Introducing Maya® 2011

Creating a Starfish

Now, you’ll create a starfish model starting with polygons, like the models you created in Chapter 4. You’ll then convert the polygon mesh to a subdivision surface to mold it into a proper starfish. Follow these steps:

1. Create a new scene, and switch into the Polygons menu set. With Interactive Creation turned off, create a polygon cube and scale it to be 8 wide, 8 deep, and 1.2 high.

2. Use the Split Polygon tool (Edit Mesh ⇒ Split Polygon Tool) to split one side of the box into halves (see Figure 5-74). You can right-click every time you finish one of the splits without exiting the tool. When you do this, center the new edge by using the readout display in the Feedback bar (at lower-left on the screen) to place the split ...