Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Poly Editing Tools
As you've learned, you can easily create complex models by adjusting existing, simpler
poly objects with some of the poly editing tools that Maya provides. Here's a brief preview
of what to expect in the world of poly editing. You should experiment with each tool on a
primitive sphere as it's introduced, so saddle up to your Maya window and try each tool
as you read along.
Later in this chapter, you'll deploy these new skills on two different poly models. In
Chapter 6, “Practical Experience,” you'll create a red wagon to exercise your modeling
skills. For most of the work in this chapter, you'll use the Polygons menu. Open the Edit
Mesh menu, tear it off, and place it somewhere on your screen so you can get a good look
at the tools and functions. You can access all of the following tools from that menu.
The Poly Extrusion Tools
The most commonly used poly editing tool has to do with extrusion. You can use Extrude
to pull out a face or an edge of a polygon surface to create additions to that surface. You
access the tool at Edit Mesh
➔
Extrude. Maya distinguishes between edge or face Extrude
based on whether you've selected edges or faces. Follow these steps:
1. Select a face or multiple faces of a polygon, and choose Edit Mesh
➔
Extrude. The regular
manipulator changes to a special manipulator, as shown in the left image in Figure 4.10.
2. Grab the
Z
-axis move handle (the blue arrow), and drag it away from the sphere, as
shown in the center of Figure 4.10.
3. Using the scale handles (the boxes) scales the faces of the extrusion. The cyan circle
rotates the face. The image at right in Figure 4.10 shows the faces extruded, rotated,
and scaled.
4. Choosing the Extrude command again without deselecting the faces lets you extrude
even more, keeping the original extrusion shape and building on top of that.
5. Selecting the edges of the poly surface instead of the faces and choosing Edit Mesh
➔
Extrude extrudes f flat surfaces from the edges selected. The special manipulator works
the same way as Extrude does for poly faces.
Figure 4.10
Extruding several
faces at once on
a sphere. The left
image shows the
selected faces,
the middle image
shows those faces
extruded, and the
right image shows
those faces extruded
with a rotation and
smaller scale.
