Dig into Maya's powerful modeling toolset to create everything from 3D props, environments, and characters.
Modelling is the cornerstone of 3D, basically creating shapes made of mathematical and geometric elements, such as polygons and NURBs.
Polygonal modeling uses the coordinates between areas on an object, and NURBS modeling uses the coordinates between points on the geometric object. In the animation below, the two methods are compared: a simple Polygon shape (also known as a
Primitive,) is right-clicked and a vertex is selected from the Marking menu and moved (or
transformed,) upward. Then, the NURBs sphere is right-click and a control vertex is moved.
Manipulating points on a Polygon sphere (left) and a NURBS sphere (right)
Maya uses four different types of modeling, and each one is covered extensively in a separate section.
Topics in this section