I took a course which gave me access to Maya.  I am generally uncomfortable with
modellers but I wanted to challenge myself and really give it a shot, so I tried
what is reputed to be a very high-end piece of software with a particular strength
in modelling.  I found it to be an extraordinarily powerful tool with a medium to
high learning curve.  My picture never really came together for a variety of
reasons but the way I tried to use the tool probably has more to do with it than
the tool itself.  I was trying to stress organic modelling using shoes as the
subject.  My traditioanl way of handling organic modelling iss to create a kind of
web of hand-coded splines. Then generate a mesh from them.  I stuck with that
technique for one pair of shoes because it allowed me to easily add a surface of
disc-shaped "seqines" over the mesh.  The other shoes were all modelled in Maya.
I used a technique, that Maya supports, whereby a form can be created, then used
to "cast" other forms from it by attaching spline points to its surface.  These
curves are then lofted and stitched together.  So I created what was in effect a
shoe-lathes, then formed various shoes from them.  But much of the modelling I did
with the meshes, trying to duplicate thicknesses of leather etc., didn't really
contribute to my overall image.  The picture failed for reasons of art and design,
not the tools used.  -Jim

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