Join Mario in this class as he creates an axe using Autodesk Maya 2023.
Follow along as he demonstrates the process of modeling the blade and handle, using various tools and techniques.
Learn how to combine and separate meshes, and bridge edges, and adjust the geometry to achieve the desired shape.
Enhance your 3D modeling skills with this comprehensive lesson.
- Workflow
Make a new Maya project and Import a reference image. Adjust its placement where the blade of the Axe is in the center of the grid.
Create a new layer for the reference image and save the scene as "Axe_01".
Start by creating the blade of the axe using a cylinder.
Delete the faces of the cylinder and only keep the circler ones.
Rotate the cylinder 90 degrees and adjust the subdivision axis to 60.
Scale and position the cylinder to match the reference image.
Move the pivot point of the cylinder to align with the desired vertex.
To move the pivot hold D+V.
Extrude the cylinder to create the sharp part of the blade.
Adjust the extruded part to align with the reference image.
Move the pivot point again to align with another vertex.
Once the blade is created delete the rest of the faces on the cylinder.
We’re going to Extrude the rest of the blade by selecting the back edges.
From the Perspective view grab the same edges and move them using V + LMB.
Recenter the blad on the grid and move the reference image if it’s in the way.
To create the rest of the Axe add a cube and put it in the center. We’ll only want the front faces of the cube so delete the ones we don’t need.
Add another cube for the back of the axe. Moving the pivot will help us scale the cube better. Same as with the other cube we only want the front face.
Move the pivot and adjust the rest of the cube.
Using the Multi-Cut tool make cuts on the cube, adjust some vertices, and delete the faces we don’t need.
Do the same with the other cube.
Combine all objects by selecting them and using the Combine option by holding down Left Shift + LMB.
Once combine we’ll start bridging the neighboring edges.
If the material is green like this, add it to the existing Lambert1 material.
Add in more edges with the multi-cut tool so u can move the vertices and get the shape of the curves on the axe.
Adjust the edges from the Perspective view by snapping the edge with V + LMB.
Extrude more edges so we can bridge the rest of the Axe.
Add an edge in the middle of the blade to help us connect the other parts.
Select the edges and use the Bridge tool to connect them.
Move the vertices to fix up the curve.
Extrude the neighboring edges to connect the parts better.
To connect the vertices first snap them together then merge them.
Fix up any bad topology by moving the vertices and snapping them.
To have better edge flow delete some of the faces and reconnect them.
Once everything is fixed we can go ahead and mirror our Axe blade on the X and Z axis. If the mirror isn’t turning out well make sure to fix up some settings in the mirror options.
Now that we’ve mirrored the blade, fix up the hole by bridging the edges.
To fix up the triangle holes we need to add an edge in the middle to fix it then close it.
Some of the edges are going to be too hard and to fix them we need to Soften the edges that are causing the problem.
Select the edges and using the Left Shift + RMB select the Soften/Harden Edge.
In the end, the edges will be smoother.
The handle is made out of a cylinder. Deform it to the size of the reference and add in edges with multi cuts to use to create the shape of the handle.
- Adding Supporting edges
Supporting edges will ensure the model keeps its shape. We add these supports near the edges that keep the form together. We’ll use the multi-cut tool to do this.
We’ll do the same thing to the handle.
Final Render
