Date:  3rd January 2009  Program:  Maya  Difficulty:  Basic  Reason:  Learning  Time Spent:  5 Hours

I'm following a DVD tutorial by Digital Tutors about basic modelling in Maya, here is an update after a good few months of not touching it!

Hmm. I kind of forgot about this project and only remember I had the tutorials the other week when I was clearing out my hard drive, massive error on my part. So over the Easter weekend I've had a bit of free time and I've really got stuck into the tutorial again and I'm really enjoying it, here is some new things I have learnt. Compared to my last update I've now for the rear pipes of the engine which were created in a very similar way to the front blades used and they went about grouping everything and adding it to its own layer. Next up I learnt how to create the basic polygon layer from a single plane by using extrude to create the front section of the bike (see the picture below) I'm really impressed on how easily I found it, I know this is all very basic stuff but I'm really enjoying it and It's surprise how well It's going for me. The basic polygon model looks like a PS1 game gone wrong so I then learnt how to turn it into a sub-division and how to model using "creases" to improve the detail of the bike, again most of this was done via extrudes. I'm really enjoy the tutorials thus far and I'm really pleased with myself in what I've already created and what I have learnt such as, Extrudes over all surfaces, polygon cage modeling, standard vertex modeling, Merging over vertex and edges, adding panes, creases and much more little hints and tips. Check out the extra images and I will hopefully have more soon (if I don't forget about the tutorial).

Engine Pipes 

Polygon

Sub-Div Modeling 

Wireframe