This tutorial requires familiarity with Maya Interface.

• Select ‘Dynamics’ from the drop down menu in the module bar to display the menu
• In the top menu select ‘Particles’, click ‘Particle Tool’ and click & drag to draw out some particles on the grid, click Enter.
• Open the Hypershade.In the ‘Create’ Tab open Volumetric and click on ‘Particle Cloud’.
• Assign the new ‘Particle Cloud’ to the particles.
• Select the newly created Particle Cloud,Lambert1 and in the perspective view Particles.
• In the Hypershade create a Lambert Material and MMB click and drag over to ‘ParticleCloud2SG’ Node;In the drop down menu choose ‘Default’.Disconnect ‘Lambert1′ from its connected Node(s).
• Select the ‘ParticleShape1′ Node you just created and open the Attribute Editor
• Scroll down to ‘Render Attributes’.In ‘Particle Render Type’ select ‘Cloud [s/w].
• Click on ‘Current Render Type’,then increase the newly generated Radius slider to a value of ‘2′(approx.)
• In the Hypershade select ‘ParticleCloud2′,in ‘Common Material Attributes’ load into the Transparency channel ‘Cloud’(3D Textures).Then select ‘place3dTexture1′ Node,click ‘Fit to group bbox’ button and change the clour to white.
• Back in ‘ParticleCloud2′ Tab under ‘Transparency’ reduce Density to 0.255.Hit Render to view.
• In the Render viewport marquee select a region of the cloud.
• In the ‘Cloud1′ Attributes under ‘Cloud Attributes’ reduce Edge Thresh to 0.4 and increase Amplitude to 1.5(approx.).
• Right click over marquee region in the Render View,under Render choose ‘Render Region’

This method would be best used to render out a static cloud scene,then composited as a background,therefore the black background would be transparent if saved with an alpha channel i.e. as a Tiff file.

From here on by adjusting the parametres you’ve just edited and scaling the place3dTexture1 Node,then checking the changes in the Render View using Render Region you can change the characteristic of your cloud from thick/heavy to light and wispy.This quick tutorial requires you to act intuitively as possible with the proceedure and as there’re multiple parameters for the connected nodes I’ve only touched on a very few;therefore it’s left to you to experiment further and if it all goes wrong just start again.

I produced this an example for our animation students to demonstrate the use of Maya, Moho, Photoshop, GarageBand as visual and audio elements that could then be composited together in After Effects (in this case) or Final Cut Pro.

Here’ s a “wiggle cycle” for Wally Worm. There’ s lots of development art work and a 3D version.

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Here are some drawings for the Fox model. And here’ s the final, Maya Fox model.

This was modeled from a lighter that I owned, and again it was done by eye. I thought the individual primitive shapes it was composed of were nicely balanced, and blended well together; a good example of retro / modern design.

I then thought it should work so I looked into 3DMax’ s Pyrotechnic options, created a flame and animated the whole process.

This was the best hand I’d produced using the box modelling technique in 3DMax. My previous attempts using this approach had a tendency to result in a hand that looked like it was wearing a glove, even with the fingernails and knuckles added, due to the overall profile. With many hours of tweaking the model - a convincing hand can be produced.

The most characteristic features of a hand are the fingers and this part of the anatomy has the most detail which will give it a realistic look. Drawing a hand is a common exercise given to art students followed by drawing different types of hands, female, male, young, old, strong, gentle, hard working etc. There are so many observations to make, which is why it is a good exercise and not as easy as one initially thinks. After successive attempts I eventually found that a better, more efficient approach was to start with one finger and getting the profile and details right at that point, would lead to producing a good model of a hand.

The examples I had previously seen at that time were based on the artists own hand as the reference for their model and mine is no different.

This little scene was created, off the cuff so to speak; when I’d become more proficient in 3DMax. At the time I was mainly concerned with making something that could be animated and exploring the programs dynamic effects, i.e. Turbulence,wind

The image above is accompanied by a short animation:-

Taking on the challenge of reproducing an actual real product taught me a lot about the programme and was good eye training. The approach was to look at something and then recreate it in 3D without making it a long drawn out exercise as I still had course assignments to complete, therefore only had limited time to spend on modelling the lamp.The exercise also was good for applying the thought process to the programme as when you are trying to achieve what your eye can see the translation of how you think you can do it and how you actually achieved the end result are often very different. I placed the twister lamp in front of my desk and studied it as each part was modelled with the aim of reproducing the proportions and scale of the original. The design of the lamp is quite intricate and is a challenging task for a beginner. Many mistakes were made and so many lessons were learnt.