This week we really worked on more modelling in terms of manipulating shapes and turning them into what we want.
We were given the task of making a Lego man, a simplistic place to start in terms of reshaping cubes and cylinders on Maya. I chose the reference photo below:
I started by creating the head shape from a cube, smoothing it off and creating a more rounded shape. We worked a lot with extrusion of faces, which made an indent in the head, and created the neck.
We then created the torso, this was perhaps the easiest part of the task as we just took a cube and adjusted the vertexes.
One of the more challenging steps was creating the waist and legs. We used a cylinder shape and played with extrusion again to create a part in-between the legs that I spent some time trying to line up with the legs. To create the feet I extruded the faces at the bottom of the legs.
I then put what I had made together, making sure they lined up and connected.
Then I faced the most challenging part of the session, making the arms was most difficult due to the sculpting and rotation angles involved. We created a base arm shape from a cylinder, and circularized the bottom of it to come to a more narrow end. With help from Nick, I eventually learnt how to construct the arm shape better, and realised it was because I forgot to edit the pivot of the rotation on the arm. I then used sculpting tools to round and smooth the shape.
Creating the hands was a little bit easier, I created a pipe shape, deleted the bottom faces and played with the vertexes and smoothness to match the reference photo. I then mirrored the arms and hand to duplicate it accurately on the other side.
This was the end of the session, but when I went home the rest of the week I wanted to add some more detail so it matched my reference photo more. I added standard surfaces through assigning new materials to make the colour of the Lego man, and added a sky dome light, both things in which I learnt from last week, and I finished the final model.