BA3: Digital Modeling

Notes from the First Maya Tutorial

Here are the notes that I took to help me remember how to re-create the initial cube from the previous Maya session. 

•  Set project in Maya as normal, portalCompanionCube_jls

• Copy the reference file which will become the reference images into the “source images” folder.

• Enter the orthographic view (spacebar) > View > Image Plane > Import Image.

• Highlight the reference images and click the orange & blue ball (bottom right of the screen, new layer) > name & “reference”.

• Select the polygon s from the top left of the screen (drop down menu) > Cube now > (interactive cube) > turn off interactive creation.

• Right click the new cube shape, select faces, vertex or edges depending on what you need to do.

• Vertex allows you to move “corners” that you select.

• Double click move tool, common selection > tick “camera based selection” (then you can select more accurately).

• Double click on icons on the shelf to bring up their options.

• Right side > Inputs (pCube1) > select the width, height & depth > middle mouse to edit all the attributes.

• To make the cube have the ridge > right click > select faces > hold shift > select faces you want.

• Edit mesh (“keep faces together” selected) > Extrude (found on the polygon shelf, double click) > Offset.

• Right click and select edge > double click the lines that follow the cube around.

• Bevel tool (under edit mesh when the polygon tools are selected) 

 

• Workflow to get the proper ridge on the cube: Select the 4 squares on 1 face of the cube using the extrude tool, offset them too 1 & thickness 0 > Now reselect the other faces and hit the G key to apply to all faces > Now re-select the 4 squares on a face of the cube > double click the extrude tool but this time set the offset to 0 and thickness to 0.5 and extrude > now re-select the other squares on the faces and hit the G shortcut again.