Assignment 4:  Splines

Detailed Requirements

Basic Description:

This assignment provides you an opportunity to practice modeling with splines, particularly NURBS surfaces.  You will create a model of either a house plant, a major crop plant (e.g. corn) or a still life consisting of a collection of fruits and vegetables.  You should model the entire plant: stalk, leaves, fruit, flowers, etc. as appropriate.  This assignment will be judged in part on the complexity of the model you produce, as well as the quality of the sculpting.  You should also provide an appropriate setting for your plant/arrangement.  For example, for a house plant, you should create a pot and a table to put it on.  For a crop plant, you should create a garden space with soil, etc.

Before beginning your model, research your plant/produce.  Find many different photos of it online and understand its structure, leaf shape, etc.  You should also submit these reference images with your assignment.

Detailed Requirements:

Pick one of the following:

• Model a crop plant
• Model a house plant
• Make a still life of fruits and vegetables

In either case, you need to models and a setting to display it in.  At minimum, for the house plant, this includes a pot for the plant, a table to put the plant on and a grassy hill or room in which the table sits.  For the crop plant, you should include the ground and some other elements to establish the setting, e.g. a garden fence, the side of a barn, etc. You can add additional details if you like.

• Model everything using NURBS.  The aim of this assignment is to give you experience with this modeling primitive.  We have covered a range of NURBS operations in class.  You will want to use these, and also read up on the other operations in the “Edit NURBS” menu to decide which of these is useful.  Test out your ideas before working on your final model. 
• Apply appropriate materials to all your models.
• Produce at least five renders of your scene.  One should show a well composed shot of your entire scene.  One should show just the plant model, including the pot, on a black background.  For the other three, you can show a combination of particular details of your plant that you think are interesting and an additional view of the overall scene.  Save your rendered files in jpeg format and include them with your submission. 
• To get the most attractive final renders, add lights to improve the appearance of your scene.  Make sure that your model can be seen clearly in the final images (i.e. your model should be large enough and not too dark).

Submission Instructions:

The basic submission procedure is the same as for all assignments.

- You will be submitting your entire Maya project folder.  All additional files (e.g. the readme.txt and image files) should be in the root of that folder.

- N.B.  Name your project folder as “A4YourName”, where “YourName” is your first and last name.  This is how we will identify your submission.

- Include a brief readme file that identifies how you have met each of the requirements.  You can also include any problems you could not resolve or particular features you would like us to notice.  The file should be called “readme.txt” and included in the main project directory of your Maya files.  Include your full name and student number in this file.  This file should be brief (< 1 page).

- Remember to include high quality renders that show your work well.

- Drop your project folder into the submissions folder as per the instructions below.

Submissions Folder:

1. The "classes folder” is located in the lower right when you log into a computer in the lab. Double click on this.

2. Open "M. Neff CDM 130", then “drop off” and then “A4”.

3. Drag and drop your assignment into that folder. Make sure it is named correctly, as described above.