Model and Texture a Posh Living Room Scene in Maya – Day 1

Sep 21st in Autodesk Maya, Lighting, Mental Ray, Shaders by Alan Monroig

In this tutorial you will go through the process of modeling and rendering a Living Room in Autodesk Maya. You will also learn to use Mental Ray (along with the new architectural materials), create realistic fur, and implement studio lighting to create nice and soft shadows and highlights.

Author: Alan Monroig

I am currently a student of Visual Effects and 3D animation, with 2 years of experience. I have used Maya, Photoshop, After Effects, Boujou, Zbrush, and Mudbox, and have created work for such venues as: magazines, cover pages, motion graphics, and catalogs. My goal is to be a professional VFX artist.

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series - Go to Day 2

Final Effect Preview

Click on the image to open a High-Rez version.

Step 1

Create a primitive cube.

Step 2

Go to the 'Attributes' editor of the cube, and change the “Subdivisions Width” to '20' (this will give us enough geometry to deform the cube).

Step 3

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.

Step 4

With the “Insert Edge Loop Tool” selected, create 2 lines around the cube.

Step 5

Select all of the faces that go around the cube.

Step 6

With those faces selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”

Step 7

Extrude outwards, just a little bit.

Step 8

Select the small faces that go around the cube.

Step 9

Go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”.

Step 10

Extrude the faces outwards a bit.

Step 11

With the cube selected, press number 3 (the entire cube should smooth out). It it should pretty good now, but the corners are not sharp enough yet.

Step 12

Go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.

Step 13

With the “Insert Edge Loop Tool” active, create 4 edges to make the corners smooth out.

Step 14

With the “Animation” menu active and the cube selected, go to “Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Bend”. This will create a deformer to make the curvature of the sofa.

Step 15

With the 'Bend' deformer selected, go to the 'Attributes' editor and change the 'Z' rotation to '90' (this number will vary depending on the position of your cube).

Step 16

Go to the “bend1” attributes and change the following settings:

Note: These settings will vary depending on the shape of your cube and how you want it to deform.

Step 17

The result should look something like this.

Step 18

Select the cube and the deformer, and rotate them to position the sofa. The sofa is almost ready now. You are only missing the legs.

Step 19

Create a cylinder.

Step 20

Go to the 'Attributes' editor of the cylinder, with the “polyCylinder1” tab active, and change the “Subdivisions Height” to '36'.

Step 21

Select the cylinder, and using the scale tool, squeeze the cylinder on one axis.

Step 22

With the “Animation” menu active, go to “Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Bend”.

Step 23

Go to the 'Attributes editor, and change the 'Y' rotation value to '90' (this setting will vary depending on the position of your cylinder).

Step 24

Go to the “bend2” tab of the 'Attributes' editor, and change the following settings:

Note: These settings will vary depending on your cylinder, and how you want it to deform.

Step 25

Make 4 duplicates of the cylinder, and position them to match the size of the sofa.

Step 26

Select all of the cylinders (including the deformers), and move them into position.

Step 27

Now that the sofa is finished, select all of the objects and go to “Edit > Group”.

Step 28

Under the 'Attributes' editor of the new group, change the name of the group to "Sofa".

Step 29

With the side view active, go to “Create > CV Curve Tool”.

Step 30

With the “CV Curve Tool” active, make a curve.

Step 31

Duplicate the curve, and move the copy to the other side.

Step 32

Select both curves, and with the “Surfaces” menu active, go to “Surfaces > Loft”.

Step 33

Duplicate the "Sofa" group, and position both sofas.

Step 34

Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Pipe” and create a pipe.

Step 35

Rotate the pipe into position.

Step 36

Go to the 'Attributes' editor of the pipe, and change the “Subdivisions Axis” to '6'.

Step 37

Select some of the vertices and start modifying the base geometry of the table. When you are finished, press '3' on the keyboard to make the table smooth.

Step 38

Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.

Step 39

With the “Insert Edge Loop Tool” active, add some edges around the table to make the corners sharper.

Step 40

With the table selected, go to “Mesh > Smooth”, change the “Division Levels” to '2', and click “Smooth”.

Step 41

You are almost done modeling, but you are still missing the table top and the vase.

Step 42

Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder” and create a cylinder.

Step 43

With the top view active, scale the cylinder to match the size of your table.

Step 44

With the side view active, go to “Create > EP Curve Tool”, and create a curve that matches the silhouette of one half of the vase.

Step 45

With the curve selected, go to “Modify > Center Pivot”.

Step 46

With the “Surfaces” menu active and the curve selected, go to “Surfaces > Revolve”.

Step 47

If your object does not look improperly deformed (like the ones in the image), skip to “Step 49”.

Step 48

Select the curve and move it to right or left until the object looks right.

Step 49

Congratulations, you have reached the end of the modeling stage of the tutorial! Stay tuned for part 2...Materials!!

This tutorial is Day 1 in a series - Go to Day 2

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