Maya 3D: grass

Today, I was working on realistic grass using "Extrusion" along the curve.

I started with a NURB Circle which I flattened and shaped to resemble cross section of a blade of grass. I extruded along a curve and resized the upper tip to 0.05 - I did not want a sharp point.
Then I resized the bottom of the grass to be a little smaller that the middle.
I applied a file texture with a magnified picture of actual grass.
After I had a single blade I duplicated it adjusting the curve shape each time a little to form a clump of grass blades.

Once I had a clump I duplicated it to have a lawn, each time adjusting what I copy so I don't have a tell-tale pattern.

Maya 3D porcelain toilet day 1

Take a wild guess what I was learning in school today?

That is right, NURBS!

Maya 3D: log cabin: staircase

I am pretty happy with how the log staircase came out.
My goal is to make the cabin to be as natural as possible so the logs on the underside will be naturally round and only flatten where needed.

Maya 3D: log cabin

Maya 3D: log cabin project:

Last night I pretty much put all the exterior logs in place. It is a time consuming task because you adjust each log by its end tip, the logs are not parallel to the ground and they are tapered in shape. The log also have to overlap at the corners correctly, which requires much work as well. I did not adjust the length of the logs and their overhand as I will do it as final touch.

Today, I will start on details, maybe on stone-work of the floors.

Gnomon Maya 3D class - log cabin - wireframe

I created basic plan (layout) of my cabin. I made sure that I planned all features I wanted in the cabin and their layout, for example:

- living room facing south

- bedroom on the open 2nd floor, facing east so I can wake up with sunrise

- the roof overhangs to protect of the noon summer sun, but allowing winter low angle sun

- large garage deep under the house 

- front balcony lowered so not to block the view from the living room

In the next step I will replace walls with logs that I started to prepare:

I started Gnomon School of Visual Effects

Today, I started my first class in Gnomon School of Visual Effects. I will be learning how to create 3D effects in Maya, a skill set I can hopefully use at my work in mobile development.

I was very impressed with the final projects of last semester students, there was a Hobbit house and Star Trek Enterprise command room among many other high quality projects. I was amazed what we will learn in one semester.

My final project will be to create interior of log cabin, I call this project "Log Cabin I would build myself"I will post my progress here.


Take time to browse their website, they are really the best FX school out there:

http://www.gnomonschool.com/

Example student work (and quality benchmark for me):