Modelling tips needed! URGENT DEADLINE LOOMING

[YukiOkami]

Hey,

So I'm in a bit of a pickle. I've made a trifle bowl and I'm stuck as to how to fill in its contents. It's currently set up with toon lines (see picture). As you can see anything put inside the bowl is viable. Now I need to do the quickest, easiest, nicest looking contents I cna get (it's for my final year 3 project at Uni). I'm not very good at Maya so dumb the tips down to basic steps if you can. :D


http://fav.me/damxp7w http://fav.me/damxp7w

Thanks in advance.

Yuki

[stwert]

Not sure exactly what you want it to look like, a reference image or sketch is usually a good starting point. As it's a trifle, you could probably stack a few cylinders on top of each other and give them colors for different layers of trifle.
Create cylinder, scale it appropriately, move some vertices around so it's not perfectly uniform.

[Gen]

Yeah this is fairly vague. I’d go with Stwert’s suggestion of using layered cylinders. Just bump up the subdivisions then use the sculpt tools to create the layers of cream. Try setting the sculpt tool’s direction to Y to constrain the surface so it doesn’t start poking outwards and through the bowl as you sculpt. And regardless of the contents, make a few variations of the pieces to avoid repetition. As for scattering the pieces inside the bowl, there is MASH (if you have that version of Maya), there is also spPaint3D (a free script you can download and probably the most strait forward to use for beginners), there are other options which include using particles and even the tried and true but time consuming manual placement.

This is a test I did, probably took 30-40 mins. Really simply scene, only one cherry model and no textures, the cake bits are just cubes with some dents in them. A lattice deformer helped me to conform the layers of cream to the contour of the dish. Rendered in Redshift.

http://i.imgur.com/3gLjMI2.jpg

MASH Instancing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZW8cCu6KU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZW8cCu6KU)
-----------------------
spPaint3D
Download->https://www.creativecrash.com/maya/script/sppaint3d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOZAD_RK2Cc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOZAD_RK2Cc)

[stwert]

Nice, Gen. Cool to see you're using Redshift :) I thought I saw you over on those forums.

[Gen]

Yes it has become a haunt of mine :D

[YukiOkami]

Yes it has become a haunt of mine :D
Your assets look pretty cool and I wish I had noticed replies to this thread sooner. I attempted my own and it's a bit.... meh... (see link to my course blog post of it here: http://juliascgartsstudentucarochester.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/update-preped-old-spice-bottle-and.html )

I basically need my project to be made out of toon lines, its the theme I'm working with - as you can see via the Old-Spice bottle. I've made that trifle using the picture reference I had prepared for it, the style has to match the image. I've been making this project in the aim to recollect a childhood memory. Hence the toon lines (Sketchy and slightly out of place aspects, feel free to look around the blog for more on it.)

I completley did a face palm when I saw that you used Cylinder shapes, that would have made putting the insides of the trifle in the bowl a lot easier. But I think the one I made has a sort of child-like charm to it. The trifle is a representation of how my Nan used to make it, I completely by-passed the cake at the bottom by accident. I'm just waiting for feedback from my tutor on it. Deadline for the first stage is on THURSDAY! So I'm a little pressed. Thanks for the advice though - even though I have no clue how to use the stuff you suggested - I may be in 3rd year of the course but I'm still a 3 year old fumbling for sense on this blasted software. *throws a hot poker at Maya* ¬.¬ :D.


EDIT: What would you're suggestions be to make as slice of apple pie on a plate? XD I mean sure I can use cylinders for that, but I thought triangles were a no-no in maya. At least that's what our Maya tutor said back in year 1 :D