This piece of article will show you step by step of how the dragon is created using Maya. There are three type of modeling method in Maya, NURBS modeling, Subdivision modeling and Polygon modeling, each of them have their advantages and disadvantages. However we will build the dragon using patch NURBS surface techniques. The tools that I use to model this dragon are Birail tools, NURBS primitive, Fillet Blend Tools and etc.

In the first section, I will show you how the dragon is created by using Maya. Next section, texturing the dragon will be shown. We need to paint the texture and create bump map in PhotoShop, but before that, I will need Deep Paint 3D to create reference line on how the texture will be distorted by NURBS. The detail will be covered in the texturing section.

Before I start launching Maya, I will do some concept sketching on paper. This is important, as it will be easier for me to visualise the object I have in mind later on. I wanted to create a dragon between realistic and imaginative. I want it to look like a T-Rex but with horn and larger forelimbs. Only the side orthographic is needed to create the model. When I have done, I will scan in the sketch and save it as JPEG. (Figure 1)

(Figure 1)

1.Select Multilister from Window menu, from camera tab double click side camera or Ctrl-a to open Attributes Editor. Scroll down the list of entries until you see Environment pop-up menu. Click on the Create Image Plane button.

2.In Image Name option, click Browse and load the JPEG file as reference for modeling. (Figure 2)

(Figure 2)

3.Now, I will translate the image plane further away from axis X origin, so as to avoid any intersection with my model. From image Plane, Attribute, scroll down to Placement Extras. Key in -5 in the first input field. (Figure 3)

(Figure 3)