Week 5 - Blueprints


 Week 5 - Blueprints

What have I Learned This Week?

Blueprints - Planes can be used within Maya to allow Blueprint images within the X,Y,Z axis. This can be done by manoeuvring the cameras with the 'spacebar' to access the front, top and side camera views and importing 'image planes' accordingly. 

Destructive Workflow - When manipulating a mesh, Maya stores all its history within the attribute editor. Destructive Workflow comes from compiling too much history which can cause future problems and make processes like texturing much harder. It's important to clear 'all by type' history occasionally to ensure all processes work properly. 

Using what I learned this week and previous weeks, our first task was to create a PSP from Blueprint Models.





Using Blueprints ensured that I would achieve the correct shape and proportions of the PSP model. The initial shape was created with a flat plane and using the cutting tool to outline. Once the shape is outlined I made sure to create Quads with the vertices to avoid ngons. The mesh was then extruded twice to achieve the middle triggers as a screen layer. Using the circularise tool I was able to create the outlines for the buttons, however, due to edge flow not being very good it made it too difficult to create the buttons within the same mesh, so separate floating polygons for the buttons were used with the combine tool. For the next task, I aimed to achieve the desired model within a single mesh to try and keep a cleaner edge flow.

My second Blueprint Model was a Nintendo Switch Lite.

I Was very happy with my final outcome of this task as I was able to achieve my desired outcome from a single mesh with no floating polygons. However, the edge flow of my model is still not perfect as I had created too many unnecessary edge loops for the buttons, in the future I must practise my edge flow to reduce the number of edge loops I create. Also, the initial shape of my Switch model is not curved enough along the edges which I could improve on next time by using the Bevel Tool and also manipulating vertices on the sides to create a rounder shape. What I did like from my model was the use of circularise for all the buttons and sticks, as well as, my use of texture to create its plastic look as well as the reflection of the glass screen. 


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