Lab 2: Introduction to Modeling
IDS252: 3D Animation, Spring 2009

Goals

• Become familiar with modeling NURBS and subdivision surfaces.
• Learn how to import objects and combine objects into a single scene.
• Experiment with composition and story through the use of framing and other visual elements.

Directions

1. Making a Project: For the lessons below, create a single project (e.g. called Lab2Project) in your ids252 folder on your H drive. All of the scenes you create for this lab should be saved into this project. Recall, to create a project, open Maya and go to File;Project;New .... Enter the name and location of your project. For now, leave all other fields blank.

   Remember: It is recommended that every time you open Maya, you set the project File;Project;Set .... This will insure that files are saved to the correct place.

2. Modeling: In the Maya Help, go to Learning Resources->Tutorials->Getting Started with Maya. Do the following lessons:
   
   • NURBS Modeling:
     • Lesson 1: Revolving a curve to create a surface (glass),
     • OPTIONAL! Lesson 2: Sculpting a NURBS surface. Only do this lesson if you have time after doing everything else.
     • Lesson 3: Lofting Curves to create a surface (saltshaker)
   • Subdivision Surfaces:
     • Lesson 1: Modeling a subdivision surface (hand). (Get as far as you can.)
       
       
3. Rendered Image: For each object (glass, saltshaker, hand), render a 640x480 jpeg image and copy over to the folder called ids252Sp11/lab2/your_login on enfuzion. Name the image files as you did in lab 1.

4. Importing Objects: At this point, you should have several Maya scenes (i.e. .mb files) from labs 1 and 2. Each scene file contains a different object such as a temple, helmet, glass, saltshaker, hand. Copy the scenes (temple and helmet) from lab 1 over into the lab 2 project folder. Before you continue, prepare the objects in the scene files as follows:

   Cleaning Things Up:

   • Open Maya and set the project (e.g. Lab2Project).
   • Open up one of the scene files in that project, e.g. temple.mb.
   • Select the object. If there are multiple parts, make sure everything is selected.
   • Delete constuction history by going to the menu Edit->Delete by Type->History.
   • If there are multiple parts, group all of the parts together by selecting everything and going to the menu Edit->Group.
   • Rename the object (or the group if you grouped items) so that the name reflects what the object is. For example, the temple object should be called "temple".
   • Save the scene file.
   • Repeat for the next scene file in the project.
   • Repeat for the next project.

   Importing: Once the objects in the individual scenes are cleaned up, you can now combine these objects into one scene as follows.

   • Create a new scene and save it into project folder (e.g. call it composition)
   • Go to the main menu in Maya and choose File; Import....
   • Select one of your previous scenes to import. The object should appear in this new scene.
   • Repeat to import several more objects. You will need to translate the different objects so they aren't on top of one another.

5. Composition: In the scene you just created, arrange/duplicate/scale/etc the different objects in a way that tells a story or makes the viewer curious. Assign simple colors to objects, DO NOT USE FIRE OR OTHER SPECIAL EFFECTS THAT YOU DISCOVER IN MAYA). Be prepared to discuss these questions in the class critique.

Evaluation

Copy your four images (glass, salt shaker, hand, and composition) into the folder on enfuzion: ids252Sp11/lab2/your_name .

Score: This lab will be graded based on a maximum of 10 points as follows.

1. (4 pts) Completion of the glass, salt shaker, and hand (complete the hand as much as you can.)
2. (4 pts) One composition as described above. This image is the most important part of this lab.
3. (2 pts) Participation in the critique on Tues Feb 1.

Class critique: On Tuesday Feb 1, you are to divide into groups of size 3-4. Each group will discuss the compositions of the members in the group. Based on this discussion, each person in the group will be responsible for answering these questions for someone else's composition in the group (but not themselves or the person evaluating their own work). This should be completed in class and turned in to Matt.

Note that late assignments will be penalized.