We start with blocking out all the basic shapes for body and head, and then start adding detail on the head with sculpting. You'll learn the basis of NURBS geometry which is great for creating the shapes that makes this model and work with the components hulls, CV's and isoparms. We then convert to polygons and start shaping out mouth area and eye sockets using different polygon modeling tools and extrude the geometry for ears. To add the finer details we convert to sub d's and you'll learn how to always keep your lowest base mesh when converting between polygons and sub d's which is quite an important thing to know. We also work with the sculpt geometry tool to smooth out our model.

With the head done we move on to detail work on the body to create realistic feet for the hippopotamus and also work on sculpting out the skin folds that define this model. We then combine and merge the head and body to get a complete model with quads that can be rigged and animated.

This tutorial continues with UV layout and texture painting for skin. During the UV mapping process you'll learn some useful techniques and work with different types of maps in the UV Texture Editor. Our final UV map is then brought into Photoshop for texture painting a realistic color map for the skin with pores, grooves and good color variation. We also add a bump map to give the model a more natural feel and look, and a spec map to get control of the specular highlights when we add some lights to the scene.

Home Page : http://simplymaya.com/autodesk-maya-video-tutorial/modeling-and-projects/animals

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