Tea Cup Modeling and Rendering - Part One

Tea cup modeling and rendering with Mental RAY using Autodesk Maya - Part one
Written by Vojislav Pavkov
Friday, 21 December 2007 Category Autodesk Maya - Modeling and Rendering.
Click here to view larger image.
Step 1
We will go through almost every step of making this scene in final render during this tutorial. First we will make tea cup and sugar jar, make textures in PhotoShop, make materials in HyperShade and make render setup in MentalRay for maya. So let’s start with modeling. We will create tea cup with nurbs curves and revolve modifier from surface menu. First create a line that which would be one half outline of tea cup as shown in the below image. Use CV curve tools for this.
Figure 1.  Click here to view larger image.
Step 2
When you get your curve created make sure that start and end points are vertically aligned and on central vertical line of grid, because that will be center of rotation for that shape. Now lets make our shape. Go to surface panel and from Surface menu select Revolve option by clicking on small box shape next to it, as shown in the below image.
Figure 2.

Step 3

When you have revolve dialog opened use settings as shown in the below image. We need Polygon surface, with number of segments that I have put in.

*Under Initial Tessellation Controls, Number V needs to be 33 (this can be done by typing in the number).

Figure 3.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 4

You will get revolved shape of tea cup as shown in the below image.

Figure 4.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 5

We want to put some additional details on this cup since, we need to prepare our surface for that. We need to put some spiral beveled and extruded edges on this cup so we will do this with Lattice modifier which is in animation panel under Create deformers panel. Again click on box next to it.

Figure 5.

Step 6

Set the option as shown in below image. We want Lattice box with 2x2 segments for easy manipulation.

Figure 6.

Step 7

After you are finished with the settings select the object and press create button in the dialog box. You will get box shape around you tea cup.

Figure 7.

Step 8

If you put you pointer on some corner of that box and hold RMB on mouse new window will pop up. From that menu choose Lattice points. 8 dots will appear on corners of that box. Select 4 points on top part of that box.

Figure 8.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 9

After you selected press E key on your keyboard which is shortcut for rotate and use rotate gizmo to rotate your selection around Y axis for about 45 degrees. The result would be similar to the one shown in below image.

Figure 9.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 10

Now we have our surface prepared as per our requirement. We don’t need that lattice any more so we will delete history on that tea cup. Select the cup and go to menu and find Delete History option.

Figure 10.

Step 11

Box will disappear. Also delete the curve that you used for revolve. We don’t need that anymore. Select curve and press delete on your keyboard. Now we have clean and history free object.

Figure 11.

Step 12

Now select 4 rows of edge loops on tea cup that are on 4 opposite sides of teacup. If you RMB on teacup like you did earlier you will get new window where you can choose the sub object selection. Chose Edge. And make selection as shown in the below image.

Figure 12.

Step 13

When you have your selection, use bevel by going to "Edit Mesh" menu as shown in the below image.

Figure 13.

Step 14

Now the selected edges will be beveled.

Figure 14.

Step 15

Now using Edge loop tool create more edges inside created polygons with in the bevel. Make sure you remember this tool because you will use it a lot. Like other tools we used before. Edge loop tool can be found in "Edit Mesh" menu.

Figure 15.

Step 16

You will get new edge loop inside! Repeat the same step on other 3 places.

Figure 16.

Step 17

Now go to "Select" menu and select "select edge loop tool" as shown in the below image.

Figure 17.

Step 18

Select all the four new rows of the edges that was created. Double click on one edge, and whole row will be selected, than hold SHIFT key and double click for next row in the same way select all four rows.

Figure 18.

Step 19

Now select rows one by one and move every row a bit outside from surface. If you use some additional plugins like NEX for maya you can use move by normal option for it. The resultant model of the tea cup would be as shown in the below image.

Figure 19.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 20

Now let us create few more line similar to the four lines that was created. And the resultant model of tea cup would as shown in the below image.

Figure 20.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 21

Now lets create a saucer for this cup. Using CV curve as done before create a new outline for plate and revolve to create final surface as we did while creating tea cup.

Figure 21.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 22

Make sure that starting and ending points are on vertical central Y axis. Use revolve, If you don’t remember settings go back to the above steps and find settings. Here’s final shape of plate that would look like. In the same way as we did for the tea cup let us select 4 edge loops and used bevel than move new edges to bulge out a bit. Here’s the final shape.

Figure 22.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 23

Here is the cup and saucer together.

Figure 23.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 24

Now let us start creating the handle for the tea cup. Once againg from View draw CV curve that would look similar to a handle of a tea cup. Now make polygon box that you can find in poly primitives menu and translate and scale that box as shown below./div>

Figure 24.  Click here to view larger image.

Figure 25.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 25

Now from perspective view hold RMB on the new Box and choose FACE for selection and select polygon that is rotated next to curve and after that press SHIFT key and select curve. So now you have both selected, One polygon and whole curve.

Figure 26.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 26

Now go to "Edit Mesh" menu and select "EXTRUDE" option./div>

Figure 27.

Step 27

You will get some weird looking object as shown in the below image, but don’t worry we shall fix it. Remember that it is very important to draw curves from start to end in right direction, because we are extruding starting from start point of selected curve. So if you draw curve from different point you will get something different shape than what we are supposed to get./div>

Figure 28.

Step 28

Now in extrude settings put more segments for extrude. With this shape selected press CTRL + A and you will get options for extrude. Put more Divisions like 25 and edit curve as shown in the below image.

Figure 29.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 29

Now we have start point for our handle. Now lets make it better. As done in the earlier steps put more edge loops on all 4 sides of your handle shape.

Figure 30.

Step 30

We will use those new edge loops to make our shape rounder. Select loop by loop and tweak shape to match shape you like. After a little bit of tweaking with the handle I got the result as shown in the below image.

Figure 31.  Click here to view larger image.

Step 31

Now let us create the sugar jar. Let us once again start from CV curve. Always remeber, when you make any type of symmetrical object like bottle, vase, etc., you use this tool. Use cv tool and draw lines as shown in the below image. you need to have two separated lines, one for Sugar jar base mesh and one for closure object. Remember again to make sure that end points of curves need to be aligned with Y axis of grid for revolving purpose, as we did in our earlier steps.

Figure 32.

Step 32

When you have finished both curves, select the first one and go to surface panel and from "Surface" menu select Revolve option.

Figure 33.

Step 33

Now set the settings in "Revolve Options" dailog box as shown below.

Figure 33.

Step 34

For the curve which was created to model a closure object of the sugar jar, do the same thing again as shown above by using revolve tool and settings for "Revolve Options" as shown in the above two steps. When finished we, model of sugar jar would similar to the one shown in the below image.

Figure 34.

Step 35

As some edges are harsh and we don’t have too much details we shall use bevel option on some parts of objects. Using select tool potions select horizontal row of edges and use bevel tool to put additional edge loops for tweaking later.

Figure 35.

Step 36

Now choose bevel option and now the edge will be doubled and rounded and you will end up with rounded shape.

Figure 36.

Step 37

Using the above said methog put more details where you want and make shape rounder. I have tweaked with the model and ended up with the result as shown in the below image.

Figure 37.

Step 38

I have also used a bit of scale to make proportions of object a little bit better than I draw with lines. You are free to do that too. This is how final scene looks like. You can place your object in scene as you want. Now let us create a Plane object from primitives and scale it to create some surface below the objects.

Figure 38.  Click here to view larger image.

In next part of this tutorial we will learn how to make UV map for the objects the objects that we created in this tutorial, make textures in PhotoShop, use shaders and make final render with MentalRay for maya. We will also use HDRI images and if you are not familiar with HDRI images you can find more about it and you can also find some free HDRI images on Paul Debevec’s web page. Here is the link for the web site: http://www.debevec.org/