Rigging

Open up the file with the model in it. Set up a new project in maya and make sure to save it. Make sure that the tool bar at the top is set to animation.

Start by selecting the Joint tool on the animation tool bar and click at the top of the hip to make the joint. Then click the knee, then the ankle, ball of the foot and then the toes. Hit the enter key to complete the joints.

Next position the skeleton into the middle of the leg, copy and paste the skeleton and put that one in the other leg. Click on the shading tab and hit X-ray joints. This will allow you to see through the leg so you can view the skeleton at the same time.

Create a small base of a spine between the legs and slightly above the hips in the middle, you only need one joint. Select the leg and the spine by holding shift, then press "P" to connect them. Repeat the same process for the other leg.

Click on the hip joint, hold shift and click on the ankle. Select the IK handle tool and change it to a RP connector. This connects the knee to the foot, so when you move one the other will move as well.

Click on the ankle joint and hold shift, then select the ball joint of the same foot. Create another IK handle but this time make it a SC handle. Repeat the last two processes for the other leg.

Create a joint that is inline with the ankle joint on the floor. Connect it to where the toe is then too the ball then the ankle, this is basically reversing how you made the foot in the first place. This process is called reverse foot lock and makes the foot act more naturally.

Parent the ankle, ball and toe joints of the leg to their corresponding joints on the reverse foot lock.

Now you have to bind the skeleton to the model. Select the model hold shift and select the skeleton. Select the skin tab then go down to bind then select smooth bind.

Once this is done the mesh and skeleton will be merged. The next step is weight painting, select the model and double click on the weight painting tool on the tool bar. You can select the different joints by clicking on them in the side menu that appeared when you opened the weight paint tool. When selected the areas that are affected will show up white on the model. You can add, take away and smooth this to make the model move more realistically, you have to paint on the vertexes as painting on the faces will have no affect. This can sometimes take a long time depending on the detail of the model and how precise you want the movement to be.

UV mapping

                           

Select the object. Hold down right click and go to assign new matterial.

A box with a list of options should appear. Go to Lambert and click.

The menu will appear to the side of the screen. Click on the small checked box to the right of the colour button. 

Another box will appear with different material options. Clicked on the checkered option.

The model will now have the checkered texture on it.

Next go to Create Uvs at the top of the screen, go down the menu to automatic mapping. 

Once that has done, go to the option Edit UV and down to the bottom option UV texture editor.

A seperate page will open up with the UV map on a grid. Hold down the right click button ans select UV mode and select part of the uv. 

Hold down right click again, go down to select then select shell. Now move all the peices of the uv out of the way of the grid. This gives you a little more room to move things around in.

Once you have moved around the shapes so that you are happy with them and they all fit onto one screen it should look something like this. 

Next go to edit UVs again and down to texture editor then polygons. click on UV snap shot, decide what you want to call it and where you want to save it. Save it as a Targa file. 

Open up the Targa file into Photoshop shop, copy the background layer and paste it onto a new one. then delete the background layer. Set the layer from normal to multiply. 

Procede to create your textures for your model and fit them to the different parts of your UV. Make sure to do each part on a different layer. I used the magic wand tool to select the areas i wanted and deleted the bits around the edges that i didn't need. 

This is what my UV map looked like when all the textures were applied. 

making my door (journal)

 I created a new project and made sure it was set to polygons and set the tool bars to polygons as well. 

I started by creating a polygon cylinder, altering it to the size and rough shape that I wanted. 

creating the cylinder 

The next thing I did was to increase the bottom circle of the cylinder so the base was larger than the top. I went to face mode and selected the bottom faces of the cylinder, then clicked on the scale tool on the side of the screen to increase its size. The result was a cone shape with the top cut off, though it had stretched to an oval shape when I manipulated it.

increasing the size of the base

 Then I put more edges around the cylinder so I could manipulate the shape of the oval to look more natural and like a tree stump. To do this I used the vertex mode to pull them around and re-shape the cone.

selecting the edge loop tool. click on drop down menu 'edit mesh' and go down to insert edge loop tool.

creating edge loop, by clicking on the horizontal line then dragging up or down. 

pulling around the vertices to create a tree stump shape.

 To make the actual door I moved some of the vertices so they formed a rough arch, then I selected those faces and pushed them into the model to create a hole where the door would go. Then I copied the selected faces and pulled them out away from the door, then extruded it to make the door to fit over the hole I had just made. Now I had the two separate parts I needed for my door, the tree trunk and the actual door panel. 

organic looking door, shape directly from the hole made in the model.  

Basic modelling

Before starting to make a 3D model using a 3D drawing package like Maya it is advised that you have an idea as to what you want to create. 2D drawn pictures of your idea, whether it is an object or character, should be drawn showing it from different angles such as the front, side and top elevations. With a lot of companies making 3D animation or games clay maquettes are made so they modeller can directly re-create the model on the computer. This method would probably make things a lot easier as you would be able to pick up the model and move it round to get a clear image of hoe it would move and what it would look like from every angle. It is important to have a clear concept and understanding of what you want to create before you start to model, it will make things a lot easier. Some of my favourite examples of this are the models of the characters and creatures in the film Avatar, the samples I found are from the official book of the artwork for the film. Models were made for the organic creatures in the film and not the mechanical objects; these generally were made straight from accurate drawings of the vehicles onto a 3D modelling package.

I made lots of concept sketches and a final design sheet of my door design before I started modelling in Maya. Maya is a very complicated program and not very user friendly and at the moment I am struggling to get my head round it, this is why I was happy I had a clear idea what I wanted to create before starting. This helped because I learned hoe to do things on Maya through encountering problems with making my door, I was filling in the gaps in my knowledge by figuring out how to makes certain things happen in Maya. I feel that I am now competent enough to be able to make something basic in Maya and understand what I am doing and the outcomes of the processes I make.

One of the things I found most useful was the slit camera angle. With most 3D packages you can split the screen into four so you can see what you are working on. It is helpful because you can see any change you make from all angles of the object, if you are trying to position something from one angle it might look like it is in the right place but from a different angle it could be way off. Using the tool make navigating around a 3D space a lot easier and helps you be more accurate in your model building.

By holding down the space bar a shortcut menu appears, which saves a lot of time and makes it easier to find the option or tool that you are looking for.

Designing my door

After being set the task of designing a concept for a door that would eventually be made in Maya, I set about searching around for different designs of door. I wanted to do a somewhat natural looking door, so I started looking a wooden designs, and natural materials like stone and metals. The first thing i started looking at large heavy wooden doors, like ones in the medieval period. They were all made up of large rough stone arches with thick wooden doors with large iron bolts and nails keeping them together. large metal handles and knockers were pretty standard for these types of doors. 

After looking at old rustic looking doors i moved on to more refined designs, like the large beautiful arches of gothic architecture. Unlike the crude stone arches of the medieval doors these doors are much more elaborate sporting intricately carved arches and wood for the door itself. Usually swirling and flowery designs these doors are usually part of buildings such as churches and cathedrals. in the end i decided that i was taking on way too much if i wanted to do a door like this, the amount of detail i would need to design for the textures would be hard to do.

 






I liked the idea of trying to make textures for a rustic looking wooden door and i like fantasy themed things. i looked for fantasy influenced doors and a lot of small wooden rounded doors that are attached trees. I found that these where called fairy doors and they were seen to be doors that woodland spirits and sprites live in. I looked at a lot of different designs for these and decided that i wanted to create a door influenced by them. 

I found many different examples of these doors and i wanted to include different elements from some of the examples i found. I particularly liked the rounded doors, it looks like a whole has just been    dug out from the tree and then a tiny little door put in front.

My first drawings were mainly expressing what I had originally found, I used pen to draw them as I could get a nice representation of texture with it, texturing will be quite an important part of my design as it is predominantly wood.

My final design was a combination of what I had already done in my previous drawings, I drew up a final orthographic view of the door to work from when making it in Maya, and also a coloured version to show how I want to texture and colour it when it comes to that point.