As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology curriculum, Introduction to Maya is an elective course where students learn and practice the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling in Autodesk Maya (2014).

Timeframe: 6 hours

 

Given 3 un-textured walls and 3 un-textured objects, I was assigned to define UVs and apply textures to all objects in the scene. Given my hobby of breakdancing, I decided to make a dance studio (and Photoshop the bboy image into the rendered image at the end). I used planar mapping to generate UVs for all of the faces, then cut and unfolded them as where needed (the back of the speakers for example). I also added various lights to the scene.

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology curriculum, Introduction to Maya is an elective course where students learn and practice the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling in Autodesk Maya (2014).

Timeframe: 2 hours

 

While being taught how to employ ambient occlusion using Mental Ray, we were given in-class tasks to generate shadows determined by ambient occlusion.

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology curriculum, Introduction to Maya is an elective course where students learn and practice the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling in Autodesk Maya (2014).

 

Timeframe: 0.5 hrs each

 

As a first texturing exercise I was given an apple model and a leaf texture. I was tasked with applying the leaf texture, coloring the stem, and applying a ramp texture to the apple itself.

 

As an in-class assignment I was tasked with creating a high-polygon barrel model and then creating a normal map of it to apply to a plain (i.e. low-polygon) cylinder of the same size. This is the high-poly model with a red color texture applied to it.

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology curriculum, Introduction to Maya is an elective course where students learn and practice the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling in Autodesk Maya (2014).

Timeframe: 1 hour

 

As an in-class exercise I was tasked to create a terrain map using provided textures by creating an alpha map over a sculpted surface plane.

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology curriculum, Introduction to Maya is an elective course where students learn and practice the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling in Autodesk Maya (2014).

Timeframe: February 2014 (1 week completion time)

The following was our second assignment (and my first ever 3D organic model): to pick a human(oid) head and build it in Maya. I used the following reference images for my model:

I started with a plane that I cut into 2 pieces, then pulled in the right vertex of the cutting edge to the cheekbone. Afterwards I modeled the face using proper edgeflow and mirrored it.

I then extruded the face edges to sculpt out a three-dimensional skull, initially including allotted surface area for hair, and created eyes.

Finally I compressed the shape to reflect the skull as opposed to the original hair. I then created ears and filled the sockets I had left for them in the skull.

As part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Master of Entertainment Technology curriculum, Introduction to Maya is an elective course where students learn and practice the fundamentals of three-dimensional modeling in Autodesk Maya (2014).

Timeframe: January 2014 (1 week completion time)

The following was our first assignment (and my first ever 3D model): to pick a Ford Model T and build it in Maya using less than 1000 triangles. I used the following schematic for my model:

I sculpted the body first (starting from the carriage) and then did the sideskirts.

I originally intended to use toruses for the wheels; however, one wheel alone was over the 1000 triangle limit so I settled on a 7-sided pipe for the most cost-effective, yet aesthetically satisfactory shape.

The final product is shown below.