How to model a base mesh in Maya

🎓 Master Game Characters with Maya: Create a Low Poly Character for Games 🚀

Course Overview: Are you ready to dive into the world of 3D modeling and bring your game characters to life? In this comprehensive course, David Bittorf will guide you through the process of creating a low poly character model in Autodesk Maya - a skill essential for any game developer or character artist. With hands-on video tutorials and project files included, you'll learn at your own pace and see your creations come to life step by step.

What You Will Learn:

• Fundamental Skill Set: Gain the skills necessary to create a polygon base character model, ready for game environments or film animation.
• Step-by-Step Instructions: Follow along with reference images for front and side views, ensuring your modeling efforts align with what you see in the tutorials.
• Preparing Your Scene: Learn how to set up your Maya scene effectively, including importing reference images and understanding the layout of the interface.
• Edge Flow Mastery: Understand the importance of proper edge flow for a model's usability in the character pipeline and learn to apply it to your own models.
• Blocking Out: Block out the major forms of the character, including the torso, legs, arms, head, hands, thumbs, and ears, with attention to detail and proportion.
• Facial Features: Focus on creating a realistic facial edge flow, which is crucial for animating expressions and blending textures later in the pipeline.
• Refining Your Model: Use the Soft Select tool to make precise edits to your model, refining details like breast formation, enhancing your character's design.

Your Learning Path:

1. Setting Up Your Scene (9:58) - Begin by establishing a solid foundation for your project files.
2. Blocking out the Torso and Legs (9:34) - Start sculpting the main body parts with guidance from our expert instructor.
3. Blocking out the Arms (10:14) - Follow along to shape the arms, ensuring they complement the overall form of your character.
4. Blocking out the Head (7:54) - Attention to detail is key as you model this critical area for both aesthetics and animation.
5. Blocking out the Hands (12:57) - Learn to accurately model hands, which are notoriously challenging but crucial for interaction in games.
6. Adding Thumbs and Mirroring Model (6:24) - Ensure symmetry and add anatomical details like thumbs, which often get overlooked.
7. Creating Proper Facial Edge Flow (7:56) - Achieve a natural face shape that will make future facial animations more believable.
8. Blocking out the Ear (4:41) - Pay close attention to this often-neglected detail, which can greatly impact your character's appeal.
9. Edits using Soft Select (4:41) - Learn to use the Soft Select tool effectively for precise edits and refinements.
10. Adding the Breasts (11:13) - Finalize the upper torso, ensuring your character's proportions are balanced and realistic.

What You Get:

• Project Files: Start with the correct reference images and have 10 completed Maya project files at each lesson to guide you through the process.
• Software Used: The tutorials in this course use Maya 2018, but any version from 2018 or newer will work. It's recommended to have the latest version for the best experience.

Series Overview: This lesson is part of a series on modeling female characters that covers the entire pipeline from modeling to animation. Each lesson can stand alone, allowing you to target specific areas of interest or follow along sequentially to develop your skills comprehensively. All lessons come with the necessary starting files to ensure you're always on track.

🚀 Embark on Your 3D Modeling Journey Today! 🎨 With this course, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and tools to create compelling character models for your games or animations. Enroll now and start crafting characters that will captivate your audience!