Eagle Globe and Anchor
 

Hi I'm a total noob when it comes to Maya, I've done some tutorials and I think I know enough basic modeling to try my first project. I'm gonna need a lot of help and I'm gonna ask some stupid questions, so if you guys could help me taht would be great.

My brother is returning from Iraq on Tuesday and I want to hopefully have this done by the time he gets home. It's the Marine Emblem.


The first one is a basic image of what I want to model
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...leit/USMC1.gif

This one is a bit bigger but some of the parts are harder to distinguish
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...it/MCPride.jpg

This one is what it looks like pinned on the uniform, I'm thinking of maybe making it this color/texture, I will definitely be making it this shape though, only half the sphere etc.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ine_emblem.jpg

If you guys could give me an idea of how I should start out that would be great, I was thinking of making the globe first, and using Sub-D's cause I know I can make the creases easily that way, but I don't know how I'll do the extruded land masses yet :/

First off, be sure to thank your brother for his service, sacrifice, and commitment. And be sure to let him take long showers, eat properly cooked meals, and to dress very casually... all pleasures that have probably been denied him for a while.

As for the emblem. You could model the U.S. flat then use non-linear bend deformers to match it to the globe surface. The rope could be a cube face extruded along a path (if you extrude it with enough divisions and turn on twist). The anchor could be an extruded and beveled polygon shape. The bird could be a pain if you're wanting to model all the feather details. Notice I use "could" often, thats because there are any number of ways to get the same results.

Here's a larger googled reference with clean lines: http://www.msiac.dmso.mil/journal/graphics/PMTR24.jpg
I can sent you larger reference in vector or rastor format. I run a Navy Graphics shop, so we use this emblem a lot.
mhcannon@hawaii.rr.com

Thankyou very much for your imput, the link is dead by the way.

I'm gonna start on this tomorrow if I get to it after homework and stuff.

Hope to have something up for critique soon!

Link just had an extra period in it. Should work now.

Good Luck! Its nice of you to do this for your brother.

How do you suggest I make the creases in the globe? I used Sub-D's but by the time I got the crease complex enough to look good it was taking up alot of memory and running slowly, I also tried nurbs but the crease was too wide. Should I just wait to do the creases later?

Intresting thing to model, and a nice thing to do for your bro :)
Leave the creases untill last, they can eaisely be done with a bump map.

ah bump map, ok don't know how to do that yet, I'll have to look up some tutorials

bump mapped polygon sphere.

Heres a simple test render:

here's the simple test pattern for bump. You would of course put more work into it, but it gives you the basic concept. In the material attribute, this would be assigned to the bump channel.

can I use a bump map for the extruded continents too?

Absolutely...
test render:

Test bump pattern...

Note: I mapped to a full sphere, which is why the land mass is squished. If you were to "unwrap" the globe it would not be a square skin.

cool thanks alot I don't think I'll have the time to work on this much today, cause I have some papers due, but your suggestions will be very helpful when I get to it, thankyou!