Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 1
This course will look at the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. We'll look at what makes a good model in Maya and why objects are modeled in the way they are.
# 1 17-03-2007 , 12:35 AM
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CartoonDog (first model)

I'm brand new to 3d and this is my first attempt at modeling. I did the cartoon dog tutorial by Kurt Boutilier. No hair because I'd like to put fur on, once I learn how. Comments welcome.

Sorry for the huge picture (wasn't even half that size on my screen), will try to make smaller ones next time.

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Last edited by Perfecto; 17-03-2007 at 01:03 AM.
# 2 17-03-2007 , 12:43 AM
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I think it looks very nice user added image Nice web!

# 3 17-03-2007 , 01:38 AM
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Great job for your first model!

Some recommendations:
Anti-alias it and save the image as a .png or .tif for better quality. user added image

# 4 17-03-2007 , 06:02 AM
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I think I did the anti-alias right (production quality in a render tab). Also saved it as a .png file (320X240). When I first posted this thread, all I knew how to do was a "Print Screen" and then pasted it into MS Paint, then saved it as a jpeg. Thanks a bunch for the tips. I think it looks much better.

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# 5 17-03-2007 , 07:44 AM
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Great job on the dog. Looks great nice mesh flow. user added image


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# 6 18-03-2007 , 06:36 PM
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Really cool!!


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# 7 18-03-2007 , 06:48 PM
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First, thanks to everyone who's posted on this thread...they've gotten me even more excited about this 3d thing.

I hope I don't dissappoint you, but I've decided not to add fur (at least not now). Being new to 3d, I think it would be better for me to focus on just modeling for now. Once I feel really confident and able to model effectively and efficiently, then I'll move on to learning other skills.

Is this a good approach to learning or should I consider another approach? I will check back often for everyone's thoughts and comments.

# 8 18-03-2007 , 06:52 PM
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Originally posted by Perfecto
First, thanks to everyone who's posted on this thread...they've gotten me even more excited about this 3d thing.

I hope I don't dissappoint you, but I've decided not to add fur (at least not now). Being new to 3d, I think it would be better for me to focus on just modeling for now. Once I feel really confident and able to model effectively and efficiently, then I'll move on to learning other skills.

Is this a good approach to learning or should I consider another approach? I will check back often for everyone's thoughts and comments.

IÕve been using Maya for about a half a year now, and havenÕt gotten too much into fur, hair, cloth, etc. Although, I am planning to learn them soon.

# 9 18-03-2007 , 07:03 PM
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Originally posted by Perfecto

Is this a good approach to learning or should I consider another approach? I will check back often for everyone's thoughts and comments. [/B]

I've been using maya for 6 months now, the first 3 were me not having a clue what I was doing just making random shapes messing around with little things here and there tweaking things and just learning how to move around and where things were. The next 3 months I've been modeling. I've started to learn texturing, I can do it now but definately not as good as I'd like to. And I've been slowly (very slowly) learning how to rig a character so that the objects I model aren't all in the "t" pose.
So yes I would say getting the modeling down before moving on is good, especially if you have a few models done and learn something else, you can practice on different ones to view your own progress.

# 10 18-03-2007 , 10:17 PM
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Thanks Jr. Who and Rhetoric Camel. I will focus on modeling and slowly work my way up to more and more complex models. I CAN'T WAIT. I think I'll try something non organic.

Since I'm done with this Cartoon Dog model by Kurt Boutilier for the time being, should I delete it from this forum or should I leave it up for awhile? What's the norm?

# 11 18-03-2007 , 10:31 PM
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let it stay up, maybe some other people will come along and give you tips and tricks or some hints on making it better that me or someone else didn't know about, didn't mention, or didn't think of at the moment.

# 12 19-03-2007 , 09:02 AM
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Looks good, your mesh looks nice and clean, was that a smoothed wirefeame?


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# 13 19-03-2007 , 11:58 AM
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Hi gster123,
Yes, I smoothed it once (smooth setting=1). I modeled it in nurbs as directed by the tutorial, converted it to polygons and then after stitching all the pieces together, I converted to subd's for the final tweaking. After I was satisfied with the look, I converted back to polygons and smoothed it once. I think the final poly count is about 5,000.

# 14 23-03-2007 , 02:25 AM
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wow to be honest that one looks better than mine and kurts i reckon :p (sorry kurt if you see this user added image) i really love the detail you put into this user added image great job!

marlon

# 15 23-03-2007 , 06:03 AM
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thanks marlonjohn, I'll try not to let that generous comment go to my head too much. The true credit goes to Kurt for his good teaching skills.

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