Modeling Bucket

Modeling Bucket

This exercise was immensely challenging to the point I had not actually completed it, never the less, I learn a lot of new modeling tools & methods. Hence this post is going to be rather long. Also from this post onwards I'm not going to put in that much picture of every step as it takes too much time, instead I'm going to elaborate more & only put in pictures if I'm doing something different from the lab sheet or something new for the first time.

The first thing I needed to do was create a plane that was sufficiently large enough to contain a side profile of the bucket that was given in the resources.

Having done that I position the plane in such a way that the right side is just along the Y axis and the bottom just touches the X axis. (As demonstrated in the lab). Now we assign a material to the plane to be able to load the side profile of the bucket.

I've used a lambert since the teacher has said that Blinn has some issues, though I can't remember what exactly was it. (Perhaps teacher you can comment ? XD ). So I assign lambert, apply the side profile to the plane by following the steps on the lab sheet.

The things I've learn from applying side profile to a plane is assign a lambert material, under the common material attributes assign color to be a file, upload the file location, then make sure the textured and smooth shade is check on to be able to see the profile. Lastly under edit UVs --> Normalize the plane to make sure the profile size is correct.

Bucket side profile ( As shown in lab sheet)

Create CV Curve Tool

Now here comes a new tool (I love this tool rather much), it is use to draw a 2D profile of a desired object by clicking on key points. Shift selecting makes it draw a vertical or horizontal straight line, while simply selecting points makes the line still straight just that its not vertical or horizontal.

Using the CV Curve Tool (As shown in lab sheet)

 
Extra notes on CV Curve Tool

Curve Degree : Basically the higher the curve degree the smoother the curve will be. (Though the curve is still made by making several key points straight line then forms the curve)

Knot Spacing : I'm not sure exactly what this does, but I do know that the chord length selection are better for curves. (Perhaps teacher you can clarify my doubts by commenting??)

Multiple End Knots : I'm not sure what this does also, although without it it seems that its harder to draw the side profile...(Once again teacher please help XD )

EP Curve Tool

This tool I clicked out of curiosity given it was sitting right underneath the CV Curve Tool, it works generally the same, but I feel this is better for curve? I think Maya automatically creates curve in between every points clicked for this tool, hence I think this makes it better for organic shape.

Its settings are the same with the CV Curve Tool although it doesn't have the multiple end knots option, not sure why though...

Difference Between CV & EP Curve Tool 


The CV Curve Tool require user to set the point in order to make a curve while EP Curve Tool automatically creates curves between every points clicked.

However I feel that the CV Curve Tool gives user more control over curves drawn since user manually clicks each point.

Revolve Tool

After creating the profile and hiding the display of the plane, we use a tool called revolve (Once again I love this tool as it comes part and parcel with the Create CV Curve Tool to make complicated models). Basically what this does is take the profile or object you have and revolve it around a certain point to make a new object.

End result of revolving the bucket side profile around the Y axis.

Extra notes on Revolve Tool

There are many option for the revolve tool, I've tried researching for them but sadly I didn't manage to find a lot of information regarding them, so I would touch on those that I've found.

Axis Preset : X,Y & Z are basically whether we want to rotate around the object/profile X, Y or Z axis. Although I don't know how free works though admittedly.

Pivot : Object means following the object axis, preset would means one needs to enter the values according to the world axis for maya to rotate our object/profile according to that point.

 Start Sweep Angle & End Sweep Angle : I think start sweep angle means at which point do you want the revolve tool to start duplicating/revolving your object/profile and end sweep angle means where you want it to stop.

Example : Side profile of object

If the angle revolved was 360, this is what it would have looked like.

This one is however only 270 degrees, hence the empty space.

Segments: How many edges circling the object, so if the segments is set lesser, the object would appear more square shape, if it set to more, the object edges would appear rounder and smoother.


Output Geometry (NURBS, Polygon, Partial, Subdiv, Bezier) : I don't know what all the options stand for, but I do know this selection meas what you want the revolved object to become. (Example: If I check Polygon, the resulted object would come out as a polygon).


Tessellation Method : I don't know exactly what this does, but i know if I don't click control points the edges come out all funny...




Extrusion Tool

 The extrusion tool is used to make the side of the bucket where the handle will be connected to, basically the extrusion makes another segment of the selected face. I'm guessing this tool is used to expand segments of a model. So for the bucket I select 2 faces that are close to the middle of the bucket at the side and extrude them. Likewise, I do the same for the other side.

Extrusion (As show in lab sheet)

The thing to note about extrusion though is that it extends/expands from the faces selected and hence is different from simply selecting the faces and moving them, since extrusion leaves the original edges & faces intact.

Extra Notes on Extrusion

Division : Basically  this is the amount of edges that separates the extrusion. Example if I set the edges division to 4 and I extrude that particular face, a result of 4 extrusion would come out. (I think a picture example would be more informative)

Selecting the face for extrusion (Example)

As division is set to 4 the extrusion is divided by 4 edges.

Admittedly this was the only option I could find that I could understand it's usage and purposes, the rest of the options didn't seem to affect the extrusion.


Also extrusion can be used on edges, though I still don't know how it behaves, and I have other set of tools used for working with edges, hence I used the extrusion tools on edges.


Lastly, extrusion allows more than the expanding of faces, it allows scaling, and rotating as well.

Usage of scaling in extrusion

Using rotating in extrusion

Overall extrusion is an especially useful tool when working with complicated models, as the need to expand & modify constantly is a common thing when you're trying to model something new or so differing that most primitive shapes are not enough to offer you what you want. Last but not least I feel that extrusion is best used with other tools such as insert edge loop, or some other tools to manipulate edges. The idea behind this is that the we use the other tools to draw new edges or profile and the extrude to make it into a polygon/object.

Modeling Blocks (Booleans Difference)

Modeling Blocks

This is the last modeling block post, for this post I would focus on the booleans-difference, a very powerful tool used in modeling.

Boolean-Difference

I needed to make a smooth edge triangle with a curved cut-out, a little bit like a tunnel entrance. Hence the first thing I did was duplicate the smooth-edge triangle I made earlier on (previous post) and deleted the bevel node.

Now I create a cylinder and rescaled it based on what the lab sheet wanted. This is when I no longer followed the instructions of the spread sheet as I didn't really understand the align tool function, instead I did the longer way of simply moving the cylinder and checking whether it was what I wanted by toggling between the different views.

However the end result were almost the same. The cylinder was occupying the space where we wanted to cut out to make our hole/"tunnel".

Cylinder occupying the cut-out space

 

The different views of the cylinder occupying the cut-out space

Now I select the triangle before shift selecting the cylinder and go under polygon-->Mesh, selecting booleans-->Difference, and the cut-out portion has been cut out perfectly. With that done, I simply select the necessary edges and bevel it.

After using the difference tool

Final product after beveling.

Extra Notes on Booleans-Difference

The booleans difference tool is basically subtracting the 2nd model you select from the 1st model, hence it was essential that I click the triangle before the cylinder else the result would have been, 2 faces of the circle with a section missing from the cylinder.

I feel this is a extremely useful tool, especially in the case where objects such as shelf needs to be make. This is definitely my most favorite tool yet by far XD

Modeling Blocks (Split Polygon Tool & Manipulating Edges)

Modeling Blocks

This is a continuation of the exercise modeling blocks, in this post I would elaborate upon the split polygon tool and ways to manipulate an object via it's edges.


Split Polygon Tool

I needed to make a smooth edge triangle, so I accomplished this first by duplicating the model block I did earlier on and deleted its bevel node so that it would retain it's shape when it's edges were not yet smoothed. I deleted the bevel node using the channel box as demonstrated in the lab sheet.

Deleting the bevel node from the duplicated block

Now I use the split polygon tool, split polygonal tool is a tool that allows us to draw an edge between 2 different edge, I think it's main purpose is to divide a certain objects into 2 or more sections so that the object can be for further manipulated.


So in this case I click on the 2 edges of the block as shown below to insert in another edge that splits the block into 2 components, before manipulating it later on.

The first point clicked when using the split polygon tool

The second point of the split polygon tool hence making an edge now

Now the model block has an edge separating it hence, however I did go into the side mode to make sure the new edge was perpendicular to the other 2 to ensure that the block model is indeed split into half.


Hence I continued to use the split polygon tool until the all the faces of the block was divided by an edge. 

The model block now totally divided into half by an edge that circles it

So now that I've completed the edges, I now move on to manipulating the object edges to form a triangle which is now possible thanks to the center edge. I first select the 2 other edges and then using the move tool move it to form the triangle.

Selecting the 2 outer edges (highlighted)

Using the move tools, I move the 2 edges to form the triangle

Now that i've formed the triangle I simply select all of it's edges that needs to be smoothed and apply the bevel tool :D

The final product with smoothed edges

Extra notes about split polygon tool

Snapping Tolerance: This controls how close the vertex must be to snapping point (in this case the upper edge) before it snaps to it. Setting this to 100 would constrain the vertices to always be at snapping points (which is to say the vertex sits on the edge in this case)


Number of points: This indicates number of snapping points inside the edges (meaning how many vertex sitting on the edge at the point we snapped it), in this case we only wanted one triangle shape hence only one midpoint was needed, hence we only used one point.


However should we have wanted a jagged shape perhaps like a mountain we would have increase the number of vertex we wanted.


Insert Edge Loop Tool

When I was researching on the split polygon tool on google, I happen to chance about a reference about the insert edge loop tool, basically what it does is insert edges until it surrounds that particular point of the object, this is what we wanted for the triangle, hence I felt this would have been a better solution to the problem as with this method I would not require to go into the different views to ensure that the lines were straight.

Inserting edge loop example

Modeling Blocks (Bevelling)

Modeling Blocks

This exercise was pretty similar to the robot exercise, though in between that time I've learn some pretty powerful modeling tools, and that is what I'm going to be discussing about mostly in this post.

Beveling

So basically the first I did is make a simple wooden block, and edit it to my desired size using the attribute editor inputs which allows me to manipulate the size of the object accurately.

Inputs for block_rectangle

The attribute editor allows you to rename objects, this helps keep the model clean and consistent in the sense that should another modeler comes and edit the existing model, he/she would know exactly what each component is. (I think -_-)


With the model now done we would use one of the tools I wish to elaborate on in this post. Beveling.


Beveling is a polygon tool that allows us to edit the mesh to make edges smoother. This is done by first selecting all the edges of the object by going into an object edge mode (hold RMB & choose edge). From this mode I can select the object edges.

Selecting the block edges

 
Thus i select all the edges for my block and then I go to the polygon component edit mesh and select the bevel option first, I then set width to 0.1000 & segment to 5 before i bevel it.And the results are a smooth edge block :D

A Smooth Edge Block

Extra notes on beveling

Width : Width determines how deep the edges of the edges would be after beveling.

Segment : Segment determines how many edges the object would be after beveling, ideally for a very smooth edges more segment should be used.

My first IN3D lesson (robot modeling)

Modeling a robot


The first step was to identify the primitive shape required to make my robot, in this case i decided to model my robot top-down (head to toe) as i think i will generally do all my modeling top-down as i feel it helps me make the model more proportional.

Hence this is the model head in perspective view, I've achieve this by constantly switching between the front, top, side & persp view to achieve this. Also the move, rotate & scale tool is definitely needed to do this and pretty much any model.

Now here is the breakdown of my model, as you can see I've used primitive shapes such as cones, spheres, pipes and cylinder to do this along with scaling and rotating. I've also made used of the channel box and the duplicate function. 

The duplicate firstly allows me to only work on one side of the model and simply duplicate whichever part i want to fit the other side. Hence i save time doing this as well lower the risk of an un-proportional model.


The channel box is a even more useful tool, it allows me to manipulate such as moving, rotating, & scaling the tool more accurately than whatever i could have done using the tools directly. Example: I've worked on the left eye first, so now i duplicate the left eye and using the channel box, move all the values of the x,y & z to the positive value (since the left eye was made in the negative value zone).

                      (The left side is -1.7 on the x value)


so by duplicating and then putting 1.7 as the translate x value for the right side cone

           There looks good :D



The rest of the model is pretty much using the same techniques.

                                          (Robot Body in Persp)

 

( Robot Legs in Persp)

Finished Robot in Persp

Finished Robot in Top

Finished Robot in Front

 

Finished Robot in Side

Reflection & Learning Points

The things i've learn while doing this exercise was to familiar with the maya controls such as moving, scaling, rotating & such. Also i've learn that when doing a model, it is insufficient to simply check one side of the model but one must utilize all the views to model it properly. 

Also through this exercise i realized all models are made from very primitive shape and that it is the role of the modeler to be able to identify those primitive shapes, as such planning is required before embarking on any maya modeling projects.

Last but not least, the channel box is another powerful tool in maya, i enjoy using it immensely as i can use it to manipulate my polygons accurately and efficiently.