Learning about Maya (OUAN406)

I put this task off for as long as I could because I found it very daunting. Once I got started and knew the basic tools, though, it became rather therapeutic and I actually enjoyed playing with fun shapes. I imagine that they tried to make the software as intuitive as possible, but even some of the simple stuff works about as intuitively as a large hadron collider designed by M.C. Escher.

I mean, to snap one shape so it attaches to another shape I have to Hold G and V while also holding down the middle mouse button and gently wiggling it. These are commands designed by a LUNATIC.

That aside, though, I'm pleased with how my first attempts turned out and I think I learned the basics relatively quickly. I could've stood to slightly bevel the edges of the toy truck, because no actual toy is that pointy. That truck is taking a kid's eye out on the playground for sure.

As for the jam jar with lid I modelled, I like how it looks! I used a couple of video tutorials to work out all kinds of things like smoothing, making new polygon shapes, making sticky out bits and stuff like that. Also, I wish I knew how to make glass textures.

I'm keen to keep modelling in Maya and look forward to learning it more in depth. It is the wave of the future after all or something. My biggest worry now is that I'll go away for Summer, spend three months doing NOTHING and return having forgotten everything. Either that or all the technology will be obsolete and I'll have been replaced by some hip young thing.

I returned to the Jam Jar later to try and make it become glass. I learned a little about how to use refraction and opacity and things, but I'm far from perfecting it.