So, I've done a pretty terrible job this semester of updating this blog with my updates. I hate to admit it, but part of the problem with updating this blog was that I had a late start on the project. Unfortunately, a bunch of projects sucked up my time. Anywho, I figured I could repent a little by giving a nice long rundown of my process, along with some pics.
After going to class and watching hours and hours and hours (yes, many hours) of tutorials, I finally feel like I'm starting to SCRATCH the surface of Maya... but only a scratch. I hope this gives some insight into my dimly lit brain!
First, I drew out the shapes in Illustrator and then imported them into Maya as curves (shown in older posts)... unfortunately, I had no clue what I was doing and ditched that idea. I
now know how to do it that way but I did not used that method for this project. Instead, I reverted to good ol' box modeling. Here's what I came up with (click for larger image):
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHG1CQeLBXnc5uF-D-G0iFNYgSg4Oud8tpkrz4i6WV79X0eW4BP63WiEwp9k7QalROzYfP5DHio7DFcjHfusPNpVuKf-HL3eX2fG6LhkDDTZShAn9iup5JsacCrrVE2eoREoj2mgjpiM/s200/1.jpg)
Needless to say, that did not work. In fact, I literally rebuilt this about 20 times, and I still would have built it differently. Here' are some more that didn't work:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibOVy0nx2Jvy89TuP-VovxekPnQElZ3SnnCwM1w4vhyphenhyphenMIFMK8aLpsmOfsJK6nb3Op9xwnwl85dYfLSBMcZj3a5Hrh8rZMounBp8EkTmCMdVpezynsK6CTiB_sppH_uK-vA5loCiZzeK_w/s200/2.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmF5JRgFwQhUk0_3xmjjdKmwhYvgVJ23C6dzRNaiK7vhngX1dabjqyv02T8RiQqyy0QqbNzHQbyYlWnN-Y-NwKvwKXWNImSTA50kqLY3TzMm-iC9GR21y3pE8m9JHWJ7H_1joZ8JBuHKE/s200/3.jpg)
This one kinda looks like I have something... but I didn't.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrKSsWreWJVnVnkCFzcpGLNrzQhG6miHyOcZZaDpJy_qZ6dtSxwsMeVkQjROEosDkrZ8X7yLJClJINXJP9jHBgVKFtMIFjpG7DkZwZumX1kYOO8z2BiCQcxa2vlV7p_NnPzE-gfXqjRvw/s200/4.jpg)
Ok, here's what I did. I started with a box, bumped up my divisions and deleted 3 sides. I then warped my main part of my body where I wanted it to go--You can see where I grabbed the vertices and pulled half of them down. Then, to do the curved extension (where it attaches to the band) I used the CV tool to draw out my curved lines--bottom and top. See below:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwf90iVE0AY7VCYNyIqITgeLjSLdnbB_9HUxWE8SG-OUgWTwqVCAlXg39MlyrSEnx5uDl83G3uL05tInHCpfGjpVwRdKfkK2vRBk5sqpRlrvc74ELCTMtqHpVRs3fT4jgo8sGpvCQSEvE/s200/5.jpg)
Next, you select your curves and the edges of the box and extruded them. I bumped the divisions up to about 8. I then did the same of the bottom--make sure they are the same amount of divisions! Then I used the append to polygon tool to connect them. After a TON of tweaking and finessing, I came to this point where I had to fine tune the outside. Since it was on a curve and it's sloping down, I adjusted the outside edge of the extension by lofting the vertices (blue grid box). It worked very nicely!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoz8s1qKWVAdZ5wv4hAA-zCpcJnFq2pfdoDRBEKOJSZK8puO8Wvua5rSnPaaegeDyF-HifUMEbvZJievP7bPONcpMPMPQ2Sarw1GpvKzVYcUJoBvsbH7dOL1jht0mbQxUIhi7QRX2Rie0/s200/6.jpg)
Next I built mirrored the geometry and created the hands with some simple box modeling. The "seconds" hand was a little trickier, but basically I used a cylinder with 8 sides to create the hand, then created another cylinder for the rivet, deleted 4 faces (leaving 8 sides) and bridged the 2 shapes. The ruby was also created with cylinders.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTXgtVHq2muJ8GAGjj4ZOeJgcodO1_vyCVN9TXkOXHm2GiZWljhmGQSswLmOJ_nAiQ45uJss4dsIWr_FaodJAtaJ300-f2QvA_T_oA5rJYjeEUh4jb7qkwm4ZiBnaBVizpIVPpobgNiE/s200/7.jpg)
Next came the knob--used a cylinder, grabbed the outside faces and extruded them, BUT (very important) under the properties I turned off "keep faces on". Then tweaked it until I was happy.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggP1QmA1UlNFlqWeuEtvfTjHxIG26kdSZbhN8GaxD58ZIvUWHyd-CbFQOWsCfCj-wRhvARPmT4iDvsuUQ-nLRpKYcHCmawTMed-Gzar4IwBI_j-93oqdYaje0bG_BpzM6k-w7Y-RzoMZ0/s200/8.jpg)
Alright, so next I delved into the main body some more. I deleted the area where the glass would be, and the bottom where the back plate would be. I had to tweak this quite a bit to get everything just right.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuyPE9GtKfd1yRoTRYJwAOz-yJyJnMoS07jdruX7i1EzaUQkw3O0H7ozbRke1N7EeWR0cNveQq1FEOfpHnrKII_Oh_cdvLU9e1YitQlKSJRSFEzUfdbFY5XwUAwuanjZbyblSpfGByI40/s200/9.jpg)
This next picture jumps ahead quit a bit but you should get the idea. All I did was mirror the geometry, grab the inside edge and kept extruding it and til I got all of the creases I wanted. Then I was left with a hole in the middle. So, I went to "mesh>fill hole", I selected the new face and went to "edit mesh>poke face". From there, I tweaked the center until it made a nice, upward bulge.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0d_85_L-QmEYfhbzids96ZlN0MAdeN1aRHRlXH8GhvncQNrPT_4yjr3-z3vxlSpCEKOnC9Q4xWGCA8cTxFwVJERDhNigBKA58Fso12ymcln64i6lV6BGNsPiuPZSglZvit7BathUGSgA/s200/10.jpg)
So, things are finally starting to take shape! Next, the watchband! I started with a nurbs circle and flattened my control point to make an oval-ish shape; and of course--tweaked the crap out of it. It helps to have a higher amount of sections, I used 16. Then to get the bend, I selected the curve, went to the animations tab, then to "create deformers>non-linear>bend". Tweak the curvature so you see how it bends, then rotate the bend to wherever you need it. The pic below looks a little weird but you get it. Next, I duplicated the curve, selected both, went to surfaces>loft. Then converted it to polygon and did "poke face" on the ends. The pic shows 3 pics in one.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2zN-T2Ou8av3AZn12pmkdUf94togb3t_8kpTXL3_o1Yx9a2SSz9PoOxB9mNsedzUVS56RmWNE_LnUWn7oLnfYkwQffQi6PVYzRBGIkPerwgDt01ydDoCAIDxAuoVLx1kVsNfEObEH380/s200/11.jpg)
In the end it looked like this:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQavj_jv_7-luPHLlSg3iJ1BfQRXQIghyphenhyphenduMM8oE3oXM92oigV2sKes82VlGV_SBTTKAN-zaDktz3NS1sN-x-l5SUZEY1vyIlGgySLjYGEg6YpXOPIj_uPqAxLiulCn3Ynj0fr71jU7g/s200/12.jpg)
The cool thing about the band is how I bended it. I just selected all of the duplicated links, grouped them (ctrl+g) and added the same bend deformer that I used on the links. It just took some tweaking to get it just right!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgMzCbB-LqBeVTs4AOebA_Kqfqk7VLAhYgafwzwdaTD1uR4nbeTyLiN4y_qW5XtqrYsNbI8b90O_alSCP-xDW49E-F2WAuUwzFMt_wcnZ_wYOiqByx7uYQI5iJRWlYWOru4QESixBq7QE/s200/13.jpg)
Last thing on the modeling was the clasp. Basic box modeling--pushing, pulling, extruding.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDtYwueLxN7ZUJKQfwhnkpVoXI5dGosO_kNodI4t36Gz-p0gW48cw7ew_KtAyut8rElUKWWa0GDFljop8eyeoUbz99f9U8_p6cOD9OOxi6ggpXPdeJssTnPRVnyNdYn-9ZnSf9B7bL-xM/s200/14.jpg)
Another view showing how they're separate.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpehF0p9oLsb0Ers7B7r3vD7ey-nzzf-l0piY17VMEduyokcVQkHV6tdjPYIS2VfuHQ-dcqWX01T8KzzSrPaD_3XC2BX7TBcZA028_2chOazvf7ddmOP6VeMhFDyklb4NOKo7diZCyuiA/s200/15.jpg)
Finally getting to the end. At this point I've started messing with the mental ray shaders. I knew I wanted it very shiny like chrome but darker. The clasp is the only thing shaded right now.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5AU6_p96KDwL2l5mig4jv5zjOvfdIiAGCKjRIqRLcF0vG8p1Q_13SB1l1WiSxerDyoQG49Le71h_M3rGVXGv-yR_spAuRP8mpsjvm9Tj_Y2U1HQdXOTcy9lD5MOGbylhs_fJj3N10Wc/s200/15.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzmZUvTjGXy3Prgk5rn35z7srQcGsXruZSKUNQ7ukkhHQjQ4P3DCwkxGbUYqi38d-puoVV-jpqjhiTAEMn5F19hQNuvBBKJNvgzr6P_g0PD9K7oNFyZX51vkg2P_9BVP-4X3XLGgtFJQ/s200/16.jpeg)
The next image is really starting to hone in on what I'm trying to do here. ALL of the shaders are from the mental ray shaders built into maya--they are surprisingly rockin! If you go to the hypershade, look under mental ray shaders (on the left) and click on mia_material or mia_material_x (I suggest this one because it allows a bump map), it will apply a fairly dull, grey shader. But if you go to the "presets" in the attribute editor, you can change it to chrome, glass, water... etc. These work really well! Take a look below to see the progress.