Creating a Jurassic World Dinosaur Character in Maya: Part 5

1. Maintaining Mesh Flow

Step 1

Start Maya and open the file which was saved in the last part of the tutorial.

Step 2

You need to increase the edge loops to maintain the poly surface topology around the two indicated vertices as shown in the following image.

Step 3

With the indicated thigh area edge row selected, go to Mesh Tools > Connect command to connect the selected edges.

Step 4

Continue connecting the loop to the border by Multi-Cut tool.

Step 5

Insert one more edge loop as shown in the following image.

Step 6

Following the same way, insert one more edge loop as shown in the following image.

Step 7

Insert the indicated edge to maintain the quad topology as shown in the following image.

Step 8

With the two indicated vertices selected, use Merge command to merge them together.

Step 9

With the four edges and one vertex selected, go to Mesh Tools menu in main menu bar then selected Connect command.

Step 10

In this way, arrange the vertices and edge loops as shown in the following image.

Step 11

Select the four indicated faces of the lower belly part as shown in the following image.

Step 12

With the faces selected, apply Extrude command and drag the faces down a bit.

Step 13

With the indicated corner vertices selected, go to Edit Mesh > Average Vertices command to relax the hard edges.

Step 14

After editing the vertices and edges of the lower belly part, it looks as shown in the following image.

2. Detailing Head

Step 1

With the indicated neck edges selected, go to Mesh Tools > Connect command.

Step 2

Following the same way, select the indicated edges and then go to Mesh Tools > Connect command.

Step 3

Insert the indicated edges as shown in the following image.

Step 4

To re-create the better mesh topology, delete the indicated edges for now.

Step 5

Create a better edge flow and mesh topology using the Multi-Cut tool as shown in the following image.

Step 6

Following the same way, insert several edge loops to the head area as shown in the following image.

Step 7

Insert two edge loops as shown in the following image.

Step 8

Maintain the edge flow using Multi-Cut tool.

Step 9

Jump in the vertex selection mode and edit the vertices as shown in the following image.

3. Detailing Eyes

Step 1

Select six indicated faces as shown in the following image.

Step 2

Extrude the selected faces towards Z axis as shown in the following image.

Step 3

Insert an edge loop around the nostril to the eye as shown in the following image.

Step 4

Connect the edge loop to maintain the edge flow.

Step 5

Select the indicated face loop as shown in the following image.

Step 6

Extrude the selected faces outwards a bit as shown in the following image.

Step 7

Jump in the vertex selection mode and arrange the mesh flow around the nostril as per the reference image.

Step 8

Keep editing the vertices and edges to maintain a good mesh flow as shown in the following image.

Step 9

You can see the result in the smooth preview mode as shown in the following image.

Step 12

Jump in the vertex selection mode and edit the vertex of the eye as shown in the following image.

Step 13

Create a polygon sphere primitive and put it inside the eye socket as shown in the following image.

Step 15

The eye ball is not getting fit properly in the eye socket. So you need to edit the vertices of the eye mesh.

Step 16

Jump in the vertex selection mode and edit the vertices of the eye mesh as shown in the following image.

Step 17

Insert one more edge loop around the eye mesh border to add more details to the mesh flow.

Step 18

With the eye border edge loop selected, apply Extrude command and set the value of Divisions to 2 as shown in the following image.

Step 19

In this way, adding details to the eye part is completed and you can see the result in smooth preview mode.

4. Connecting Meshes

Step 1

With both side's meshes selected, go to Edit > Delete by Type > History. 

Alternative, press Alt-Shift-D.

Step 2

With both side's meshes selected, go to Mesh > Combine command to combine the selected meshes together.

Step 3

Jump in the front view and with all middle vertices selected, go to Edit Mesh > Merge and click on its option box.

Step 4

In the Merge Vertices Options window, keep Threshold value to 0.0100 and turn on Always merge two vertices. Click on Merge button.

Step 5

With the body mesh selected, go to Edit > Delete by Type > History.

Step 6

Following the same way, combine the lower and upper gums together and delete the unwanted history.

Step 10

In this way, the basic but detailed mesh of the dinosaur is completed as shown in the following images.

Conclusion

This completed modelling part. In the next part of the tutorial, I'll show you how to unwrap the model for texturing.