In this lesson you learned
some basic techniques of polygonal modeling:
- You can create complex polygonal models
with surprisingly few techniques.
- Starting from a primitive surface such
as a cube, you can smooth, scale, move, extrude, split, and rotate
components of the primitive to create a low resolution version of
the model you want to create.
- You must frequently adjust vertices to
fine-tune the shape, and finally smooth the edges between faces
where desired in order to produce the final version of your model.
- Another method for previewing a smoothed
version of the mesh before it is smoothed is via Smooth
Mesh Preview. Press the 2 or 3 key while the mesh is
selected to preview it in a smoothed state. Press the 1 key to return it
to the unsmoothed state.
Polygonal modeling has
many timesaving features not covered in this lesson:
- For example, Boolean operations (union, difference,
and intersection) are a common way to create a new object from the
interaction of two existing objects.
- If you’re planning to use your polygonal
surfaces where the poly count is constrained, such as with interactive
games, Maya has a number of tools for minimizing the number of polygonal
faces of an object such as the Reduce Tool.
Fewer faces means simpler geometry. This is critical when fewer
polygons means increased interactive performance with games applications.
You can view the polygon count on your mesh by selecting the mesh
and then choosing
Poly Count.
- Maya
also has a category of tools called Deformers. Deformers
let you bend, twist, and scale your objects by enveloping the object
in a cage-like manipulator called a lattice deformer that
you can manipulate.
- The NURBS chapter in this guide describes
how to use the Sculpt Geometry Tool to modify
a surface by pushing, pulling, and smoothing a surface without first
selecting vertices. Though the lesson shows how to shape a NURBS
surface, you can apply many of the same techniques when sculpting
polygonal surfaces.
- You can also modify a polygon mesh
using the Soft Modification Tool which
lets you smoothly modify a group of vertices on a mesh.
If you want to learn
more about a particular tool or feature that has been presented
in this lesson, refer to the Maya Help.