basic Extrude question

# 1 29-01-2015 , 07:43 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2014

Posts: 9

Hi all,

I'm beginning to learn Maya and am using Introducing Autodesk Maya 2014 by Dariush Derakhshani. Part of the exercise I'm following is all about building models using poly shapes and the extrude tool, and towards the end of the exercise the author lets the reader try to figure out how to continue building the model without step-by-step instructions.

So my question is this. I've attached an image with a red oval around it showing where I'm a little confused. Is it possible to create the smaller cube using only the Extrude tool? My solution was to create a new poly cube separate from the rest of the catapult arm.

Thanks in advance.

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# 2 29-01-2015 , 08:08 PM

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Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

For sure, this is one thing that the extrude tool is good at. Select a face and hit extrude, except instead of pulling it out, just scale inwards a bit. See if you can move forward from there.

-stwert

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# 3 29-01-2015 , 10:16 PM

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Join Date: Dec 2014

Posts: 9

Thanks stwert. I've played with it and have attached a sample. The long rectangular shape in the background is what I want to achieve, but is made of two polycubes stacked together. The shape in the foreground began as one polycube and had extrude applied to it, resulted in the sloped sides.

I suspect Extrude can't do what I'm trying to achieve and think the shape in the background is what the author wanted.

One other thought was adding subdivisions to the polycube and extruding from that, but it seems that it's quicker to just create a second polycube.

Regardless, thanks for the help.

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# 4 29-01-2015 , 11:45 PM

EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: Toronto

Posts: 3,374

Well you're getting closer with the extrude, but you have to extrude twice.
Extrude once, scale in. Extrude again and pull out. You can certainly add another cube, but in this case extruding keeps your scene a bit more manageable in terms of the number of objects.

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