Modeling from Image Planes

As with all new Maya projects you need to go through the process of creating a new project before you start anything.

File> Project Window> New Project.

Then you need to make sure that this new project is the one set for Maya to use;

File> Set Project> companionCube

Every time you open Maya you need to go through the process of setting the project and then opening the Scene. This means that you will always be accessing the correct file, and that Maya will always have the relevant information to hand such as paints, textures, and reference models.

Then you need to save a blank scene under your filing pattern; _000.

File> Save Scene As... > companionCube_000



Once you have Maya prepared and ready for action, you now need to make sure that the image of the cube is in the correct folder within your project folder hierarchy. The reference image of the cube should be saved under;

Projects> companionCube> SourceImages

A quick check of the settings should look as follows; centimetres, degrees, and NTSC(30fps).

Hit save.

With a quick hit of the space bar, you change your View from one panel to 4 and from this you can import your image onto each of the 3 planes.

View> Image Plane> Import Image...

Import your cube image onto all 3.

Hit Save.

Once this is done, you can start to build your cube. Insert a cube and scale it to the right size according to the 4 angled views. This value should be 26.4cm on height, width, and depth.

Quick notes:

1. Attribute Editor is toggled by Cntrl + A. From here you can also add in new layers.
2. Hold right click + drag the mouse to reveal selection options. From these options you can choose to highlight/select from vertices, edges, faces, etc.
3. Cntrl+Drag and Cntrl+Shift+Drag can be used to select items.
4. If items are not attached to a layer; select them and right click on the layer > Add selected objects to Layer.

Maya Selects everything it can, so make sure that you check that all the vertices you want are highlighted and that you haven't selected things you didn't want to. For example when selecting a corner on one side of a cube, Maya could also select the opposite side of the cube also.
To help with this you can select camera based selection rather than world based selection. This is found by double clicking on the move tool and checking the camera selection box.

It is worth noting here, if not already mentioned in my previous Maya posts, that you can access more options and settings for each tool in Maya quickly by double clicking it's icon, or by clicking the little box next to it in the menu.


Now, to start on the cube.

Create> Polygon Options> Cube

This allows you to adjust the size and dimensions of the cube before it is inserted, and also numerically after it has been inserted into the world.

Then click in the left hand menu > pCube1 > highlight H+W+D to edit these attributes.

You can also add levels of subdivision in the cube, effectively adding to the geometry. It is worth remembering however that;

• When you add geometry in Maya, you need to make sure you don't take away geometry after you have changed the object for example it's dimensions or scale. This will break the geometry.

To extrude the cube outwards you need to first use these values;

Edit Mesh > Extrude

Extrude Options > Offset value of 1.

Edit Mesh > Keep Faces Together needs to be checked.

Make sure you only select the 4 faces you wish to before you hit Extrude.

If you wish to repeat an extrusion you can hit the letter G on your keyboard - this repeats any adjustment to the geometry you last did, to the new selection. (Note: this may not work for all adjustments)

After extruding the edges of the cube , you need to;

Select Edges > Edit Mesh > Bevel.

For the first extrusion you need to have an Offset value of 1 and a Thickness of 0. For the second extrusion, you need an Offset value of 0 and a Thickness value of -0.5.