Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Now you know enough about Maya to create a simple model, like this ice cream cone.
Everyone loves ice cream, so that seems like a good place to start.
In this lesson I’ll show you how to create this model using simple polygon primitives.
We will apply a Lattice Deformer to change the shape of the ice cream.
I will also apply simple materials or shaders to change the color of the objects.
So let's set the stage by creating a new scene.
On the Status Line, on the upper left-hand corner of the Status Line,
I’ve got some file buttons.
And I’ve got one here to create new scene.
And I don't want to save this,
because I don't want to over-write the scene I already have.
So I’ll click Don't Save.
And now I’ve got a fresh new scene.
At this time I’d like to make a couple minor adjustments to the interface.
Down at the bottom here I’ve got some animation tools:
the Time Slider and the Range Slider.
Since we’re only modeling right now, I’m going to choose to close these two panels.
You can always hide or show Maya's user interface elements from the Display menu.
Display - UI Elements, and you'll see all the major panels are listed.
So, for example I could turn the Shelf on
or back off again.
And, of course you can always delete preferences
which will reset Maya’s interface back to factory default.
To start creating this model,
let's make sure that we have the grid visible in the perspective view.
If you can’t see the grid,
you might need to go up to the Display menu and turn it on.
The grid can also be hidden in an individual panel through the panel’s Show menu.
Down at the very bottom here you'll see Grid
and that’ll turn the grid on or off in the current viewport only.
The grid can also be shown or hidden through the Panel Toolbar.
Remember we hid the Panel Toolbar before,
we can turn it back on really briefly using CONTROL + SHIFT + M.
And you'll see there's a button up here to turn the grid on or off in the current view.
I'm going to hit CONTROL + SHIFT + M again to hide that Panel Toolbar.
In 3D, it's very important to keep your scenes neat and orderly.
So, when modeling anything, it should be constructed at the origin,
or right in the center of the world.
To make that easier, I’m going to snap to the grid.
On the Status Line you will see a bunch of magnet icons.
The one on the very far left is called Snap to Grids.
When you activate that, now when you create something
it'll automatically be positioned at one of the grid intersections.
I’ll go to my Create menu, Polygon Primitives - Sphere
and click right in the center at the origin of the world
and I’ll release the mouse button.
The Channel Box then shows me the attributes of the selected sphere.
Remember, if you can’t see the Channel Box,
you might need to click on one of these three buttons
on the upper right hand side of the Status Line.
I’m going to go into the Inputs for my polySphere
and I can adjust the Radius by highlighting its name.
So I’m going to set that to about three or so.
You'll notice in the Transform node for this sphere
that the position and rotation are all at zero.
Next we'll make the Cone. So I’ll go back to the Create menu
Polygon Primitives - Cone, and again click right in the center of the world
And drag to define the Radius of the Cone. Release the mouse.
Click again, and drag downward this time to create the Cone.
Once again, I’ll go into the Input node and adjust the Radius and Height.
Maya's units are centimeters by default.
So the Height for the Cone should be probably around fifteen centimeters.
Let's take a look at this from a four viewport layout; I’ll tap the SPACEBAR.
And now you'll see as I adjust the Height the cone becomes taller or shorter.
Why don’t I set that to a value of sixteen. I’ll just type it in.
And the position I can also set to, let's say, negative eight.
So that the Cone will be lined up neat and clean.
One curious thing about the Channel Box is
that you have to hit the ENTER key on the alpha keyboard, not the numeric ENTER key,
in order to complete the data entry.
So again, you should use the ENTER key on the alpha keyboard
rather than the numeric keyboard.
Before we go any further, let’s change the names of our objects
so that we’ll be able to figure out what they are later.
With my Cone selected, back in my Channel Box
at the top of the Transform node is the name of the selected object.
I’m going to click there and type in IceCreamCone
and press ENTER on the alpha keyboard.
You'll notice that when I changed the name of the Transform node
the Shape node was automatically renamed.
Next I’ll select the Sphere.
Go back to the Transform node and type in IceCream.
Node names in Maya do not allow whitespaces. So you can't use a space.
If you try to use a space, Maya will insert an underscore for you.
So most people use this form of notation. It's called “camel case”
where we use mixed upper and lower case for the names of nodes in Maya.
Now we’re ready to add a Lattice Deformer to the Sphere to change its shape.
To make it easier to see, I want to display this Perspective view in Smooth Shaded mode.
I can do that from the Shading menu. Smooth Shade All.
I can use the Panel Toolbar, but really the best way to do it is with the hotkeys.
In Maya, the 4 key is Wireframe
and the 5 key is Smooth Shade All in the current viewport.
With the IceCream object selected, I’ll go to the Animation Menu Set.
That is the default Menu Set, but if you've got anything else visible,
go to the Animation Menu Set.
And I’m looking for a menu called Create Deformers. Here it is.
When I click on that, I get a cascading menu of lots of different types of Deformers.
A Deformer is an object that influences the shape of another object.
The one that we're going to use now is called a Lattice.
This is also called an FFD in Maya, which stands for Free-Form Deformation.
So when you see the word Lattice, and you see the abbreviation FFD,
in fact they mean the same thing. Just two different names for the same thing in Maya.
I want to open up an Option box to adjust the attributes of the Lattice Deformer.
You'll notice in the menus in Maya,
a lot of the menu items have these little boxes next to them.
When you click on this box, it will open up the Options
for that particular tool or command.
Sometimes it will open up in a separate window,
sometimes in the Tool Settings on the right hand side panel.
Okay so here are the Lattice Options. I’m going to reset these back to default
just by going to the Edit menu within that window and hitting Reset.
And you'll see now these attributes have all changed to factory default.
And, by the way, that works for any tool in Maya.
You can always reset just that tool back to default preferences.
I am going to change these Local Divisions attributes.
What this does is it basically affects the softness of the Deformer
so that we will get a nice pleasing rounded shape to the ice cream.
Local Divisions are defaulted to two, two, and two.
I’m going to select one and type in a three.
Press the TAB key, type in a three.
Press the TAB key again, and type in a three.
And now I’m ready to create the Lattice.
So I’ll go down to the left hand side of the dialog box, and click Create.