of FTL travel tucked away in its nooks and crannies somewhere.

And by nooks and crannies, I mean the entirely-too-extensive set of menus this program has. I have never seen so much crammed into one piece of software in my life (seriously, this should be a software suite, not one program). It ends up making the experience more complex than it has to be and to do some of the simplest tasks (like hiding an object, for example), I had to do research on the internet via my lifelong companion Google. Thankfully, there are many useful resources on the net for Maya, which leads me to believe that not only will learning this program help me in this class, but it will help me in the future as well. This many people won't write about something that isn't used in the industry.

The Assignment

So, having taken a look at the program and installed it (version 2013, because the class's tutorials are written for that version), I reviewed my assignment. 

Create a fully textured table of your own design

Take screenshot during install and of your completed table

Upload screenshots that have your name in the filenames.

Uhhh.... Create a table? And apply a texture to it?  Seriously? This will take me about 5 minutes, right? But no, I'm a Pavlichek, and we do things the hard way. I started by creating real solid table legs. They look like old fashioned shaped wood legs, but I used a marble texture because I'm fancy like that. Doing this took me about half an hour (including the time spent watching the 5 minutes worth of introductory tutorials when you first open the program). Alright, so we have a table leg, now what? Copy and paste 3 times, right? Apparently this is one thing Maya doesn't do very well. Sure, you can copy and paste, but the newly created object duplicates every object you made before, and is not movable as an entity. So I have to figure out a way to move the object as a whole (Which, now that I have more experience, was actually quite easy. Select all of the components and use the move tool).

OK, so I have my 4 legs. Time to make a table top. I spend a few minutes figuring out where I want to go with this, and decide on a rectangular table top with carved sides, thinking that will be easy. 20 minutes of fiddling with gigantic menus leads me to the conclusion that this is a horrible idea. Then I rethink my strategy and go for a simpler table that just has an inner design and an outer design, because I can't figure out how to make my own styles on shapes and I'm not that great of an artist anyway. Here's what I came up with after all of this hard work (probably 1-2 hours in the end).

Here's a view of the legs (looks odd, like the bottom of a fancy bathtub):

Here's a view of the top (watch the edges, they look sharp):

Overachievement Unlocked

So here's where I'm supposed to turn in my assignment. But something doesn't feel right. I look back through the class assignments, and to my dismay, I find that this is the ONLY Maya assignment. WHAT!?!? *flips table* How does one assignment qualify me to use a program???

As my nerd rage settles, I come to the only sane conclusion: I must cram a few classes' worth of learning into one assignment. Today I set about modifying my draft. Not satisfied with the overly-flat surface of my table, I gave the top ridges and rounded out the edges. I even made a little pedestal in the middle. I left the legs alone, because I love them the way they are. But this pedestal... Surely something can be done with this...

My mind fixates on a sword, floating off in the mists of my brain. I determine to make this sword a part of my project. But how to go about this? First I try to use a block with many layers of selectable surfaces, thinking to mold it to my liking. This soon becomes a problem, because I'm still trying to determine what I even want it to look like, and I certainly don't have the patience to fiddle with a thousand surfaces on one object. So I settle with a rectangular object with 4 top surfaces, 4 bottom surfaces, and one on each side. After figuring out how to extrude surfaces and merge sides, I am able to get something in the semblance of a decent blade. The hilt is where the trouble begins.

Making the shaft of the hilt is pretty easy, I just take a cylinder and manipulate it. But once I get to the pommel, I figure out that I want a gem in the hilt. I still have not figured out how to get that blasted thing to look like a real gem (I'm thinking I'll have to make a complex polygon rather than the sphere I chose). I fiddle with it enough to get it to my liking, and put it on the end of the sword. Then I try to add in a crossguard with spikes. To my dismay, I can't find a reflect function, and for some reason the rotation values listed in the attributes are not all 0 when you copy and paste a new object! So I, notorious as I am for my OCD, have to figure out how to perfectly reflect an object manually. This takes me 2 hours before I am satisfied.

Then it finally comes down to lighting. I pick a decent light fixture and set it above the sword, and look upon my creation. I can't see anything over the 'gem' I've put in the pommel though. It has turned about 50 shades brighter than it was before, and looks completely and utterly fake due to the fact that the color is uniform and shows no evidence of shading. I spend another 2 hours attempting to get it to look decent, and end up turning it into a design on the pommel instead of a gem. Foiled again!

Thankfully, at this point, my struggles are over. It's time to lay this thing to rest. I copy the sword into the original document and put it on the pedestal. Once I've finished, I have what you see below. I'm much more satisfied with this one:

In Conclusion

So, now that I've experienced at least what's on the surface of Maya, I can say that it's a useful program. Incredibly frustrating at times, but useful. And I can't wait to find out what else I can do with it.

[ranga-nyaz-blog]

it's Time To Hustle by K1ng-Nyaz 3d typography artwork

[ranga-nyaz-blog]

WHAT? Poster by K1ng-Nyaz typographic poster

[ranga-nyaz-blog]

Sometimes I Wish by K1ng-Nyaz 3D Typography Artwork