Set Up Your Project

For new projects you must set up a new directory to hold all your files.

1. Set The Project
   • -If you haven’t already created a project and aren’t using the books files then Set a new project.
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2. Make a new scene
   • – MAIN || File > New Scene
   • – Name it 07-Bigz_01.ma

Starting The Penguin

1. Primitive Cube
   • – Select MAIN || Create > Polygonal Primitives > Cube
   • – Press 5 To Smooth Shade All
   • – Rename the cube to body
   • – With cube selected, ATTRIBUTE EDITOR || Inputs section > Subdivisions Width to 2
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   • Note: It’s a good rule to always model your scene facing the z-axis.
2. Extrude Faces
   • Note: When Extruding Faces, you need to make sure Keep Faces Together option is checked. Ex. below of option on and off.
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   • – Select the polygons menu set : Press F3
   • – Make sure Keep Faces Together is On. POLYGONS || Edit Mesh > Keep Faces Together > [checked]
   • – Go into Component mode with faces displayed: Press F11 or setting the selection mask in the Status Bar.
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   • – Extrude the two top faces of the cube.
   • – Move the faces up in the Y-axis
   • – Increase the scale uniformly.
   • – Keep extruding until your shape is similar to the one below.
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   • – Extrude three more times to make the neck, middle of the head and the top of the head.
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   • Note: You can smooth geometry.Press: 1, 2, 3
3. What Is Subdiv ProxySubdiv Proxy allows you to see a smoothed version of your geometry while still modeling on the cubed version
   • – Go into Object mode. Press F11.
   • – body selected, POLYGONS || Proxy > Subdiv Proxy
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   • This image displays the original square geometry that is transparent called the proxy / proxy cage and the smoothed geometry inside it.
   • Note: creating a proxy creates a smoothed version of your geometry and places both in a folder. See below.
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   • – you can deleted the smoothed geometry and recreate it. you should never work off the smoothed version.
   • – Toggle between original geometry and Subdiv: CTRL + `
   • – Use [CTRL + ` ] toggle between original geometry and Subdiv
   • Note: Keep in mind what level of smooth you are in when you toggle between geometry and subdiv. See variances of images below.
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4. Extruding The Legs
   • Extrude the legs at the same time
   • – Select the proxy geometry and display it’s faces
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   • Select the two faces at the bottom of the body
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   • – Uncheck POLYGONS || Edit Meshes > Keep Face Together > [unchecked]
   • – Select POLYGONS || Edit Mesh > Extrude
   • – Move and scale the extruded faces down to the penguins knees.
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   • Note: Extrusions work according to the normals of the original faces. Normals are perpendicular lines that run perpendicular to the surface.To see the normals, switch to object mode andPOLYGONS || Display > Polygons > Face Normals
   • – Extrude again to create the pant borders
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   • – Extrude and then scale the faces inward to create the starting point of the ankle.
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   • – Extrude down to create the heals and x-Rotate 45 degrees.
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   • – Extrude and translate forward on the z-axis. you may have to click the manipulator handle to change the orientation of the translation tool.
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5. Extruding the Arms
   • – Select the faces on either side of the top torso.
   • – Extrude once and scale the faces down so the arms start with small shoulders. Translate away from the body.
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   • – Extrude the arms to the elbows and tweak the placement.
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   • – Extrude again up to the wrists and tweak the placement.
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   • – Extrude one last time to create the tip of the hand.
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   • – Reposition the vertices to match he following.
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   • – Save your work. 07-bigz_01.ma

Shaping the Penguin

The basic shape of the penguin is established Press “7” to view the scene without stage lights providing a black silhouette.

1. Tweak The Proxy
   • Do not add geometry to define the shape of the penguin better, edit the vertices instead.
   • – Select the proxy geometry, the unsmoothed geometry
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   • – Go into Component mode with verticesdisplayed.
     • Press F8 or select
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   • – DBL + CLICK on the move tool to bring up the options
   • – In the move tool options, set the following:
     • Reflection: On;
     • Center: Origin;
     • Reflection axis: X;
     • Tolerance: 0.1;
   • – Click on [CLOSE]
   • – Select a vertex on the proxy geometry and move its position. You have to tweak the proxy geometry to have the smoothed geometry look good.
   • – Tweak the global shape of the character using the proxy geometry.
   • – Match as closely as possible to the model below.
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2. Modeling Tips
   • – With a vertice selected, you can press the arrow keys to navigate to other vertices on your model.
   • – Turn on Wireframe on Shaded: STAGE || Shading > Wireframe on Shaded.

Refine the Penguin

Add to the existing geometry of the penguin to add more detail to the feet, hands and tail to the penguin.

 

1. Chamfer A Vertex To Create a Tail
   • Before you extrude a tail, you will need an actual polygonal face to extrude from. The Chamfer command allows you to create a face from a vertice by creating the proper division.
   • – Select the vertice located at the lower back of the penguin.
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   • – POLYGONS || Edit Mesh >Chamfer Vertex
   • – In the Attribute Editor Window, you can see the construction history of the chamfer command and can alter the width of the face that is create. see image below.
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   • – Tweak the position of the created vertices to make the new face more of a hexagon shape similar to the image below.
   • – Make sure all the vertices are flat on the z-axis. Switch to top view and snap each vertice to the same line.
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2. Extrude the Tail
   • – Select the face of the tail and extrude twice.
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   • Note: If you cannot find the vertex at the bottom of the hexagonal shape, turn off Smooth Shade All: Press 4.
3. Splitting the Polygon
   • Split the last face on the tail, vertically in order to comply with the central line dividing your character.
   • – Select the face on the end of the tail.
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   • – POLYGONS || Edit Mesh > Split Polygon Tool.
   • – CLICK + DRAG on the top edge of the hexagonal face and drag to the top vertice. A dot will follow.
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   • – CLICK + DRAG on bottom edge of the hexagonal face.
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   • – Press [ENTER] to complete your action. A vertical line is created.
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4. Flatten The Feet
   • The smoothed penguin’s feet are not flat after the smooth. This can be fixed by extruding an additional face.
   • – Select the faces under both feet.
   • – POLYGON || Edit Mesh > Extrude
   • – Using the extrude manipulator scale the faces so they are smaller.
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5. Creating Toes
   • Extrude three claws coming out of the feet
   • – Revert to rough view by pressing “1” and toggle out of subdiv view to geometry view by pressing: CTRL + `
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   • – Zoom into the right foot
   • – Select the face on the front of the foot.
   • – POLYGON || Edit Mesh > Extrude.
   • – Scale and adjust vertices as follows.
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   • – Select the three faces and extrude the faces to match the following:
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Mirror The Geometry

Mirroring a model saves you time when creating a symmetrical model. If you had only modeled one side of the character you can mirror the geometry rather than redoing the work.

1. Delete One Half of the Character
   • Delete one half of the model and duplicate the remaining using instance geometry.
   • – Make sure you see only the geometry and not the subdiv/smoothed version of the model.
   • – Switch to the front view and display wireframe: Press 4.
   • – Select all the faces on the left side of the character.
   • – Be sure to select the tiny face at the tip of the tail.
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   • – Hit [DELETE]
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2. Duplicate the Instance
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   • UPDATE: Before you duplicate your geometry, make sure the registration point is on the center 0 x-axis, along with any other vertices that may have moved.
     – Sometimes the mirrored instance will not be perfectly aligned when you either Duplicate Special or Subdiv Proxy. This hopefully will resolve itself when you delete your proxy cage(simple cage) and then work off your smoothed version and split that. If you have gaps, you can correct that with Merging Edges, described below. 
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   • – Go into Object mode and select the body geometry
   • – MAIN || Edit > Duplicate Special > □
     • Duplicate Special Options Window
     • – OPTIONS WINDOW || Edit > Reset Settings
     • – Geometry Type: INSTANCE
     • – Scale X: -1
     • – Group Under: parent
     • – click [DUPLICATE SPECIAL]
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   • – Save your work: 011113_07-bigz_03.ma