Modeling in Maya

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Modeling in Maya

• Who needs animation when you can model?

2
Who the hell is this David Choi?

• Tell a joke. Wait for laugh
• Show some cool stuff for some street creds

3
Soapbox Topics

• The Malcolm Principle
• If you dont respect it, you cant control it
• Most asked questions when I do this presentation
• How do you get good at it?
• How long did it take you to make it?
• Can I go to the bathroom?

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Just what have you gotten yourself into anyways?

• Do you know what kind of art you are making?
• Fine Art
• Commissioned Art
• Commercial Art
• The Three Variables of this Trade
• Art
• Developing the Critical Eye
• Technology
• How you learn best
• Business
• Presentation

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The Fab Four to becoming a real, full fledged, no
kidding, honest to goodness 3D game artist

• NURBS Patch Modeling
• Curve Network Modeling
• Polygonal Mesh Modeling
• Texturing

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Digital Geometries

• Polygons
• Its like sculpting with wood. What you do to it
  is what you get
• NURBS Non Uniform Rational B-Splines
• Its like modeling with clay. The surface is
  influenced by pressures with degrading intensities

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Universal Modeling Rules

• All curves are connected straight lines
• All surfaces are tesselated as triangles
• Form and Function
• Geometry Distribution
• Edge Flow/Loops

8
Safety Tips

• Maya Project Directory Structure
• Creating a New Project
• Setting Maya to a Work Project
• Saving Iteration Scene Files
• name of file undercore 01 underscore one
  word description
• Preparing 2D image reference
• Good ones vs. Bad ones
• Concept Art Prepping proper images
• Joint Placements
• Never use a photo as an ortho image
• Setting up 2D image reference in Maya
• Working with Image Planes
• Syncing the image

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Start with NURBS

• Why do you start with NURBS? Are you freakin out
  of your mind?
• Youre only working with about five tools
• Detach Surfaces
• Freeform Fillet
• Rebuild Surfaces
• Attach Surfaces
• Sculpt Surfaces
• Working with NURBS
• NURBS sub-components
• Isoparms
• Control Vertex/Vertices
• Hulls
• NURBS Rule 1
• All NURBS are 4 sided
• Parameterization
• Uniform
• 0 to 1
• 0 to of spans
• Chord Length

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NURBS Patch Modeling

• Placing NURBS Cylinders
• Rough volume cylinder for arm
• Rough volume cylinder for leg
• Rough volume cylinder for torso
• Double facet for torso cylinder
• Rough Shaping
• Pushing, pulling and scaling control vertices and
  hulls
• Isoparm flow
• Detach into Patches
• Cutting a hole for the arm to attach to
• Open Inseam Isoparm
• Delete torso half
• Freeform Fillet
• You just got to see it to believe it
• Rebuild surface fillets and patches
• Matching up the isoparms
• Attach Patches
• Artisan Sculpt Tool
• Converting NURBS to Polygonal Mesh

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Curves/Splines

• Like Patch Modeling, Youre only working with
  about five tools
• Create CV or EP Curve
• Rebuild Curve
• Cut Curve
• Attach Curve
• BiRail 2 Surface Tool
• Working with Curves
• Similarity between Curve Tools and NURBS Tools
• The create CV curve tool is the same curve as the
  create EP curve tool

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Curve Network Modeling a Head

• Studying the Muscle Tissue Flow
• Edge Loop the Eyes
• Edge Loop the Mouth
• C key Snap to Curve
• Creating 6 primary curves
• Side Profile
• Front Profile
• Inner Eye Opening
• Outer Eye Loop
• Inner Mouth Opening
• Outer Mouth Loop
• Creating the framework
• Surfacing the Curve Network
• BiRail 2
• Attach Patch Strips
• Artisan Sculpt Tool
• Detach
• Converting NURBS to Polygonal Mesh
• Note Delete History Often

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Polygonal Mesh

• This is why you model with polygons last. You
  just tripled your tools
• 2 Custom Polygon Display Settings
• Soft Edges
• Hard Edges
• Reverse Normals
• Combine
• Merge Vertices
• Merge Multiple Edges
• Splite Polygon Tool
• Append to Polygon Tool
• Extrude Faces
• Extrude Edges
• Keep Faces Together Setting
• Sculpt Polygon Tool
• Move Normal Tool
• Select Continuous Edges Tool
• Grow Selection Tool
• Freeze Transformation

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Polygonal Mesh

• Working with Polygonal Mesh
• Components of Polygon
• Vertex
• Edge
• Face
• Displaying and Selecting If you cant see what
  you need, you cant select what you want. If you
  cant select what you want, you cant model
• Display settings
• Backface Culling
• Soft/Hard Edges
• Normals
• Making selections
• Shift, Ctrl, Shift Ctrl
• Select Continuous Edge
• Grow Selections

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Working on the Head and Body

• Reverse Normal on meshes as needed
• Combine
• Merge Border Edges
• Soften Edges
• Mirror Other Half to check the model
• Mirror tool
• Scale in negative X
• Making changes as needed
• Split Polygon tool to add edge loops
• Move vertices and edges to redistribute geometry

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Working on the Hand and Foot

• Starting with a Default Box
• Smooth Proxy
• Inner Shell Detail Level
• Extrude Faces
• Keep Faces Together setting
• The Extrude Manipulator
• Local Extrude
• Global Extrude
• Delete History
• Combine Hand to Arm
• Merge Border Edges
• Append to Polygon
• Repeat for Foot

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Texturing

• The UV Coordinate System
• What are UVs and what does it stand for anyways?
• Polygonal UVs are faked. Vertices are for
  geometry and UVs are for surface
• Hypershade
• What are material shaders?
• How does the hypershade work?
• Assigning material shaders to selections

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Creating a Texture Map

• Texture Map Rule 1
• Pixel equals detail
• The UV Texture Editor
• The Canvas
• Projection Method
• Planar Mapping
• Cylindrical Mapping
• The process
• Select
• Project
• Refine UVs
• Putting everything in its place. Its like that
  numbers puzzle.

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If we have enough time

• Relationships
• Parent/Child
• Master/Slave
• Driver/Driven
• 5 Types of relationships in Maya
• Hierarchy
• Constraints
• Connection Editor
• Set Driven Key
• Expressions

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Well Thats It

• Questions?
• Whos got my check?