This how to looks at polygonal modeling techniques in Maya. In particular, focus is placed on modeling a tower by utilizing techniques such as Extract, Collapse, Move, Scale, Duplicate, and Bend.

STEP ONE Create a Polygonal Cylinder to form the Tower's base. You will use the Polygon Primitives options to change the number of subdivisions of the Tower's base and then scale the cylinder to modify its shape. In the menu bar select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder- Options. In the Options window change: Subdivision Around Axis to 10; Subdivision along Height to 5; Subdivision on Caps to 0 . In the channel box rename the cylinder: Tower. Press 6 to view the Tower in shaded mode. Scale the cylinder to resemble the image above. This will form the base shape of a tower.

STEP TWO Use Polygon Extrude and Collapse to create the roof of the tower. With Select by component type: Faces selected from the component pick mask, select the top face (cap) of the cylinder and select Edit Polygons > Extrude Face. Move the selection slightly downwards creating the base position of the tower's roof. Scale out the face on all three axes to create the overhang of the tower's roof.

STEP THREE Press g on the keyboard to repeat the last command (Extrude). Move the face up and then Scale it to almost half the original diameter.

Press g again to repeat the last command and Move the face up to create one more segment to the tower. With the top face selected, select Edit Polygons > Collapse, which creates the peak of the roof by collapsing the face into a single vertex.

STEP FOUR Refine the tower's shape. With Select by component type: Poly Vertices selected, select a single row of vertices in the middle portion of the tower. Scale this row of vertices in a bit. Select another row and repeat, do the same for the middle row on the roof. Continue editing the tower's shape using the Scale and Move tools on complete rows of vertices at a time so that it resembles the image above. Delete the unnecessary bottom face (cap) of the tower, as this portion of the tower will not be seen.

STEP FIVE Soften the shading of the tower's edges. Make sure edges have been selected from the component pick mask and then select all the edges of the tower by drawing a bounding box around it. Once all edges have been selected, select Edit Polygons > Normals > Soften/Harden > Options. Select All Soft then click on Soft/Hard at the bottom of the options window. Note: This step enables the shading algorithm to interpret the shading along adjacent edges to be smooth as opposed to hard edged, by averaging between face normals when calculating shading representations. This enables the polygonal object that is comprised of separate flat faces, sharing common edges, to appear smoother along its surface than it is in reality. However, viewing the side of the surface will present its true nature.

STEP SIX Duplicate the tower. In Select by object type mode, select the tower and choose Edit > Duplicate > Options. Reset to the default settings, then hit Duplicate. Move the duplicate over to the side of the original tower so that it may be worked on separately. Taper the base of the duplicate by scaling the bottom row(s) of vertices.

STEP SEVEN Apply a bend deformer to the tower. With the duplicate selected, apply a nonlinear bend by choosing Deform > Create NonLinear > Bend. Display the Channel Box by selecting Options > Channel Box. With the duplicate selected, look to the Inputs section from the Channel Box and select bend1. With this input selected from the list, press t on the keyboard which engages the Show Manipulators Tool, making the manipulator for the bend deformer visible. With the bend deformer manipulator displayed, grab the central ball and pull it out to perform the bend on the duplicate. To prevent undesired bending from occurring on the top portion, select the top ball from the manipulator which controls the High Bound, and pull it down. These effects can be accomplished by editing the appropriate fields directly in the Channel Box as well.

STEP EIGHT To maintain control over both the object and the deformer affecting it at the same time, it will be necessary to group them together. Open the Hypergraph window by going to Window > Hypergraph. From the Hypergraph, choose Tower1 and bend1Handle and select Edit > Group. Rename the new group node TowerArm. With the top node (TowerArm) selected, go to Modify > Center Pivot to place this group node's pivot at the center of the object. With TowerArm still selected from the Hypergraph, choose Edit > Duplicate to create a second arm which is named TowerArm1.

STEP NINE Now, procedures such as Move, Rotate and Scale, may be performed at the group node level and the child nodes ('Towers' and 'bend1Handles') will be affected together in a uniform manner. Translate both arm pieces separately at the group node level (TowerArm and TowerArm1) to place them in their appropriate positions to resemble the image above. Save the file and name it "tower" to be used in the lesson How to Texture a Polygon Tower.

CONCLUSION Building models from a basic primitive object is a quick and efficient way to model with polygonal geometry in Maya.

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