Modeling a Sony PSP..
 

Hi guys,

I'm a noob at Maya.. just started a week ago as hobby.. ive familiarized myself with the interface and modeled some simple objects like a Monitor, Glass, and Umbrella..using Polygon tool..

http://geocities.com/sitinadiah_sula...anesehouse.jpg

http://geocities.com/sitinadiah_sulaiman/umbrellie.jpg

right now im trying to model a Sony PSP.. and im meeting a dead end.. so far i only know how to

1) Extrude faces
2) Adjust its vertex

Im stuck at making anything else to what ive already done with the psp..at the moment, its not even the right size as ive no idea how to import the jpg into maya so that i can measure its correct size and dimension.. i hope to get any informative tips how to continue this work in progress..

i'd really love to learn 3d and i felt with a Sony PSP if i could model this baby perfectly..i could model cooler stuffs after this!

here's my current progress..

http://geocities.com/bigfatdoink/wip.jpg

and here's my reference

To summarize, my problem is
a) Stuck at making curve left and right edges, (its a straight edge right now)
b) Is clueless on how to add on other objects like buttons or making additional bumps on a section without screwing the whole Face..

I've also attached my Maya file if any of you would like to see how I modeled it so far..and whether ive done it right

Hmm. Nice ref image. Not a bad bunch of work for 1 week in either.;)

Wow! Where to begin, where to begin.. Have you checked out any of the free video tutes yet? These are great. They cover all kinds of neat stuff, from setting up the image planes to modelling nice soft, organic curves to animation and effects and so much more. And that's just the ones that are free!

There's all kinds of ways to import the image. I'll just give you one of 'em.

1) Cut and then crop the ref image into 2 sep images.
2) Go to the panel that you can see the front of the psp in (top or front, I'm guessin')
3) In the menu at the top of that panel, go to View->ImagePlane
4) Select your image and you're off and racin'.


When you've done the front just go back to Viiew->Image Plane and load the image for the back. Turn your model over, and continue.

There's other, cleaner ways of doing this, that allow you to have both the front and back image planes loaded at once, but this is very quick + it works. You'll pick it up in no time with the tute vids.

Whee enhzflep. Thanks for the tip, now i have a ref image in maya to work with.. lol

Hey, where are these video tutorials you're talkin about? i've only found text tutorials so far!

Ah, ive found them after a few deep search lol..

http://www.digitaltutors.com/digital....php?v=149&f=q

is this ur talking about?

Cool, that's okay mate. Enjoy

Nah mate. :lmao:

Scroll to the top of the page, click Video Training and select the Free Tutorials button. ;)

If you buy some points then you'll get access to the killer tutes.

Also, there's a couple of Maya tutes to be found on YouTube. If you use firefox, you can get a "VideoDownloader" plugin to save any vids from you-tube and other similar sites.

Another great place is 3DBuzz.com. Much free and paid video training avail there too.

Laters..

hey enhzflep, just a quick question.. i discovered that you can easily model an object in maya using Create Adobe Illustrator Object.. but i cant find it in Maya 6.0

Is it not supported?

Dunno to be honest, but I've got a felling that when watching one of Mike McKinley's vids, I noticed that he didn't have PSD support available when creating textures. I may even have read something (elsewhere) about Adobe support being added, and when that was. Got no idea when it was though.

It's included in 7 though..

instead of 'create adobe illustrator object' you can try just importing a .ai file... but that will only import paths.

yeah..i thought of that...hmmm has seen a tutorial on it.. but erm there r a lot of things to be done tho in order to extrude those paths into shape hehehe.. but ill try my best..

right now, im viewing some free video tutorials i found on the net..im starting to get a clearer picture of how to do model this psp..hehe.. hope it works.. :)

thanks guys for all the replies, its really nice to know there are so many kind ppl out there to help out noobs like meee..its very encouraging!

An updated progress!
 

im not sure how well am i doing.. but here's an update

http://geocities.com/bigfatdoink/progress.jpg

http://geocities.com/bigfatdoink/progress1.jpg

http://geocities.com/bigfatdoink/progress2.jpg

http://geocities.com/bigfatdoink/progress3.jpg

http://geocities.com/bigfatdoink/progress4.jpg

What did I use?
1) Polygon cube > Add subdivisions for height so there are more vertex to edit at the edge of each section. Drag out the vertex so it forms a curve.

2) Add another flatten cube (extruded twice) in the middle as the screen.

3) Place a texture for the screen..

Agh. i know the back looks horrendous!!

Im not sure if what im doing is right all along.. im sure im going to have different kinda probs later when i need to model other parts..lol..i'd be glad if anyone can help me out by suggesting any tips or telling me what i did right and wrong, and cant and can...

but please dont see this as a hassle.. im just posting to see if i could get quick guide.. i'll not stop working on it on my own :) heehee..

attached is my maya file to prove iiiimmm so keen on learningg and im not shy to publish my sucky file hahaha!

your kidding me, you can import vectors from illustrator and extrude from them, man that would take away some guess work (especially in certain areas of 3D apps lol)

Here's something that may be of use..

1) YouTube search results for maya tutorial
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...&search=Search

2) Link to a tutorial vid called "Adobe Illustrator To Maya"
How to import .ai files into Maya from Adobe Photoshop.
Time: 02:25
Video Size: 1.9 MB. (videodownloader.net for firefox download plugin - i.e save for later offline viewing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hJEidfSWPQ

cool :) thanks

hi guys,

im changing from Maya 6 to Maya 7 or Maya 8..would i be facing any problem opening my previous projects which were done in Maya 6 in the later versions of Maya?

just would like to confirm with the experts since im afraid of losing anything since i dont have the Maya 6 installer anymore

thanks guys