Maya: Detail

 I came across having a vertex out of place and found a solution to fixing it accurately by holding down "V" whilst moving the vertex, which makes it snap into place.

I have started to add curves and making the handle have smoother edges oppose to it looking blocky. I achieved this by adding more subdivisions and extending the outer two back to create a smoother edge.

The handles need further smoothing, which I will achieve with the smooth tool, but for the time being the gun is starting to take shape.

I have tried to add extra detail by adding the indentations of the gun.



The way I have tried to accomplish this is by using the edge loop tool to insert vertices. The tool would not allow me to create vertices where I wanted them, unlike before. I think the reason for this is because I have created additional subdivisions along the top and bottom, and in areas rotates edges.

The alternative was to use the multi-cut tool, target weld and connect tool to create them in the correct positions. It was not ideal, as it is long-winded to create all the vertices in this way, and does not ensure precision all the way around.

Target weld is particularly useful for merging two vertices together, especially close together that are unnecessary. However, I need to practice using the tool more because quite often merging two vertices results in deformations of the model.

Using the extrude tool to push the faces into the model to create the indentation resulted in a piece on the end and bottom of the indents. I am unable to delete the edge or face existing there, and attempted to fix the problem by creating extra vertices to essentially cut around the gap.

I have not been successful, and think I should have attempted this another way. Attempting to delete the edges in place now results in the model becoming horribly broken. I tried to delete the history to see if it would help the situation, but it did not. I think using the boolean tool to subtract a rescaled cube into a long, thin rectangle may have been a better method of achieving the desired result. I will try this approach for other indentations.