The Table and Chair: Something Very Time Consuming

For this modeling assignment, we were tasked with modeling both a table and a chair. Sounds easy enough. Except we had to use exact measurements given by references, and the chair didn't have any tutorial. So it ended up being a very tedious task and ended up taking a lot more time then I originally thought. We were also tasked with UVing the table and chair, and texturing both accordingly. It seemed like an easier assignment, but once I started, I was very wrong.

First I had to start out with the table, which ended up turning out pretty well for me. We had to follow tutorials on the modeling and texturing, which is always welcome with these projects. In terms of creativity, we couldn't do too much, but I was able to alter the color, shading, and wear on the wooden table to my liking, which I feel ended up turning out much better than I originally thought. There were a few problems I ran into with the table though, mostly having to do with following certain commands and hotkeys displayed in the video, causing me to get stuck in some areas for a few minutes. Also, the bump map acted up with me a few times, seemingly not rendering in the Arnold render view.

Finally, there was my chair. I wanted to do something a little more simpler for this since this was my first time relying on learned lessons and skill alone, so I decided to choose a small stool/chair. I based mine off of a stool from IKEA since most of the measurements and other images were provided there. However, despite the chair in the original image being more of a cotton-type fabric, I decided to go with a more leather kind of texture for it, allowing me to experiment a little bit more with specularity. Also, I made the legs a dark brownish color to add a nice, modern look to the chair, similar to the reference image. The few problems I had with the chair was just figuring out the UVs since it had different attributes to the table. However, it was as if I was UVing 5 different table legs, making the process much more easier for me. Also, I experimented with bevels on the object (since it's a leather material) and there were a few issues with the texture stretching or warping, but they were fixed quite easily.

All in all, I feel both my table and my chair came out quite well, despite all of the obstacles and difficulties with Maya. However, this project took me practically a full day to complete, so it'll probably convince me to start setting certain work schedules for these types of projects. Hopefully I can keep improving my skills from here and start to perfect the techniques used in this assignment.