Week 1 - Introduction to Maya (Commodore64 Controller)

 

Week 1 - Introduction to Maya (Will Taylor)


What Have I Learned This Week?

In week 1 I have learned how to navigate through Autodesk Maya viewport and the basic movements using Alt + scroll wheel/left click/middle mouse. I also learned how to create simple poly models and manipulating them using the following tools.


  • Bevel - Using the Bevel tool will split a selected edge in two, however, selecting one edge at a time or single edges creates issues in the geometry of the shape. To solve this, I made sure to select multiple edges (Full edge Rings/Loops).
  • Extrude - Expands the face of the selected polygon. It's important to commit to the first extrude as creating two or more extrudes on top of the selected surface creates hanging and unnecessary polygons in the geometry. 
  • Bridge - Connects two or more edges/faces of selected polygons.

Using these tools, I created a Commodore64 Controller.






I believe I did a good job because I made sure to use the Attribute Editor within Maya. Using the Attribute Editor for my polygons meant I could have complete control of their size, for example, a polygon cylinders Radius/Height. Also, when using the tools it's important to pay attention to the Attributes. For example, when I wanted to create a Bevel of an edge, I could create additional segments of a bevel to smoothen the curvature of the Bevel and splitting the edge by more than two. This meant I was able to create a more curved and visually appealing controller, as well as, create a more button-like shape/appearance to all the buttons. When extruding, using the offset tool allowed me to extrude smaller shapes within a Polygons face. This feature allowed me to extrude the Polygons of the controllers handle and buttons. 

Things that I would need to improve on would be making sure I commit to my extrudes. This is because I have made a leftover polygon within the handle of the Controller when I wanted to create the cone polygon. One massive improvement would be symmetry. Because I did not know how to keep the polygons mirrored, polygons like the circular buttons are not perfectly symmetrical and were moved and mirrored by eye. So although by eye there is no issue, this is a definite problem I want to learn to improve on for further models to keep consistency.











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