Castle Project

Main Point

For our first 3D animation project we had to build a castle which helped teach us a lot of the tools in Maya and help us get used to the program. For me the main point of doing this project was to get used to Maya because it is very different than other programs I am used to and all the controls on it can be very confusing.

Process

Before we started on this project we had to learn the basic controls of Maya through instructional videos and then also we watched our teacher create a castle and talk through what he was doing so that we had some idea of the process before starting. Then we stated creating our own castles staring with making one tower by combining cylinders through the difference and union tool. We then took the top of the tower and used the extrude tool to raise every other face making a castle top look. Next we copied our tower 4 times and made was in-between the towers. Finally the door was cut out by combining a cylinder and cube and then citing them out of the wall. To add some personalization I added color, a moat, and a hill for the castle to rest on.

Learning 

While doing this project I learned a lot about how to use Maya and about some of the cool things that it allows you to do with shapes. For the project i mainly use the extrude, booleans (union, difference), basic shapes tools and also the color tool. I also learned how to change between four perspective window and the one perspective window. These windows made working on my castle much easier because sometimes you want to see four perspectives at once but other times it is better to have a close up of one perspective. The hardest thing we learned was how to add texture to our castles because the process was kinda confusing and messing up one or two things could mess all of it up. Finally I learned how to switch between object mode and face mode and why using these two modes can help make creating the project much easier.

Change

If I could redo this project the ting i would change is make my castle have five towers and be in more of a pentagon shape or try to add more small details such as cannons or flags for the castle. I feel like these would help make my castle more unique and interesting.

Favorite

My favorite part of my castle is the moat because it is something I figured out how to do by myself and isn't something that was required for the project r taught but just something I wanted to add. I would defiantly keep the moat if I redid the project and I would also keep the double layered walls because it helps the castle look more realistic.

Takeaway

My main take away from this project is that when doing 3D animation keep things simple at the start and make them more complicated later. this project helped teach me that if you make the project fit the requirements first and make it simple but well made it is then easier to add things and make it more complex. If you try to complicate things early problems can arise and not always be easily fixed.

Conclusion

In conclusion this project was very fun and taught me a lot about how Maya works and how it can be used to make many interesting and fun things. There were some difficult parts if the project but by running into them now i am more prepared for them in the future and will be able to deal with them more efficiently on a large project.