Quick Tip: Creating A Simple 3D Puzzle In Maya

Quick Tip: Creating A Simple 3D Puzzle In Maya

on Nov 16th 2011 with 13 comments
Tutorial Details

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

In this quick tip, author Abed Ibrahim will show you a great way to create a simple 3D puzzle in Maya. Although simple in approach, this valuable technique can be used in a variety of projects, ranging from very simple puzzles to extremely complex scenes, or even animations.

Step 1

Open Maya and create a New scene, then switch the camera to the "Top View" and Zoom in.

Step 2

Switch to the (Surfaces Menu) by pressing "F4", then go to Create > EP Curve Tool.

Step 3

Draw out 7 points while pressing and holding "X" on the keyboard, to snap the points to the gird. Then press "Enter".

Step 4

Now press "3" to smooth the curve. Then "Right" click and choose "Control Vertex". Try to closely match the following shape.

Step 5

Press "Insert" and move the "Pivot" to the first point on grid, by pressing and holding "X".

Step 6

Now press "Ctrl+D" to duplicate the curve shape, and rotate it 90 degrees on the "Y" axis.

Step 7

Repeat the process for the next two curves to complete the shape. Then go to Edit Curves > and open the Option Box for "Attach Curves".

Step 8

Adjust the settings to the following. and then press "Attach":

- Attach method: Connect

- Multiple Knots: Keep

- Attach

Step 9

Delete History and center the shape to the center of the grid, and then delete the old curves.

Step 10

In the "Persp View", go to Surfaces > and open the Option Box for "Bevel Plus".

Step 11

Modify the following settings in the "Bevel"(1) and "Output Options"(2) tabs, then press the "Bevel" button.

Step 12

Delete History and hide the Curve, then in the "Top View", snap the pivot to the lower right corner and to the grid point (as shown).

Step 13

Press "Ctrl+D " to duplicate the puzzle piece, then rotate it 90 degrees on "Y" axis.

Step 14

Now press "Shift+D" twice to duplicate the shape with the transform attributes.

Step 15

Repeat the last three steps until you get the desired puzzle size.

Step 16

Select all the puzzle pieces, and switch to the Polygons menu (F3), then go to Mesh > Select > Combine.

Step 17

Open the "Hypershade" menu from Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade, and choose your image file (texture.)

Step 18

Select all the faces at once (from the "Side" or "Front" views, and then Assign the image to them.

Step 19

Choose "Planar Mapping" from "Create UVs" menu, and adjust the UVs through the Attributes and the Manipulator.

Step 20

We're done! You can Render your scene using either Mental Ray or Maya.

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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

The name is Abdulmajeed Ibrahim, but most call me abed or abdo. I have been working as a 2D/3D Artist since 2002, and I am proficient in Maya, After Effects, Zbrush, all Adobe products, audio editing software, and more. I always learn new stuff, and try not to waste time, because there's always something to do in this field if you love it. I am now working as a contract freelancer for some companies in the UAE and Jordan.  

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Discussion 13 Comments

  1. Kane says:
    November 16, 2011 at 2:51 pm

    Can anyone figure out how to make the same think in C4D. I need help applying a image to all the pieces.

    Reply
  2. Trubbaman says:
    November 17, 2011 at 8:49 am

    Very nice tutorial — a quick tip, but it covers a lot of methods in Maya. I animated my pieces falling into place. Very cool. Thanks

    Reply
  3. FARHAD says:
    November 19, 2011 at 9:04 am

    Hi, Your website is very nice, and this tutorial was very useful for me, tanx a lot.

    Reply
  4. Jonas says:
    November 22, 2011 at 8:18 pm

    Hey.

    Great for a great tutorial – But i have a problem when i try to assign the 2D texture to the puzzle pieces. I don’t get a full image only some sort of graphic.

    Im getting this error in the script line: “// Warning: Cannot add the following items to the set since the set has restrictions on membership:”

    Does anyone have a clue whats wrong?

    Reply
  5. iamaox says:
    December 4, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    thank you. is very nice tuts :)

    Reply
  6. driftcars says:
    December 9, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    Thanks for the tutorial. How do you make it from step 19 to step 20? I tried to move the puzzle pieces, but the texture mapped doesn’t move with the pieces.

    Reply
  7. Abdo says:
    December 11, 2011 at 7:49 am
    Author

    Thanks all…
    @Jonas: honestly i don’t know why you get this error but try to assign Lamber1 then the texture again, and make sure you create UV’s as planner mapping.
    @driftcars: when you finish planning the UV’s just select the whole shape again and go to “Mesh > select > Separate”

    Reply
  8. Guzziano says:
    December 22, 2011 at 12:58 am

    Thanks, great tutorial.

    Any tips on lighting/rendering settings? Mine just comes out flat.

    Reply
  9. Phil says:
    January 11, 2012 at 11:26 am

    I had trouble with step 11, I keep getting an error messages:

    // Error: bevelPlus failed – open script editor for details

    // Error: bevelPlus1 (Bevel Plus): Cannot operate on open curves – Either close the curve with Edit Curves->Close or attach multiple curve segments with Edit Curves->Attach //

    I did this a few times and got the same result is there something I’m doing wrong?

    Thanks

    Reply
  10. Nanie says:
    February 18, 2012 at 2:36 pm

    I’ve got the same problem: error message at step 11.

    // Warning: You have an empty result since history is on. You may want to undo the last command. //
    // bevelPolygon1 bevelPlus1 //
    // Error: bevelPlus failed – open script editor for details //

    Reply
  11. Chie Nguyễn says:
    March 16, 2012 at 9:53 am

    Thanks a lot ^^

    Reply

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