Maya the 3D modeling program, not Maya the Bee
Anybody else remember a cartoon called Maya the Bee that aired on (the brand new) Nick Jr. in the late 80s? I remember thinking that I was too old to watch it when it was on, but since my little sister wanted to, I guess I had to… As a result, hearing/reading the name “Maya” has always caused the theme song of that cartoon to pop into my head.
Myyyyyyyy-uh-ai-a, Maya the Bee.
And that song is also connected to the basement of my (one summer only, I think?) babysitter’s house and my fascination with the popping letter dice of Boggle. And David the Gnome, the cartoon that followed or preceded Maya the Bee.
Snapping back to present day: This semester I have been learning basic animation and 3D modeling using a pretty intense software program called Maya. The cartoon theme song has been a constantly droning, yet chipper, mental audio track as I curse and snarl and otherwise express my frustration for this complex software. Combine that with what I feel has been less than sufficient training from a young and monotone-y soft spoken instructor and perhaps I’m painting a picture for you to interpret as lackluster excitement for my class and Maya in general.
I have enjoyed most of the graphic and web design courses I’ve taken at UVU, but this one’s been tough. It’s a required course for the Digital Media major that I was initially excited about but have come to dread. I appreciate the art form of 3D modeling and animation, don’t get me wrong. I know how important it is as a consumer of that type of thing. It’s just… a lot of time-consuming work. And because Maya is something in which I’m not pursuing a career (or even a hobby), finding the motivation to invest a lot of time in it just isn’t easy. At least I was able to download a free 6-month trial as a student (via the parent company’s site, students.autodesk.com) so I’m not dependent on a computer lab.
Still, I’m getting to the point where I’ve done some neat things even if I want to give that 3D grid view a little what-fer to the face. I definitely prefer 3D modeling to the 2D animation we were doing in Maya at the beginning of the semester. (You say the software is powerful, I say the software is too effing complicated.) Anyway, here’s a pre-fab model that I posed (excluding the facial features) in a way to convey strength. And/or constipation.
This one’s a work in progress. I started from a single cube and have transformed it into a larger and disfigured cube that will hopefully be a cartoony toucan bird with wings extended by Wednesday night. I have a tutorial to follow, but it’s not great. I might end up turning this lump of pixels into Lou Ferrigno ca. Hulk Angry Time instead. Actually, that would be quite bitchin’.
