Model, Texture, and Render a Bathroom Interior Design with Maya - Part 1
Modeling and rendering of interiors is used in a great variety of industries, and creating result that is suitable for these big markets is a very big challenge. In this tutorial you will learn how to model, texture, and render an interior design of a bathroom using Maya. The modeling of the bathroom will be achieved using polygons, NURBS, and paint effects. The rendering process will be done with Mental Ray, using techniques that will quickly give you a photorealistic result.
Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in January of 2010 .
Final Effect Preview
Step 1
Go to “Create > CV Curve”.



Step 2
Press the space bar and change to the side view camera.



Step 3
Create a curve with the same shape as in the image. Note: The curve needs to be created from bottom to top.



Step 4
Switch back to perspective view, go to “Create > Polygonal Primitives > Cube”, and create a cube.



Step 5
The cube needs to be at the bottom of the curve.



Step 6
Select the back face of the cube and THEN the curve. Note: The order of selection is crucial.



Step 7
With the selection still active, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude (option box)” under the “Polygons” menu.



Step 8
Inside the option box, change the “Divisions” to 20 and click on “Extrude”.



Step 9
A polygonal object with the shape as the curve should be created (see image).



Step 10
The object has very sharp edges which create an unrealistic look. To solve that problem, select all of the edges you want to smooth.



Step 11
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel (option box)”.



Step 12
Inside the option box, change the “Segments” to 3 and the “Width” to a value that works for you (in my case 0.1500), then click “Bevel”.



Step 13
When the option box closes you will see all of the edges that you selected become nice and smooth.



Step 14
Now you need to create the light. Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.



Step 15
Create 2 edges around the object.



Step 16
Select all of the faces between the edges you created.



Step 17
With those faces selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”.



Step 18
Extrude the faces to the inside of the object.



Step 19
With these past steps you created a division for the light. Now you only need to extract the geometry on top of the object.



Step 20
Select all of the faces you want to extract.



Step 21
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Mesh > Extract”.



Step 22
Now you will have 2 different objects.



Step 23
Now, because you won´t be editing more geometry on this object, you can press '3' on the keyboard to smooth the polygons.



Step 24
This is what you should have so far. All the main outside shapes of the furniture.



Step 25
Select the vertexes at the bottom of the object and move them inward. This will make the bottom part of the object smaller.



Step 26
If you look at the image below you will see the difference.



Step 27
Now you need to extract the mirror so you can add a different shader to it. Select all of the faces you want to extract.



Step 28
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Mesh > Extract”.



Step 29
At this point of the tutorial you should have 3 separate pieces of geometry.



Step 30
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Create > Polygons Primitives > Cube”.



Step 31
Create a cube and position it.



Step 32
You need to smooth the outer edges of the cube. Select all of the edges you want to smooth.



Step 33
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel (option box)”.



Step 34
Inside the option box change the “Width” value to 0.1500 (this value can vary depending on the size of your scene) and the “Segments” to 3, then press “Bevel”.



Step 35
If you look closely at the edges you will see how nice they look.



Step 36
Let’s pretend you did a mistake with the Bevel values, you don´t need to go back, only go to the “Attributes Editor” and modify the values (changes will be seen in real time) .



Step 37
Go to “Create > Polygons Primitives > Cube”.



Step 38
Create a cube beneath the table you created earlier.



Step 39
With the cube selected go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”, under the “Polygons” menu,.



Step 40
Create an edge at the first third of the cube.



Step 41
Select the small face that was created as a result of the edge loop.



Step 42
With that face still selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude (option box), under the “Polygons” menu.



Step 43
Inside the option box, change the “Divisions” value to 1 and click on “Extrude”.



Step 44
Extrude the face just a bit outside of the cube.



Step 45
With the face still selected go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”, under the “Polygons” menu,.



Step 46
Extrude the size of the face to make it smaller.



Step 47
Again with the face still selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”.



Step 48
Extrude the face a very short distance to the inside of the cube.



Step 49
This is what you should have so far.



Step 50
Select the drawer you created before, and go to “Edit > Duplicate”.



Step 51
Move the copy just beneath the original drawer.



Step 52
For this copy of the drawer you only need a section of it. Select all of the faces you want to delete.



Step 53
Go to “Edit > Delete”.



Step 54
Select the remaining section of the drawer, and inside the view menu, go to “Show > Isolate Select > View Selected”.



Step 55
Now that we can only see the drawer we can work better with it.



Step 56
As you can see, the drawer has a missing a face that you need to add. Select all of the edges that are connected with the missing face.



Step 57
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Mesh > Fill Hole”.



Step 58
Now the missing face has been added to the drawer.



Step 59
To see the whole scene, select the drawer, and under the view menu, go to “Show > Isolate Select > View Selected”.



Step 60
Now we have 2 drawers, and we have space for one more.



Step 61
Select the last drawer, and go to “Edit > Duplicate”.



Step 62
Position the copy beneath the last drawer.



Step 63
The last drawer is visible from the back of the object.



Step 64
Select the 2 vertexes that go out of the geometry.



Step 65
Move them inward with the move tool.



Step 66
Now you need to smooth the edges of your drawers, so start selecting the top drawer.



Step 67
To work better with it, isolate it using the same process as before.



Step 68
Now you should be looking at only one drawer.



Step 69
Select all of the edges you want to smooth.



Step 70
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel (option box)”.



Step 71
Inside the option box, change the “Width” value to 0.6000 (this value will be different depending on the size of your scene) and the “Segments” to 3, then press “Bevel”.



Step 72
The edges of the drawer should look nice and smooth now.



Step 73
Select the drawer, and under the view menu, go to “Show > Isolate Select > View Selected”.



Step 74
Now that all of the scene is visible, select the middle drawer.



Step 75
Under the view menu, go to “Show > Isolate Select > View Selected”.



Step 76
Select all of the edges you want to smooth.



Step 77
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel”.



Step 78
Now that the edges look nice, select the drawer.



Step 79
Under the view menu, go to “Show > Isolate Select > View Selected”.



Step 80
Now repeat the process for the last drawer.



Step 81
When you finish, the scene should look like this.



Step 82
Go to “Create > NURBS Primitives > Circle”.



Step 83
Change to the front view, and create a circle at the middle of the first drawer.



Step 84
Move the circle to the left just a bit.



Step 85
Go to “Create > CV Curve Tool”.



Step 86
Switch to the top view.



Step 87
Create a curve starting in the middle of the circle.



Step 88
This is what you should have.



Step 89
Select the circle and then the curve. Note: The order of selection is very important.



Step 90
With the selection still active, go to “Surfaces > Extrude”, under the “Surfaces” menu.



Step 91
Select the NURBS object and move it inside the drawer just enough to hide the edges of the object.



Step 92
This is what you should be looking at. If you look closely you will see that it looks very low-res.



Step 93
Create some isoparms along the object.



Step 94
At the “Surfaces” menu, go to “Edit NURBS > Insert Isoparms”.



Step 95
Now the NURBS object should be smooth along the curves.



Step 96
Select the object, and go to “Edit > Duplicate”.



Step 97
Duplicate it 2 times, and move the copies to each of the 3 drawers.



Step 98
Go to “Window > Outliner”.



Step 99
The outliner will a list of all of the objects in the scene.



Step 100
Organize the list and add names to each of your objects. Now that the scene is organized you can close the outliner.



Step 101
Switch to the front view..



Step 102
Go to “Create > CV Curve Tool”.



Step 103
Create a curve like the one in the image below.



Step 104
Select the curve.



Step 105
Under the “Surfaces” menu, go to “Surface > Revolve”.



Step 106
The curve should be revolved, but probably with a wrong pivot position.



Step 107
To change the position of the pivot, go to the “Attributes Editor” of the object, and under the revolve tab, change the “Pivot” values.



Step 108
Remember to leave a hole for the water to flow from.



Step 109
With the object selected, go to “Modify > Center Pivot”. This will position the tools in the middle of the object instead of being far away.



Step 110
Here you can see the move tool at the middle of the object.



Step 111
Position the object and scale it to make it oval shaped instead of a perfect circle.



Step 112
Now you need to create a hole for the object to fit into.



Step 113
Change to the top view.



Step 114
Go to “Create > Polygons Primitives > Cylinder”.



Step 115
Create a cylinder and shape it to match the shape of the object you created before.



Step 116
Position the cylinder.



Step 117
Select the cylinder and then the table. Note: The order of selection is very important.



Step 118
With the selection still active, go to “Mesh > Booleans > Difference”, under the “Polygons” menu.



Step 119
Now you should have a big hole, but it's probably blocked by the top face of the first drawer.



Step 120
Select the top face of the first drawer.



Step 121
Go to “Edit > Delete”.



Step 122
Now everything should be fine.



Step 123
Change to the top view.



Step 124
Go to “Create > NURBS Primitives > Circle.



Step 125
Create a circle were you want to start the object.



Step 126
Change to the side view.



Step 127
Go to “Create > CV Curve Tool”.



Step 128
Create a curve just like the one in the image below.



Step 129
Select the circle and then the curve. Note: The order of selection is very important.



Step 130
With the selection still active, go to “Surfaces > Extrude”, under the “Surfaces” menu.



Step 131
Now you should have a NURBS object that looks low res.



Step 132
To smooth the object, insert a few isoparms along the object.



Step 133
Under the “Surfaces” menu, go to “Edit NURBS > Insert Isoparms”.



Step 134
With these extra isoparms the object should look smooth.



Step 135
Move to the end of the object and add 1 isoparm almost at the edge.



Step 136
Under the “Surfaces” menu, go to “Edit NURBS > Insert Isoparms”.



Step 137
Look at the image below to see if you inserted the isoparm in the correct position.



Step 138
Select the vertexes at the end of the object.



Step 139
Scale them to the inside of the object to add thickness.



Step 140
This is what it should look like.



Step 141
Go to “Create > Polygons Primitives > Pipe”.



Step 142
Create a pipe and position it.



Step 143
Select all of the edges that you want to smooth.



Step 144
With those edges selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel”, under the “Polygons” menu.



Step 145
The object looks really bad now.



Step 146
Move the object so you can see it completely.



Step 147
Select all of the edges from the bottom of the object.



Step 148
With those edges selected, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel", under the “Polygons” menu.



Step 149
Press number 3 on the keyboard and you should see a nice and smooth object.



Step 150
Move it back into place.



Step 151
With the object selected, go to “Edit > Duplicate”.



Step 152
Move and scale the copy to create a nice shape below the original object.



Step 153
Duplicate it again, and position it at the end of the object.



Step 154
This is what you should have so far.



Step 155
Change to the side view.



Step 156
Go to “Create > NURBS Primitives > Circle”.



Step 157
Position the circle at the side of the NURBS object.



Step 158
Separate the circle from the NURBS object.



Step 159
See the image below for reference.



Step 160
Select the NURBS object and then the circle (the order of selection is very important). Note: You need to be looking though the side view in order for the next steps to work.



Step 161
With the selection still active, go to “Edit NURBS > Project Curve on Surface”, under the “Surfaces” menu.



Step 162
Now you should have a circle over the surface of the NURBS object.



Step 163
With the object selected, go to “Edit NURBS > Trim Tool”, under the “Surfaces” menu.



Step 164
With the tool active, go to its settings (on the right side of the screen), and change the “Selected State” to "Discard".



Step 165
In the active view you will see some wireframes. Click on the wireframe that corresponds to the surface of the circle. A yellow diamond should appear on top of the surface you selected. Press enter on the keyboard.



Step 166
The NURBS object should now have a hole.



Step 167
Select the polygonal object you created earlier.



Step 168
Duplicate it.



Step 169
Move, rotate, and scale the copy to fit inside the hole of the NURBS object.



Step 170
You should leave a small margin between the object and the NURBS object. This will make shadows possible.



Step 171
Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder”.



Step 172
This is the approximate size the cylinder should be.



Step 173
Position, scale, and rotate the object to fit inside the other object you created earlier.



Step 174
Select the edges at the end of the object.



Step 175
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel (option box)”.



Step 176
Inside the option box, change the “Width” value to 0.0900 (this value depends on the size of your scene), then click on “Bevel”.



Step 177
The object should have a bevel, but it will look worse than before.



Step 178
Select the object, and go to its “Attributes Editor”. Inside the Bevel tab, change the “Smoothing Angle” to 100. This step will make the object look smooth at the edges.



Step 179
Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Pipe”.



Step 180
Create a pipe, move, scale, and rotate it so that the object you created before fits inside it.



Step 181
Select all of the edges you want to smooth.



Step 182
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Bevel (option box)”.



Step 183
Inside the option box, change the “Width” value to 0.390 (this value depends on the size of your scene) and click on “Bevel”.



Step 184
Make sure that your object is beveled.



Step 185
Select one face from the front of the object.



Step 186
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude (option box)”.



Step 187
Inside the option box, make sure the “Divisions” are set to 1, and click on “Extrude”.



Step 188
Extrude the object as shown.



Step 189
Without deselecting the face, go to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”.



Step 190
Extrude the face less than before and scale it.



Step 191
Without deselecting the face, go once more to “Edit Mesh > Extrude”.



Step 192
Extrude the face and leave it the same size.



Step 193
This is what you should have. Now you only need to smooth the shape.



Step 194
Under the “Polygons” menu, go to “Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool”.



Step 195
Create some edge loops in locations where you want to maintain the shape of the object.



Step 196
When you are finished, press number 3 on the keyboard, and watch how your object looks nice and smooth.



Step 197
This is how your scene should look at this step of the tutorial.



Step 198
Go to “Window > General Editors > Visor”.



Step 199
Inside the “Visor” window, go to the “Paint Effects” tab, and scroll down to the “plantsMesh” folder.



Step 200
Inside that folder, select the “rubberPlantPotted…”.



Step 201
Zoom in close to the floor (the plant is going to be small).



Step 202
Click and drag until the plant is half completed.



Step 203
Release the click, and you will see the plant grow to its final shape.



Step 204
Select the plant and go to “Modify > Center Pivot”.



Step 205
Now you will see the tools right in the middle of the plant.



Step 206
Move and scale the plant to put it in the right place.



Step 207
Select the plant.



Step 208
Go to “Modify > Convert > Paint Effects to Polygons”.



Step 209
Now your plant is a polygonal object.



Step 210
Select all objects of the plant, and press number 3 on the keyboard to smooth its geometry.



Step 211
This is how it should look.



Step 212
Wireframe of the scene.



Step 213
Now you need to create the wall and floor. Go to “Create > Polygon Primitives > Plane”.



Step 214
Create 2 planes and position them.



Step 215
This is the end of the tutorial, 14,989 faces!


