How to Create a Fuel Pump in Maya: Part 2

In the second part of the tutorial series, I’ll show you how to model the pipeline of the fuel pump. I’ll show you how to model the T- shaped pipe and the pipe connector.

1. Creating the Pipeline

Step 1

Open the fuel pump file in Maya which was saved in the previous part of the tutorial.

Step 2

Create a cylinder with Subdivisions Axis as 14 and Subdivisions Cap as 2.

Step 3

Place the cylinder on the base. With the cylinder selected, go to Show > Isolate Selected and turn on View Selected command to isolate the cylinder.

Step 4

Press F11 key for the face selection mode. With the indicated bottom center faces selected, go to Edit Mesh > Extrude command.

Step 5

Extrude the selected faces in Y axis. Delete the cap faces also.

Step 6

Insert an edge loop using Insert Edge Loop Tool.

Step 7

With the ring faces selected, go to Edit Mesh > Duplicate Face and click on its option box.

Step 8

In the Duplicate Face Options window, turn on Separate duplicated faces check box. Click on Duplicate button to apply the settings. 

Step 9

Now you can see the duplicated and separated poly mesh.

Step 10

Insert two edge loops by using Insert Edge Loop Tool.  Press F9 key for vertex selection mode and then scale and edit the vertices as shown in the following image.

Step 11

In this way, I have blocked the poly mesh for the bottom cap modeling.

Step 12

Jump in the edge selection mode by pressing F10 key. With the top border edges selected, scale down as shown in the following image. 

Step 13

The bottom cap model is completed now.

2. Detailing the Pipe Connector

Step 1

Go to Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool and insert an edge loop as shown in the following image.

Step 2

With the top ring faces selected, extrude those outwards a bit.

Step 3

Insert two edge loops as shown in the following image.

Step 4

With the top faces selected, extrude them up a bit. 

Step 5

Extrude the faces twice more and edit them as shown in the following image. Go to Show > Isolate Selected > View Selected and turn off the check box. It reveals the hidden object.

Step 6

Continue extruding the pipe as per the height of the fuel pump object.  

Step 7

Keep extruding and bending to reach to the top of the fuel pump head as shown in the following image.

3. Creating the T-shape Pipe Splitter Model

Step 1

Create a polygon cylinder in the side view with the settings as indicated in the image.

Step 2

Jump in the top view and press 4 key for wireframe mode. Go to Create > CV Curve Tool and click on its option box.

Step 3

In the Tool Settings window, turn on 1 Linear radio button.

Step 4

With the CV Curve Tool selected, draw a bent curved line as shown in the following image. 

Step 5

Jump in the perspective view. With the curve line selected, put it around the center of the PolyCylinder.

Step 6

With the cap faces of PolyCylinder and the curved line selected, go to Edit Mesh > Extrude and click on the option box.

Step 7

In the Extrude Face Options window, keep Divisions as 6 and click on Extrude button to apply the command.

Step 8

The extruded and bent pipe looks like this.

Step 9

With the main pipe mesh selected, go to Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool.

Step 10

With the help of Insert Edge Loop Tool, insert two edge loops. With the indicated faces selected, go to Edit Mesh > Extrude and click on option settings box.

Step 11

In the Extrude Face Options window, keep Divisions as 1 and click on Extrude button to apply the Extrude command.

Step 12

After applying extrude command, drag it up a bit in Z axis.  

Step 13

Following the same procedure, select the faces of the bent connector pipe and extrude.

Step 14

Following the same process, extrude the faces of the other side of the pipe. With the extruded faces selected, go to Edit Mesh > Duplicate Face command to apply it.

Step 15

It creates a separate and duplicate entity.

Step 16

With the duplicated piece of mesh selected, press F9 key for vertex selection mode and then edit the vertices like a cap shape. 

Step 17

To add details, insert two edge loops and edit the vertices as shown in the image.

Step 18

Insert two edge loops at the end edit the shape as shown in the following image.

Step 19

Put this cap model at the end of the pipe as if it is conjoining the pipe to the main body of the fuel pump. 

Step 20

For making hard corner surface, insert the supporting edge loops around the corner edges. 

Step 21

Insert the supporting edges at each corner surface of the mesh.

Step 22

In this way, the modeling of this section is completed.

Step 23

The modeling of the top part of the pipe is also completed.

Step 24

This completes the pipe line of the model so far. The pipe line is not 100% vertical to the base. I have deliberately made it a bit bent at some angles so that it may look rough and more realistic. 

Conclusion

In the next part of the tutorial, I’ll model the under-section pipe channels of the fuel pump.