Week 04 – Modeling, Rendering, Review

Table of Contents

Modeling a Propeller with Duplicate Special to create an array

  1.  Make a Cone, add sections, shape to be roundish by scaling vertices with soft modification (b key) or by using the Flare Deformer’s curve settings.
  2. Make a propeller from a box, add edge-loops with Multicut (Shift+Right Click, Multicut). Use the Ctrl key to add edge loops, MMB to add edgeloops in the middle of an edge.
  3. Shape the propeller, scale the edge loops, twist it with a Twist Deformer or soft modification (b key) and shape / rotate.
  1. Snap the center point to the center of the nose cone. Push the ‘d’ key to move the pivot. Turn on snap to point (v key) and one axis to snap to the center of the cone.  Or select both the propeller and cone and match the pivots with Modify, Match Transformations, Match Pivot
  1. Select the propeller, Duplicate, Special Options, Turn on Instance, Change the Y Rotation to 45 degrees (360/8), change the copies to 7 (you already have one). Voila, 8 propeller blades.

Using Mash to Create a Radial Array

  1. Keep the Cone and Original Propeller. Select the propeller
  2. Click on the Mash Shelf, then the Mash button (left one in the Mash shelf)
  3. Open the attributes for the Mash Network (Ctrl + A)
  4. Change Linear to Radial
  5. Change the number of copies to 12 (or whatever makes it look good 😉
    • If the propeller is oriented in the wrong direction, unhide the original object mash object (with h) and rotate it into the right position. It should be straight up and down on the y axis at the center of the world.
    • If the mash network is in the wrong position, open the mash network, add a transform node, then open the channel box, right-click on Controller Null, Create. This will create a null that can be used to position the Mash Network.

Camera Setup and Rendering Nice Wireframes

  • Create a Camera and Bookmarks
    • Create, Cameras, Camera
      • Panels, Perspective, Choose the Camera to Look Through
      • Or select the camera and Panels, Look Through Selected
      • You can lock the camera – there is an icon on the view bar
      • Turning on the Resolution Gate is also great for seeing what you will render
    • View, Bookmarks, Edit Bookmarks to Bookmark the current camera view
      • Bookmarks allow you to save your current view of the camera
        • Use them to bookmark views of your model
  • Mesh, Cleanup Options – Turn on:
    • Remove Geometry:
      • Lamina Faces
      • Nonmainfold Geometry
      • Edges with Zero Length
      • Faces with Zero Geometry Area
  • Using Creasing instead of adding additional edgeloops
    • Working low-poly, creasing hard edges
    • Then use Mesh, Smooth to increase the model details

Rendering a Wireframe with the Hardware Renderer

  • Open the Render Settings, Change the Renderer to Maya Hardware 2.0
    • Change the filename prefix to ModelName_Wireframe
    • Change the Image Format to PNG
    • Change the resolution to HD 1080
    • Click on the Maya Hardware 2.0 Tab
      • Open Antialiasing 
        • Turn on Smooth Wireframe Enable
        • Turn on Multisample Anti-Aliasing Enable
      • Open Render Options 
        • Change Render Mode to Wire on Shaded
  • *** The render will use the current materials with dark blue wireframe. 
  • To change the wireframe and object colour:
    • Assign a Shader – if you want a solid one, use Mayas Constant Shader
    • Select all the objects and create a display layer in the Channel Box.
      • This will add all the objects to the layer.
      • Double click the layer and change the colour this will change the wireframe colour.
  • Click the Render button. It will save an image in your current project’s images folder.

Creating a Turntable Render of your Model

  • Create, Nurbs Primitives, Circle
  • Parent all the objects to the Circle
  • Make sure the objects are centered in the circle
  • Set a keyframe at frame 1 for the y rotation at 0
  • Set a keyframe at frame 120 for the y rotation at -360 (or 360 depending on the rotation direction you want)
  • Open the Curve Editor and make the y f-curve linear
  • Open the render settings and select the renderer you want to use. Ie Arnold or Maya Hardware Render 2.0.
    • In the settings, turn on animation. Enter the frame range. Set the resolution to HD 1080 (or whatever you want). 
    • Set any of the render specific settings
  • Open the Render Menus: Render, Render Sequence