P5
'How to' Guide:
In this guide, I will show you how to recreate this Sci-fi corridor I built using Maya.
Contents
Basic Maya
Step 1 - Plan
Step 2 - Shape
Step 3 - Designing
Step 4 - Texturing
Step 5 - Lighting
Handy Tips
Problem Solving
Basic Maya
Starting Maya is very daunting, so I will show you the simple tools that you will need to make a corridor. I would also recommend you watch one or two video tutorials online so you can get a visual understanding of what I am saying. These videos do not have to be designing corridors, though that might be more helpful, because you can translate the techniques used in any tutorial to somewhere in your project. This section will help you start off in Maya then you should read the rest of this guide when you are ready to start creating.
Basic Tools:
These are the some of the tools available in Poly Modelling:
From Left to Right:
Step 1 - Plan
You will be free to make variations of my plan as I will give you methods and techniques you can use to build each piece differently, so I would recommend you have a design in mind or on paper that you want to create. Here is my plan:
Step 2 - Shape
So you have your design, however complex, and we are going to start in a simple way. If you prefer other methods of modelling, feel free to use that instead if you will be able to get the same result. We will start off with a simple cube polygon.
Depending on how complex your shape is, you can add as many subdivisions as you need. You can add lines in later so do not worry if you are not sure how many subdivisions to add.
Now you have the basic start-point of the corridor.
Step 3 - Designing
Doors and windows:
There are three methods of cutting a hole in a wall, you should choose the method depending on what result you want and start-point you have. Follow the method you want to make the shape of the door and after you will see how to make it into a door.
1. Edge Loop Tool
This is particularly useful if you want doors opposite each other. You can find the 'Insert Edge Loop' tool in the 'Mesh Tools' tab at the top. Once you select the tool, it should say 'Click and Drag on an Edge', you should follow this instruction and create two loops around your corridor. These will be the sides of your door.
2. Multi-Cut Tool
This tool is better for making unusual-shaped doors. You can find this tool in the 'Mesh Tools' tab or on the 'Poly Modelling' toolbar. To use this tool, you place points on a surface to form the edges you want then press 'enter' to make them. If your lines do not form, it may be that you have to join your last point to an edge or vertex. The Multi-Cut tool has a great feature that, when you press shift, gives you options along an edge to place a point 50% (halfway) along the edge to half it, as well as the other percentages going up in 10s, this gives you a more even line.
3. Extrude and Scale
This is the simplest way to make a door but only the same shape as the wall it is on. The 'Extrude' tool is located on your 'Poly Modelling' toolbar while 'Scale' is the button 'R'. You should select the face of the wall, extrude it and scale it down to the size, you can also move it on the face to where you want.
To make this into a door, you might want to add some depth. To do this, select the face you created and 'Extrude' it, then move it back as far as you want. When extruding, you can change the 'Thickness' which is the same as using the 'W' key to move it forwards or backwards.
For making a window, follow the same step as before and follow 'Step 4 - Texturing's guide on making a face more transparent.
Floor:
Floors are the a big part of what your corridor looks like. You can do a floor design by using textures in 'Step 4' but I would suggest against doing that because you are using 3D modelling software which means you can give the floor actual depth, this will raise the quality of your corridor.
You may have chosen either a simple or complex design for your floor, either way is achievable.
The way I created my floor was by splitting the floor into sections, this was a useful guide throughout designing the floor. I chose to change my plan, I noticed a useful tool that would give me a similar result, so I change the pattern along the edges as visible in my product photo.
To make the panels on either side, I selected the face and used the 'Divide' tool, located on the 'Poly Modelling' toolbar, several times until, the faces looked like what I wanted. Next, I selected the alternate faces of this grid to make an almost chequered pattern and deleted the highlighted faces. If you miss-click, 'Ctrl-Z' should restore your previous selection.
Pipes:
Pipes are a common feature in Sci-fi corridors, they are simple to put in your corridor, you create a Cylinder polygon from your 'Poly Modelling' toolbar. You can then scale the tube to the length you want by using the Scale tool (R). To scale the cylinder proportionally, the centre yellow cube on the tool lets you scale the shape on all three axes simultaneously, otherwise, you can use the flat squares inbetween two axes that lets you scale two at once.
Props:
Props are a useful thing to include in your corridor to bring it to life. If you watch any modelling tutorial, you should then know the basic techniques to create a simple object. I use the 'Extruding technique, I made some chairs by starting with a cube. By using the 'Extrude', 'Scale' and 'Move' tools, it is simple if you picture each part of the object as a different phase, almost as if you are 3D printing it.
With this chair, I gave the start cube 3 subdivisions on its width and depth to create a 3x3 grid on the seat.
The main tools I used are Extrude, Scale and Move. I made alterations by selecting corresponding faces, edges and vertices to keep it symmetrical. The first picture is the cube I started with, this will be the seat of the chair. You just need to adjust each bit until it looks aesthetically pleasing to you.
Step 4 - Texturing
There are many different parts to texturing, of which I would only suggest using the most simple and effective. The basic place to start is to select the object or face you want to texture and right-click, a drop down menu will appear and near the bottom you should find the 'Assign New Material' option. This tool is also located the 'Rendering' tab on the toolbar.
This should apply a matte black texture to the area you have selected. From here, you can texture your object in many ways:
Transparency:
There is a slider in the Attribute Editor that you can change.
Colour:
Surface Shader:
- The main Surface shaders to use are Lambert, Phong, Blinn (Lambert is similar to matte and Blinn is glossy with Phong in between).
Texture:
- This is where you can change the surface of the object from a flat colour. Maya already has a few presets you can use but to make your product better you can download images and apply them to your object. When you have 'assigned a new material', you can apply this file by clicking the Checkerboard next to colour (See below) then selecting 'File' and choosing the image.
If this doesn't appear, you need to press '6'. You have some simple alterations you can make in the 'Attribute Editor' such as colour and brightness, as well as being able to rotate and scale the image. However, you cannot change the transparency, so you will need to change that before applying the picture. If you are not happy with the way your image has come out, you may need to edit it in Photoshop.
Step 5 - Lighting
Lighting is an important part of your final rendered corridor. There are a few types of lights, they each give out light a different way, so you may have to try a light to see if it works how you want. The main lights I use are Area Light and Spot Light. To check the light is good, you can use 'IPR Render', this is a single-frame render of what your scene currently looks like. This is located near the top right in between lots of similar clapperboard icons.
This can give you an indication of the lighting in your scene; if it needs work, you can edit the lights in the 'Attribute Editor' by changing the light intensity, the type of light or the colour of the light.
Handy Tips
My tips to you are simple:
Problem Solving
Designing a complex model in Maya will through many problems at you, but they are all solvable. I would recommend taking different stages of searching for a resolution:
1. A Maya Tool
When you saw the software for the first time, there is the feeling that you will never be able to comprehend all of the toolbars, tabs, tools, modes and skills. That is quite true, it would take a lifetime to master this so it is important to stick to what you know from the basic tutorials until you encounter a problem.
When you run out of ways that you know to do what you are trying to, there is probably a tool you have been missing. It is worth just hovering over each tool and reading the description. Lots of these will be quite vague but you should be able to tell whether it will not work. If it sounds to you like it might get the result, try it, and if it doesn't work you can just 'Ctrl-Z' and move on to try another tool.
2. Look Online
If the first step doesn't work, there might be an answer online. Youtube tutorials, help forums and an Autodesk site with advice for Maya are all sources that contain life-saving answers. It is worth looking at some of these even if they do not apply exactly to what you are looking for because they might contain a different technique that you can use to get the result or a bit of advice that might help you later on.
3. Find Another Way
The internet does not always have the answer you want. This is the point to change the way you are thinking. Perhaps, you could try the previous two steps with an open mind or find a way you can get a similar result by using a technique that you can use. The last resort of designing only a single piece of your corridor is to scrap that part of your corridor. There is always another piece you can put in that will add as much as what you had planned.
In this guide, I will show you how to recreate this Sci-fi corridor I built using Maya.
Contents
Basic Maya
Step 1 - Plan
Step 2 - Shape
Step 3 - Designing
Step 4 - Texturing
Step 5 - Lighting
Handy Tips
Problem Solving
Basic Maya
Starting Maya is very daunting, so I will show you the simple tools that you will need to make a corridor. I would also recommend you watch one or two video tutorials online so you can get a visual understanding of what I am saying. These videos do not have to be designing corridors, though that might be more helpful, because you can translate the techniques used in any tutorial to somewhere in your project. This section will help you start off in Maya then you should read the rest of this guide when you are ready to start creating.
Basic Tools:
These are the some of the tools available in Poly Modelling:
From Left to Right:
- Combine - When you have two objects selected, this will make them part of the same objects
- Extract - When you have part of an object selected, this will separate it, making it a new object
- Mirror - Reflects an object (may require some adjustment), though I would recommend you edit the object model symmetrically rather than using this because it makes life easier.
- Multiply - Divides a face into for
- Divides - Reduces the number of faces
- Extrude - This will create an attached face or edge that you can build an object with
- Bridge - Makes a new face between two selected edges
- Bevel - Adds more subdivisions
- .
- .
- .
- .
- Merge to Center - Joins lots of selected vertices into one
- .
- Multi-Cut Tool - Cuts new edges into a face
- Target Draw Tool - Connects two edges or vertices together
- Quad Draw Tool - Makes moving something easier
The Tools in bold are the ones I would recommend you learn and use often because they will make designing easier. The tools left black are tools that I didn't need to use.
If you right-click and hold, you will see a wheel of options. The main ones to use are Object Mode, Faces, Edges and Vertices. These will allow you to select different things.
Step 1 - Plan
You will be free to make variations of my plan as I will give you methods and techniques you can use to build each piece differently, so I would recommend you have a design in mind or on paper that you want to create. Here is my plan:
Step 2 - Shape
So you have your design, however complex, and we are going to start in a simple way. If you prefer other methods of modelling, feel free to use that instead if you will be able to get the same result. We will start off with a simple cube polygon.
Depending on how complex your shape is, you can add as many subdivisions as you need. You can add lines in later so do not worry if you are not sure how many subdivisions to add.
Here you can see the Subdivisions in the lower section of the Attribute Editor, this is customizable.
Later on, if you do need to add one of these in or take one out, you can use the 'Insert Edge Loop' or 'Multi-Cut' tools. To remove a subdivision, you can select the edge and delete it. In a simple corridor, you only need one horizontal subdivision.
Now you have the basic start-point of the corridor.
Step 3 - Designing
Doors and windows:
There are three methods of cutting a hole in a wall, you should choose the method depending on what result you want and start-point you have. Follow the method you want to make the shape of the door and after you will see how to make it into a door.
1. Edge Loop Tool
This is particularly useful if you want doors opposite each other. You can find the 'Insert Edge Loop' tool in the 'Mesh Tools' tab at the top. Once you select the tool, it should say 'Click and Drag on an Edge', you should follow this instruction and create two loops around your corridor. These will be the sides of your door.
2. Multi-Cut Tool
This tool is better for making unusual-shaped doors. You can find this tool in the 'Mesh Tools' tab or on the 'Poly Modelling' toolbar. To use this tool, you place points on a surface to form the edges you want then press 'enter' to make them. If your lines do not form, it may be that you have to join your last point to an edge or vertex. The Multi-Cut tool has a great feature that, when you press shift, gives you options along an edge to place a point 50% (halfway) along the edge to half it, as well as the other percentages going up in 10s, this gives you a more even line.
These tools can be used when designing anything, here I applied it to the floor. You can see it cuts through lines, I didn't individually select each point.
3. Extrude and Scale
This is the simplest way to make a door but only the same shape as the wall it is on. The 'Extrude' tool is located on your 'Poly Modelling' toolbar while 'Scale' is the button 'R'. You should select the face of the wall, extrude it and scale it down to the size, you can also move it on the face to where you want.
To make this into a door, you might want to add some depth. To do this, select the face you created and 'Extrude' it, then move it back as far as you want. When extruding, you can change the 'Thickness' which is the same as using the 'W' key to move it forwards or backwards.
For making a window, follow the same step as before and follow 'Step 4 - Texturing's guide on making a face more transparent.
Floor:
Floors are the a big part of what your corridor looks like. You can do a floor design by using textures in 'Step 4' but I would suggest against doing that because you are using 3D modelling software which means you can give the floor actual depth, this will raise the quality of your corridor.
You may have chosen either a simple or complex design for your floor, either way is achievable.
The way I created my floor was by splitting the floor into sections, this was a useful guide throughout designing the floor. I chose to change my plan, I noticed a useful tool that would give me a similar result, so I change the pattern along the edges as visible in my product photo.
To make the panels on either side, I selected the face and used the 'Divide' tool, located on the 'Poly Modelling' toolbar, several times until, the faces looked like what I wanted. Next, I selected the alternate faces of this grid to make an almost chequered pattern and deleted the highlighted faces. If you miss-click, 'Ctrl-Z' should restore your previous selection.
I used the divide tool a few times at once to achieve the grid pattern you see below. This made rectangles so if you wanted to make squares, the face you had selected should already be a square. This can be done if you split a rectangular face into squares.
Then I went through selecting alternate panels along the whole face.
Once they had been selected, I simply deleted the faces
And I repeated on the other side.
Then using the Multi-Cut tool, I split the middle section with vertical lines.
I noticed that the lines were not all straight because I had not been pressing shift to get even lines.
Instead of starting again, I decided to manually straighten them but I would recommend you do it again with 'shift'.
Then I cut along these lines by creating two points at either end and the line cut through.
I did that process again but wider so that I could easily draw these arrow heads. The yellow squares are where I have drawn my line to an existing vertex and the blue squares I made by pressing shift and creating a point halfway along the line.
And I repeated this down the corridor.
Pipes are a common feature in Sci-fi corridors, they are simple to put in your corridor, you create a Cylinder polygon from your 'Poly Modelling' toolbar. You can then scale the tube to the length you want by using the Scale tool (R). To scale the cylinder proportionally, the centre yellow cube on the tool lets you scale the shape on all three axes simultaneously, otherwise, you can use the flat squares inbetween two axes that lets you scale two at once.
Props:
Props are a useful thing to include in your corridor to bring it to life. If you watch any modelling tutorial, you should then know the basic techniques to create a simple object. I use the 'Extruding technique, I made some chairs by starting with a cube. By using the 'Extrude', 'Scale' and 'Move' tools, it is simple if you picture each part of the object as a different phase, almost as if you are 3D printing it.
With this chair, I gave the start cube 3 subdivisions on its width and depth to create a 3x3 grid on the seat.
The main tools I used are Extrude, Scale and Move. I made alterations by selecting corresponding faces, edges and vertices to keep it symmetrical. The first picture is the cube I started with, this will be the seat of the chair. You just need to adjust each bit until it looks aesthetically pleasing to you.
Step 4 - Texturing
There are many different parts to texturing, of which I would only suggest using the most simple and effective. The basic place to start is to select the object or face you want to texture and right-click, a drop down menu will appear and near the bottom you should find the 'Assign New Material' option. This tool is also located the 'Rendering' tab on the toolbar.
Rendering Toolbar
Assign New Material
This should apply a matte black texture to the area you have selected. From here, you can texture your object in many ways:
Transparency:
There is a slider in the Attribute Editor that you can change.
Colour:
Surface Shader:
- The main Surface shaders to use are Lambert, Phong, Blinn (Lambert is similar to matte and Blinn is glossy with Phong in between).
Texture:
- This is where you can change the surface of the object from a flat colour. Maya already has a few presets you can use but to make your product better you can download images and apply them to your object. When you have 'assigned a new material', you can apply this file by clicking the Checkerboard next to colour (See below) then selecting 'File' and choosing the image.
If this doesn't appear, you need to press '6'. You have some simple alterations you can make in the 'Attribute Editor' such as colour and brightness, as well as being able to rotate and scale the image. However, you cannot change the transparency, so you will need to change that before applying the picture. If you are not happy with the way your image has come out, you may need to edit it in Photoshop.
Step 5 - Lighting
Lighting is an important part of your final rendered corridor. There are a few types of lights, they each give out light a different way, so you may have to try a light to see if it works how you want. The main lights I use are Area Light and Spot Light. To check the light is good, you can use 'IPR Render', this is a single-frame render of what your scene currently looks like. This is located near the top right in between lots of similar clapperboard icons.
The Attribute Editor normally looks like this and is located on the right hand side. If you are not seeing the Attribute Editor, you might need to select the tab that i found down the far right of the screen. It will look different because it switches when you are making a light. To find the options of colour and light intensity, you might need to change the tab like in the top picture.
Handy Tips
My tips to you are simple:
- Work out the tools before you start
- Stick to what you know you can do
- If you are getting stressed, relax, take a break and work out an easier way to do it.
- If you come to a problem, follow the 'Problem Solving' steps below.
- Don't panic
- Everything is achievable
- Step out of your comfort zone, it will boost the quality of your design
- Remember that it will take time to get the hang of
- Don't give up
Problem Solving
Designing a complex model in Maya will through many problems at you, but they are all solvable. I would recommend taking different stages of searching for a resolution:
1. A Maya Tool
When you saw the software for the first time, there is the feeling that you will never be able to comprehend all of the toolbars, tabs, tools, modes and skills. That is quite true, it would take a lifetime to master this so it is important to stick to what you know from the basic tutorials until you encounter a problem.
When you run out of ways that you know to do what you are trying to, there is probably a tool you have been missing. It is worth just hovering over each tool and reading the description. Lots of these will be quite vague but you should be able to tell whether it will not work. If it sounds to you like it might get the result, try it, and if it doesn't work you can just 'Ctrl-Z' and move on to try another tool.
2. Look Online
If the first step doesn't work, there might be an answer online. Youtube tutorials, help forums and an Autodesk site with advice for Maya are all sources that contain life-saving answers. It is worth looking at some of these even if they do not apply exactly to what you are looking for because they might contain a different technique that you can use to get the result or a bit of advice that might help you later on.
3. Find Another Way
The internet does not always have the answer you want. This is the point to change the way you are thinking. Perhaps, you could try the previous two steps with an open mind or find a way you can get a similar result by using a technique that you can use. The last resort of designing only a single piece of your corridor is to scrap that part of your corridor. There is always another piece you can put in that will add as much as what you had planned.
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