Claudia Herbst-Tait
Professor
Pratt Institute
Department of Digital Arts

Project #1: A few First Notes

Avoid cliches...

First, change Maya units to inches. Next, consider your character's height/scale in the Maya universe.
For our first assignment -- a simple/cartoonish character -- create a model that is between 5 and 12 units/inches.


...you may also want to change the grid size (Display, Grid, Grid Lines—try a value of 9) .


Reference images: make your front and side images the same size, use round numbers (e.g., 5 x 8 inches)
Apply reference images to poly planes (put each on a separate layer, set to reference). Also, have a look here.


Move image references of your character to the floor, i.e.make sure that the feet line up with base line,
move pivot point of poly planes to the bottom/align with the grid.


To eliminate distortion: select perspective camera, set Focal Length to 90 (gives you more of an orthographic view).



Figure 1 (I grabbed this image from here; no artist was identified)


Save incrementally and save often so that you can back up without having to redo too much... Count on redoing steps.
Modeling is about practice.


Don’t expect the first model to be perfect—approach it as a loose and playful exercise: have fun modeling, sculpting…
expect to do at least one, two, or three versions of our first exercise before getting good results. Give it time, sculpt.


While adding the detail you need, keep the geometry as simple as possible (especially in the beginning). Detail added should
take into consideration the type of movements your character performs. For example, shoulders perform pretty complex sets
of motion and require the right amount of detail that takes into consideration the underlying anatomy.


Do not only snap Vertices on top of each other, always merge Vertices (combine different pieces of geometry before merging verts)...


Turn on Display, Custom Polygon Display, Border Edges to see if Vertices are merged/edges are open...


When deleting an edge, also delete verts (Edite Mesh, Delete Edge/Vertex). Also, delete stray faces inside your model. Be very neat...


Make sure Edit Mesh, Keep Faces Together is checked.