Final Piece Write up

Before I was able to start my piece in Maya I had to make a 2D representation in Photoshop blocking out the things I wanted to create.

Photoshop:

-         Initially I imported the picture I wanted into a Photoshop document

-         To Block out the objects I wanted to create in Maya, I would use the “Lasso tool” and draw around the post, then by holding down the “shift” key I was able to create a second area I wanted.

-         Using the “G” key I was able to short-cut to selecting the Paint bucket which allowed me to fill in the selected area on a new layer. By Selecting Multiplier on the layer options I was able to see the post etc through the other layer and coloured layer – it also helped me to see the post when I decreased the opacity

I then copied this process for the next two things I wanted to create; using different colours

After the areas I was creating was designated I had to then draw 2D representations of those selected pieces so I drew around them, to make the pillar 100% symmetrical using the “Rectangular Marquee Tool” I selected half used “Ctrl+J” to duplicate the selected half  onto a new layer used “Ctrl+T” to transform, right click then selected “flip Horizontal”

To Create the Tombstone to make the correct proportions I used the pen tool instead of the brush tool

to create the little square thing I don exactly as I did with the post by drawing half, duplicating then flipping.

Maya:

First off I had to create the project window, to do so click; File, then down to project window

A little window will appear, click “new” give your project a name, then click the little folder and choose a place to save it. After click "file" then "set project" Click the file you created.

Now the project has been created & selected it’s time to create the grave stone, ti import a picture to Maya, click “create” then “free image plane” Click on the plane and select attribute editor, Click the file to import the 2D reference image

Once the image was imported I put the image on a new layer, and then turned the image plane into a reference.

I created a cube mesh then by hitting “R” I was able to scale it, to make it fully sized I hit right click and selected vertex to move each vertex to the edge of the image aligning the mesh with the image by selecting those overlapping squares it makes the mesh transparent

To create the pillar, you would have to extrude to do so you could either “right click+Shift and select extrude” or press “Ctrl+E” instead of crafting another I selected the Pillar and pressed "Ctrl+D" to duplicate the pillar.

To make the main headstone; like before, I made a cube mesh but then went to the attribute editor and made 14 (a nice even number) subdivisions so I’m able to add detail to the headstone

After that I held “right click” selected vertex, in my front perspective view I would drag select the vertexes I wanted to move then line them up with the reference image. But leave off the top. I held right click and selected face selected the faces that lined up with the top bit and hit extrude to bring them up. to refine it though I went back to vertex and moved the vertexes 

To make sure that the headstone is 100% symmetrical I deleted half of the mesh then to mirror it I selected the mesh and went “mesh” and down to “Mirror Geometry” to make it symmetrical.

Now both pillars and the headstone are done it starts to take shape

To make the final piece for the grave stone as before I started off with a square and then but to bring in the edges I held shift + right click  and then selected bevel edge

Now that it’s been created I scaled it down by pressing “R” and selecting the middle square. Then by holding right click and pressing vertex I selected the vertices and pressed “W” to bring them forward. To duplicate it I selected the object and pressed “Ctrl + D” to duplicate it

                  

To connect them together I made another square and done the bevelled edge but unfortunately I wasn't able to join the edges together to make it look like it ran around and one combined piece. I even tried to select the vertex's and put snap to vertex on and didn't work

To connect them together I made another square and done the bevelled edge but unfortunately I wasn't able to join the edges together to make it look like it ran around and one combined piece

Instead I made a square as before and scaled it, but instead of bevelling the edge I held “Shift + Right Click” and selected multi-cut tool to add more vertices and faces, then pressed “Ctrl + D” to duplicate the rectangle 

After I selected the faces held “shift + Right click and selected bridge, then changed the subdivisions from 5 to 0

Then as before “Right Click” select edge select all the top edges, “shift + Right Click and select bevel edge

FINAL PIECE