Creating a Magpie Cart in Maya: Part 3

1. Modelling in Maya

Step 1

Continuing on from the last tutorial, create a cylinder as the front window. Adjust the shape and extrude thickness.

Step 2

Using three-edge-bevel method to bevel the window.

Step 3

Select the wood plank then select the edge loop nearest to the window. Go to Modeling Toolkit, change the Transform Constraint to Edge.

Step 4

Rotate the selected edge loop to fit the window shape. 

Step 5

Repeat steps for the bottom edge loop and for another wood plank. Then turn off the Transform Constraint.

Step 6

Delete the faces of wood plank within the window frame.

Step 7

Create a cube as the window glass to cover the hole. Bevel with three-edge-bevel method.

Step 8

Repeat previous steps for the back too.

Step 9

Select the wood plank and make live.

Step 10

Create > Curve Tools > EP Curve Tool.

Step 11

Click on the live wood plank to create a circle. Don’t connect the end and root.

Step 12

Create a cylinder, reduce the Subdivisions Axis to 6. Delete the faces and only leave the top surface.

Step 13

Duplicate the cylinder, snap the pivot point to one of the vertices (D and V), then snap the cylinder to the side of original cylinder.

Step 14

Duplicate one more cylinder and snap to the bottom. Combine all three cylinders by clicking Mesh > Combine.

Step 15

Merge the vertices to connect the cylinders to each other. Select the border edge of the combined Cylinder > Modify > Convert > Polygon Edges to Curve.

Step 16

Select the new curve and delete history, Shift-Alt-D, snap the pivot point to the centre of the cylinder. Delete the cylinder.

Step 17

Select the curve we created before, go to Display > NURBs > CVs.

Step 18

Go to Curves > Rebuild options > Increase the Number of spans and click Rebuild.

Step 19

Snap the second curve to this curve’s first CV by holding V. Adjust the size and rotation.

Step 20

Select the second curve then First curve > Surfaces > Extrude options > change the settings following the image below.

Step 21

Select the extrudedSurface, go to the Extrude input, increase the Rotation number.

Step 22

Go to Modify > Convert > NURBS to Polygons options. Select Control points then click on Tessellate.

Step 23

Delete history for this rope geometry, Shift-Alt-D, and delete the long curve and NURBs. Select the edge loops of the rope’s border edges > Shift-Right click and select Bridge.

Step 24

Select EP curves tool > go to front view > create a straight curve > back to perspective view > move the curve to front.

Step 25

Snap the curve in Step 16 to the new curve’s first CV, then repeat Step 17-22.

Step 26

Create a cube as the gem, adjust the shape according to the concept art.

Step 27

Insert more edge loop to form a more details shape.

Step 28

Use three-edge-bevel method to bevel the gem geometry.

Step 29

Repeat Step 9-23 to tie up the gem stone.

Step 30

Repeat the previous steps for the gem stones at the back.

Step 31

Create a cylinder as chimney.

Step 32

Delete the top and base faces, adjust the shape of chimney.

Step 33

Select the top border edges and extrude to form the shape like image below. Use three-edge-bevel method to bevel, you can slide the existing edges to make the bevel by using Shift-Right click > Slide Edge Tool.

Step 34

Create another cylinder for the chimney base, then use three-edge-bevel method.

Step 35

Create a cylinder as the wood stick.

Step 36

Using Multi Cut Tool, draw some lines to create a cracked surface. Push the middle edges inwards.

Step 37

Insert an edge loop in the crack surface to create bevel, then use five-edge-bevel method at the top surface.

Step 38

Repeat steps for other wood sticks.

Step 39

Go to front view, create a spiral curve using EP Curves Tool. Back to perspective view and move the curve to front.

Step 40

Duplicate the spiral curve and move backward.

Step 41

With bot curves selected, go to Surfaces > Loft options > choose Polygons and Control Points.

Step 42

Adjust the shapes of this cloth geometry, then extrude thickness and add three-edge-bevel.

Step 43

Create the ropes like Step 11-23.

Step 44

Create some cylinders and adjust the shapes for the hanging pots and spoons.

Step 45

Repeat the steps from the previous tutorials for the wooden staircase. And also the ropes to support the staircase.

Step 46

Since we'll not be making the interior of the cart, create a big plane as curtain to cover the door. Go to FX module > nCloth > Create nCloth.

Step 47

Select 2-3 vertices from the top, go to nConstraint > Transform Constraint. 

Step 48

Repeat this step for the following vertices. Leave some vertices in between the two constraints without assigning the Transform Constraint.

Step 49

Select all Transform Constraint from outliner, set key at the first frame by pressing S, go to frame 25, move the transform constraints to the left side and press S again to set key. 

Step 50

Playback the animation, pause at the frame which the shape looks nice, duplicate the curtain geometry, delete all the nCloth, nucleus, Transform Constraint and original curtain plane. 

Lastly, extrude some thickness and add three-edge-bevel for the curtain.

Conclusion

We've now finished the modelling part, in the next part of the tutorial series, I'll show you how to unwrap the UVs.