Learning Some New Tools and The Next Challenge

Completed Pokeball Model

With the basics under our belts, we moved on to learning some new tools. Today we were going to learn about Booleans, Edge Loops and Multicuts as well as a quick recap of the basics.

Now, while I did use new tools like the Edge Loop to make my lightsaber model a few days before we covered it in class, I didn't go into any real detail on the full capabilities of that tool, or any of the unfamiliar tools I used for that matter - I just figured out what I needed to do to get my model to where I wanted it and that was that.

So, getting a proper introduction to the tool as well as seeing how it can be used depending on what you wanted to do, and then some lab time to practice was hugely beneficial from my perspective.

While I didn't find edge loops too difficult, I can't say the same for things like Booleans and Edge Cuts. It did take my quite a few practice attempts to wrap my head around the new possibilities opened to me with the introduction of these tools.

Much like the week before, the best way to learn something in Maya, is to do something with that new thing. So, the challenge in class today was to use the new tools we had just leaned to make something - make anything we wanted to and see if people could figure out what it was.

I started off simple and made a key just to get more comfortable with the new tools. There were a few times I mixed up what tool did what but I got it eventually. With that done - at least to a point where I was happy to leave it and do something with a bit more of a challenge, I created something new. I decided on a Pokeball from Pokemon. Making this would really force me to use pretty much all of the tools we'd gone over so far, not just the ones we leaned in today's class.

This was, once again, a bigger challenge than I anticipated and I did have to delete some parts of it and redo it a few times to get something I was happy with. After about 30 - 45 minutes, I created exactly what I wanted to, which I wasn't totally sure I could do considering how many times I restarted parts of it.

The timing couldn't have been better either, class was just about to end and with it, the introduction of our challenge for next week's class.

For next week, our challenge is to get comfortable with the new tools we covered today and finish the object we started in class if possible. If you get that done, the advanced challenge would be to take a character sheet - either one from the Internet or an original design, bring it into Maya and model it in orthographic view in advance of our next topic - rigging the character we make.

With that, the class ended and I set my sights on preparing for the new challenge.