Haha, I win. I just started learning maya and actually did a robot for fun like 2 weeks ago. lol
I hope I can get as good as you guys when I get better.

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All of your projects are making my robot look like it is a joke to this competition so I'll try my hardest to build another robot for this competition, since I can't find the delete button for this thread.
P.S. I am still a beginner so it isn't going to be good as your guys. lol. Just a little bit better (hopefully).

Actually that's not too bad for just having started with Maya, no one's amazing in the beginning and practice make perfect. These challenges are about pushing yourself and improving your skills as well, whilst hopefully getting some help along the way from the other guys so good on you for joining the challenge. I suggest you find some references and make a second robot, hopefully it will be fun and you'll learn something new.

Good luck to you
Nilla

You'll get there

Best of luck to you
Dave

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From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

That's not bad, and I don't think you should make a second robot, I think you should scale this one up and keep working on it. Add more geometry and starting tweaking shapes, adding gizmos and whatever. The good thing about robots is you can always add parts on to make them more interesting.

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-stwert

Website - Blog - YouTube - Vimeo - Facebook - Twitter

-->How to Effectively Ask Questions on Forums<--

remember to post your progress to, so then we can potentially suggest some things that'll help

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

It's sad how long it took me to do this...

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Nah its not sad time its happy time I can't even count the amount of hours months possibly even years of time that I've dedicated to Maya and I still feel like a Newb most of the time but as long as you enjoy all those frustrating hours your in the right place

Like Chirone said though post your work for tips and look at other peoples work and ask how they do it you will learn tons very quickly. SM is the best resource out there because of its active forum and the fact that ppl are actually really nice here unlike some other forums no one here will make fun of your work or your newb questions. Plus we have access to a lot of professional modelers who are always great to share their talents.

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- Jake

how does it look so far? I think I am I done with the head unless you guys see any revisions I need to do.

BTW is there any boogies in my nose?

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Are you using any reference or just modeling from imagination? Because most people use a lot of reference and it's much easier as a beginner if you try to get plenty of it and use things like image planes to give you a guide to model from. Also try the bevel tool, you have very sharp edges and they have to be beveled to reflect light.

Here's some tips on renders, because if you use a black background it's difficult for others to see what they're looking at. Try either to create a backdrop, they create one in this tutorial but basically it's just to extrude the back edge of a polygon plane with no subdivisions a few times until you get an L-shape, press the 3 key, and put any grey material on it.

Another thing you can do is select the perspective camera and change environment color from black to grey, it will do the trick as well (I added a screen shot).

Final thing, when you post work in progress people usually need to see the wireframe to help you better so watch this video and make a wire render of what you've got so far.
howto wireframe on shaded render - YouTube

And just keep going, remember the difference between something that looks ok and great is lots and lots of time!

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on the top of the nose it looks like you have a funny mix of hard and soft edges. you should choose one or the other for that.
select the edges and hold down shift, then hold right click and move to soften/harden edges, and then select soft or hard.

also, render as close to the model as you can so it doesn't look like a little pea in a pot

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

Nice robot As I looked at it I immediately thought of the Robot Devil from Futurama! Maybe you could use that as a reference, it'll make the modeling phase much easier!

There are a lot of reference on Google, even funny looking robot figurines!

Keep up the good work and good luck!

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For some Maya tips, tutorials and personal insights, nice images etc, check out my blog
https://rencsenyidavid.com/blog

Seeing how you have very little Maya experience, I'm impressed that you joined the competition. I think it's a great way to have fun while you are learning and I'm glad you decided to join.

I like how you're trying to make the robot unique. I know you're limited by your current knowledge of Maya but so far, not bad.

Do you have a design planed out for your robot or are you just making it up as you go along? As Daveido said, having a reference to go by is extremely valuable. Even just a simple drawing of what you want to do can be very helpful.

I love how you did the chin area. Looks very creative. I look forward to seeing what you do for the robots body.

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Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

almost winter break and all my finals are going to be out of the way. Then I will have more time for maya and this project.

Hopefully I can last tomorrow, friday, and monday-wednesday