Babysteps into Maya 1: creating a background model from scratch

due to technical problems with CS4 I changed tact & started my first attempt at 3D modelling in MAYA autodesk 2010

there is some background information on the technical & mathematical practices that seperate 3D animation from other types of animation here explaining the basics & keyphrases (I myself am not a highly mathematical person so feel this may help!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_modeling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonuniform_rational_B-spline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygonal_modeling

I started by creating a new project and a new ground plane which is the ground foundation for creating 3d scenes



I then [using the 3D object tools] set about creating new, seperate polygonal primitive shapes for the sky/enviroment (a sphere)), buildings (cube) , roofs (cylinder). I then scaled, rotated & moved the shapes along the three XYZ axis' to modify the shapes to suit the building components. I turned on autoshading so i could see a preview of the rough 3D model while i worked.



I collected together the shapes into groups (e.g. cylinder + cube = house & roof) to create the houses & lamp-posts, then duplicated the houses to create a street.




I had only a stick like cylinder for my lamp-post so I changed the mode to single component tools, this meant i could manipulate the look of the shapes from tiny points (nodes) anywhere on the shape. Using this method I reshaped the cylinder into a more recognisable lamp-post shape



I once again used duplicate to create a street full of lamp-posts. I then created a NURBS (Non-uniform rational basis spline) shape. Using NURBS rather than polygonal 3D shapes gave me better ability to create complex un-rational 3D shapes such as an electrical wire for the lamposts running between the houses. I edited thses wires the same way as the lamp posts using component mode to manipulate the wire shape then duplicated that after using a NURBS fine shading preset to make the wires look more 'organic' & less 'building block-like'



Using the previous NURBS primitive shapes, single component manipulation & duplication methods described above I created awnings for each house in the street.