Modelling a Simple Table in Maya 2012

In this tutorial, I will take you through few steps to create a simple table using Maya.  I will be using Maya version 2012.

If you don't have Maya in your machine, you can go to Autodesk's website and download a Demo version to follow along.

First of, Start Maya.  

Use the start menu or if you have it on the desktop, click the shortcut icon to start.

When Maya starts, set your window as shown in the image below.  First, select Polygon from the pull-down menu, then select again Polygon from the shelf and make sure you're in Perspective view.

Before you start the next step, let's just do one more setting.  Go to the Create Menu > Polygon Primitive> right down to Interactive Creation, Uncheck the tick if you have it checked (see image below to verify) .

Now let's create the table.  Click on Polygon Cube icon to create a polygon.  Then under the Attribute Editor, select the polycube1 tab and adjust the figures to those provided below.

 

Once you specify the above width, height, depth and segments of the cube, go to the main window.  Make sure you select the move tool and the object is selected.  Right-mouse click to bring a set of contextual menus.  From the pop-up menu, select Vertex.

Now switch to the top view.  Press the spacebar on your keyboard to bring the 4 views, then once the 4 views are displayed, move the cursor over the top view (see image below) then press the space bar again to switch to the top view this time. 

From the top view, drag across from left to right highlighting all the vertex in the middle area as shown below. 

Switch to the scale tool by pressing R on your keyboard.  Then, use the red handle (X) to drag the selected vertex towards the direction of the red handle until the outer points/vertex come close to the unselected vertices.

If you do it right, you should have something like the one below.

The next step is to highlight the middle vertices again but this time leaving the top and bottom vertices unselected as shown below.  Then use the blue handle to scale downwards until the outer selected vertices comes close to the unselected vertices (top & bottom).

If you do it well, you should have something like the one below.  If you did not get it right, go back and repeat the steps above.

Now go back to the perspective view.  Press spacebar on your keyboard to go into the 4 views then move the mouse over the perspective view and press spacebar again.  This would bring you into the perspective view.  Change to shaded mode by pressing number 5 on your keyboard.  

Using the left-mouse button and the Alt key on your keyboard, rotate to the bottom of the object.

Right-click somewhere on the object and from the pop-up menu choose Face.

Carefully select the four faces as shown below.  Press shift while left-mouse click to select multiple faces.

 

 

After you select all the four faces, go to the Edit Mesh Menu and click Extrude.

Go to the main window and to the controls, left-click the blue handle and pull downwards.  This would extrude the faces you've selected creating a kind of stand.  Pull the handle to a reasonable height and let go.

 

Well, there you have it.  Just the basic but hope you've utilised some tools which I believe would be handy as you start using them.

You can continue manipulating the model once the main shape is created until you come up with something that looks sensible.  For now, I'll leave it for you to discover.