Creating End Tables

This tutorial covers basic polygonal primitives modeling with bevels.

set-up

Set the menu set to polygons.

Make sure you're familiar with the move and scale tools.

To create a polygonal object primitive go to create>polygon primitives>..

Modeling

Step one - Create a cube and scale it so it's the same size as the cube in the image below.

Step two - Right click on the model and go to edge component mode.

Step three - Select the vertical edges on the corners.

These will be the corners we bevel.

Bevelling

Beveling is pretty simple and straight forward in Maya.

Step one - Go to edit mesh>bevel... Open the options by clicking on the box beside the "bevel".

Step two - We're going to change the bevel's settings. Set the width to 0.149. This is the amount of the bevel.

Set the segments to 7. This is how many edges will be added inside the bevel. Click bevel.

Now we have rounded off the corners (bevel).

Step three - Right click on the model and go to object mode.

Step four - We're going to duplicate this tabletop 3 times. To duplicate the tabletop, go to edit>duplicate or ctrl+d. Position them like in the image.

Step five - Now for the legs, create a cylinder and scale and position it to the image below.

Step six - Duplicate it 3 more times and put each of the duplicated cylinders on one of the tabletop's corners.

Making an end piece

Step one - Create a cube. Position it and scale it like the image below. It will be square on top.

Note: It's important that this is the same thickness as the tabletops.

Step two - Select the three back edges as in the image below.

Step three - Go to edit mesh>bevel. We don't need to open the options because we're using the same options as we defined earlier.

Step four - Select the edge on the front of the table.

Step five - Got o edit mesh>bevel. This time open the options; we need to change them. Set the width to 1.0 and the segments to 12.

Now we've rounded off the front right corner.

Step six - Duplicate it like we did the tabletops and position them like in the image below.

Step seven - Use one of the legs from the first table, duplicate it 3 times, and position it to make the end piece's legs. It only needs 3.

Shading (color)

In Maya, all geometry is assigned to a default lambert material (the ugly gray). We're going to change this.

Step one - Select all the legs and go to the rendering shelf.

Step two - Click on the blinn button from the shelf. This will create a blinn and assign it to all the selected objects.

Step three -If the attributes editor doesn't open go to window>attributes editor.

Step four - Click on the color swatch of the blinn and set the color to red (really can be any color you want).

Step five - Now select all your tabletops (including the end table's) and create a lambert material on the shelf.

With the attributes editor still open, change the lambert's color to white. Once again this can be any color you want.

There you go: a quick end table.

download finished model here