Maya Beginner Tutorial Series 10/17: Geometry Modeling Blockout Exercise

The following tutorial series is directly from Module 1 of 3 of "Maya Foundation: Home-Study Course" tutorial course.

I've released this entire first Module completely free. It is focused on teaching you how to get started learning Maya completely from scratch in just 4 hours.

The full "Maya Foundation: Home Study Course" contains 3 Modules and 18+ hours of tutorials.

• Module 1 is focused on interface overview for game environment modeling.
• Module 2 is focused on environment modeling techniques (27 videos, 8+hrs).
• Module 3 is focused on UV mapping and UVing (21 videos, 5+hrs).

In this tutorial you will go through a geometry blockout exercise to help you practice and integrate everything you've learned so far in Maya.

Video Tutorial

Photo Reference and End Result

Here is the photo reference we are going to follow (this photo was downloaded from Unsplash.com):

Here is the end result we are going for:

Blockout Tips

Blockouts are one of the most important steps in beginning your environment or prop modeling.

Blockouts help you to start getting the shape, scale, size and dimensions of the modeled geometry. All environments and all props will start with a blockout.

Now you won't be modeling. We haven't covered any modeling tools yet. But you'll be blocking out your scene and your environment so you know what you'll need to model.

Remember: all environments and props will start with a blockout and then you'll move on to modeling.

For Blockouts:

• Use a reference photo and create an environment inside Maya using simple/primitive shapes such as cube, cylinder, sphere etc.
• Mimic basic shapes inside Maya (remember: you are blocking things out, you are not modeling yet)
• Use Component Mode on that object to change vertices, edges or faces to modify the shape
• Focus on the size, scale, shape and overall dimensions

This geometry blockout exercise will help you to get familiar with Maya interface and use some of the most basic functions to model.

I can't stress enough how important it is for you to go through this exercises, and perhaps go through it a few times. Repetition!

Next Tutorial in the Series

Maya Beginner Tutorial Series 11/17: How to Snap Geometry and Control Pivot Points

Maya Foundation: Home-Study Course

Learn environment modeling. Pick Maya go all in. Learn how to model and UV with it better than anyone else. Become a modeling master with it. In "Maya Foundation: Home Study Course" I will show you how.

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