The Mansion on Maya

The aim of the task we had for Robin was to follow a picture that we had been sent over the computer. This was to create a temple in Maya. I think what the aim of this task is to use all the skills that we had been taught and put it into action. As I am really enjoying Maya so far, I thought that this would be a lot of fun to do and was looking forward to it.

The temple that we had to create.

The image above shows the temple that we had to do. Besides some little parts, I was fairly confident when it came to making the building. On the other hand, I wasn't looking forward to the texturing. This is something that has been bugging me for a long time, but I hope at least, that I can move on from the stage that I keep getting stuck on, make some progression.

My finished Temple.

A view from the front.

It took a fair amount of time, but I eventually got there. I had created and made it look exactly like the temple picture that we were given. As mentioned above, I knew I would get to this stage and be happy, even adding the smallest intricate detail to make it match perfectly.

On the view from the front, I had covered the temple in a dark red blinn. This was so that you could see the amount of detail that went into, including in the nooks and crannies.  

The next part I was dreading, I had to start to texture it, this meant that I would (try) put on bricks and roof tiles by using a blinn and U.V map it.

Adding a small amount of color.

I first started off by coloring everything that wouldn't be textured, these included the windows, the grates and doors. I was pretty happy so far, you could see that this temple was starting to come together.

Attempting to texture.

I had attempted to put on the tiles and bricks and to be fair to myself, I had gone out and got to a further stage than when I had tried this with the gas pump, but when you actually look at it you can see that its a complete mess.

The final.

I decided that I would completely start the mansion again from scratch, I figured that the texturing had been at fault because of how many faces that I had in each shape on my individual palace, it was only right that I put a full amount of effort into it, so that I could finish this. This time, I had a teacher at hand and by missing most of the little detail, I managed to get the palace completely textured and looking good.

I think I'm starting to realize how you texture, which is something that has struggled me for a long time.