Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Maya for Games

I thought I would introduce my latest endeavor in keeping my Maya 'skills' to the forefront of my mind by working my way steadily through Michael Ingrassia's kindly instructive book; "Maya for Games: Modeling and Texturing Techniques with Maya and Mudbox"


http://www.cgsoft.ru/uploads/posts/2009-05/1242737875_michael-ingrassia-maya-for-games.jpg

The first lessons I have learned today are some fun(!) new hot keys to get tapping at to switch between model viewing options in Maya;

4 - Wire-frame Mode
5 - Shaded Mode
6 - Textured Mode
7 - Lit Mode

These would have been particularly useful during my light and texture shading stage of my Venetian Door (remember that old chestnut?) as I was having to re-render my model each time I wanted to see the effect of the new lighting I had put in place. At the time I had a feeling it was not the efficient way to do things, but with no-known alternative and a clock ticking persistently at my heels, I chose to soldier on and finish without questions.

As I peruse the introductory chapter of Ingassia's book, waves of relief flow over me as more and more items, icons, tools and menus are mentioned which I have at-least a brief knowledge of and I feel less dominated by the thought of once again trying to break a chink in the intimidating chain-mail of Maya. 

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Robin Silcock

I am a Second Year Games Art and Design student at Norwich University of the Arts. After exploration of a number of roles in my first year, I am now looking to graduate as a 3D Artist with applicable skills in Maya, Mudbox, ZBrush and Photoshop. I understand that my skills in this field are not there yet - but I aim to achieve this goal through consistently working through the programs in my University and Personal Projects. I love to be busy - I have always had a lot of things on my plate since the age of 7 where I successfully balanced school with Ballet, Tap, Horse-Riding, French, Piano and Singing Lessons! In the same fashion, my university schedule is just as hectic and varied; I am a Peer Mentor to first year students, Student Rep for Second Year, and President of the Enterprise Society. Like I said, I love to be busy! I am a Games Hippie - so to speak - I believe that Games if designed and harnessed in the right way, will be able to help solve many of the global issues we have today - even if it starts off in a small way. Just look at the positive effects that Facebook and Twitter have already had... When navigating my blog;
  • Works in Progress - This section is a constantly running account of all my current projects - personal and for university. It will contain reference images and website links and sometimes less than coherent posts, so be prepared!
  • Finished Pieces - This is where you will find my more polished artwork. Looking for help with Maya? Check out the posts tagged "Maya How-To's"