Currently Carlos is in need of two basic tables, supplier and product. He currently has three suppliers but as his business continues to grow he expects to have more. The database needs to easily be able to add new suppliers and products without interfering with the integrity of the data or the database structure.

Data Modeling

Using the following diagram we can see that we will be creating two tables; suppliers and products.

We are creating a one-to-many relationship because each supplier may have several products, but each specific product can only have one supplier. We also are going to guarantee that products have to be associated with suppliers, and suppliers have to be associated with products. A supplier is of no use without a product and a product can't come into the door without a supplier.

Normalization

We have reviewed the design to 3NF (Third Normal Form) and find that we are good. The Third Normal Form states that we must meet the requirements for a First Normal Form (no duplicate columns from the same table and we have separated are data into two tables), Second Normal Form (our database is too small at this time to really worry about this), and the rules for the Third Normal Form (all of our columns are fully dependent upon the primary key.

Conclusion

Upon meeting the three requirements we can now safely create the database. With the design finished and compared to the rules of the Third Normal Form we can assuredly build a secure database that will grow as needed as Carlos' business grows.

Pros:

• Very powerful all around program
• Excellent tools for working with NURBS
• Several videos included to help you learn the program
• Detailed pop-up menus for individual polygons
• Very customizable and it supports custom scripts

Cons:

• Very expensive, about $2,000 for Complete and $7,000 for Unlimited, much higher than the average person's price range
• Very steep learning curve
• Lack of features and tools "Out of the Box"
• Not great for people who only want to do small animation projects, more tuned towards commercial users

Lightwave 3d

Pros:

• Many built-in features
• Not as expensive as Maya
• A fairly popular program

Cons:

• Very complex interface
• Maybe too many features, mostly unused

Animation Master

Pros:

• Very simple interface
• Tons of features for both basic and advanced users
• Excellent for all types of animation, from full characters to small items
• Simple one click rendering
• Won't break the bank, only a few hundred dollars
• Many full models that come with the program
• Easy animating and a very detailed timeline

Cons:

• Not much of a professional program, more for people just fooling around
• License does not allow you to resell the program
• Very simple, cartoon style characters

3d Studio Max

Pros:

• Very popular program
• Several built in videos explaining the program
• Great for animating all kinds of projects
• Many pre-made models you can download
• Great features built in
• Accepts add-ons

Cons:

• Very expensive, $3,500
• Difficult to learn

Disclaimer: These are just my opinions from having used all of these programs.

Time to begin, no doubt you will have followed my previous tutorials on how to create most of the scene here we will work on adding the final touches to our scene.

This tutorial however will not hold your hand all the way through, I have done three before this one to get you used to the lay out, this one is to give you the orders but not show you all they way, basically it will help you learn for your self as well as teach.

First lets begin by creating the fence, create a cube now drag the cube to a reasonable height, change the cube to face mode, select the top face and extrude it, drag the face upwards and scale its width, this will create one piece of the wooden fence.

Now to make this process quicker texture this one fence post now, open the hypershader and create a lambert make the lambert a dull to darkish brown colour and apply it to the fence post.

Move the post so that it’s just in front of the sky we created and duplicate again and again until the length of the sky is covered with fence posts in front like in the top image. Next create a cube and scale it so its thin and long, move it behind the fence posts to create a piece of wood that’s holding the fence posts together, use the brown texture on this file.

Moving onwards create another cube scale the cube to the height of the bush you want and the length, use the polygon tool names cut face tool and cut the cube several times until you have enough vertexes to create a bush shape, once your happy with the cuts you have done, can never be to many, switch the cube to vertex mode and start randomly selecting them and dragging them in and outwards, this will create a uneven surface, select the cube in standard mode and use the polygon tool smooth, do this three times on the cube to create our hedge.

Go on to google and find a hedge texture using the hypershader and a lambert load the texture and drop it on to the hedge, for extra effects on the hedge lambert add a bump map reload the hedge texture and set the bump to about 0.250, also in the hypershader select the 2d (3d) placement option on the lambert for the hedge and set repeat u and v to about 15 to make it more detailed and not stretched.

The hedge and fence are created now for the mud, create a cube make it very thin place it above the paving slabs and below the hedge, scale it to look thin and long enough for the scene and use a brown lambert on this.

Now for the rail, create a cylinder make sure it is set to 20, scale the cylinder so its thin and tall, create a blinn metal texture and drop it on, now create a sphere and scale it so its just bigger then the cylinder and place it on top of the cylinder create a black bin texture for that, now select the cylinder, duplicate it and turn it on its side scale it thinner and longer so it covers all of the scene, now duplicate it twice more and place them roughly equally along the standing cylinder, now duplicate the standing cylinder scale it down and fatter, place it around the section where the two cylinders meet to create a hider or a joint, do this for the other two places too, group the standing tall cylinder and its joint sections group them and duplicate them a number of times to create the rail.

there you go end of scene and I didn’t hold your hand, you should have learnt some useful tool and how to do things on your own.

Welcome to my third tutorial in this series as a beginner we have covered basic texturing and modelling plus some other key features such as keyboard short cuts and some tools that you will use often.

The next step is to teach you how to import a file as a texture, also in this scene we will use pre built textures to create a floor.

Firstly you need to have completed both of my last tutorials for this one to work so if you haven't please find them on here (tutorial 1) and here (tutorial 2). There are two before this one to complete search for the key word maya.

Above is the image of the scene we will complete at the end of this tutorial, so lets get started please open up maya 7.

Now we have opened the trash can scene we need to make some changes, firstly move the camera view in the perspective view so its something like above, don't worry if your polygon plane floor doesn't fit in the view we will be making this bigger next.

Now we need to select the sky polygon plane in the front view, press R in the front or side view and with the green scale box make the sky bigger so it fits perfectly in our resolution gate (if you cant see your resolution gate in your perspective view go view > camera settings > resolution gate. In the perspective view menu). This will make the sky fill the screen for our render, then go to the top view select the polygon plane floor and press R and with the blue scale tool make the floor big enough to cover the resolution gate.

You should have something looking like the image above, now we have the sky and floor plus the camera in the right place its time to move on.

Its time to begin naming our objects, technically you should have done this at the beginning but back then I thought I was doing the one tutorial it didn't matter but now it does, open up your outliner window > outliner and lets begin naming the objects, click on a object or a group in the outliner and look in the perspective view to see what the object is, double click the name in the outliner type in a new one and press enter, do this with all the objects and groups until you have named them all, then using CTRL and LEFT mouse button click on all the objects associated with the trash can and press CTRL and G to group them, then rename the group trash can object.

Now we have everything named it will make everything a lot easier now, right moving on I believe the floor is way to boring for this scene and it needs something to make it more interesting so I decided to add paving slabs, so go create > polygon primitives > cube.

With the cube go into the outliner and name it paving slab, then in the top view press R and using the yellow scale tool box in the middle of the cube scale the cube until its just bigger then the width of the trash can aaround all sides. Then in the front or side view press R and with the green scale tool box scale the cube so its thin enough to look like a paving slab, this is your own personal choice of size.

Now we have one paving stone in the top view port press W and click the yellow box in the centre of the object and move it into the one of the corners of the scene so its got a tiny gap between the sky and the edge of the scene, then press CTRL and D to duplicate and then with the blue move arrow tool move it just above the last one with a tiny gap, repeat this until you have done a full row of paving slabs.

Now select all the paving slabs in the outliner and press CTRL and G to group them name the group paving slabs row, then go modify > centre pivot now press CTRL and D this will duplicate the entire row, press W and with the red move arrow move the paving slab row across from the last row you created but leave a small gap between them, then with the blue move arrow tool move them downwards so that the centre of the paving slabs is inline with the gap between the other row.

Now select both rows in your outliner press CTRL and D and in your top view press E and with the red tool shift them across so that there across from the others but with a little gap between, repeat this until you have covered the floor in paving slabs, in the outliner select all the groups of paving slabs rows and CTRL and G them name he group pavement and there is the floor it will look something like this below.

Now we have the sky and the floor but both are untextured so let's begin by texturing the floor, remember the polygon plane we created for the floor that is under all our paving slabs, we are going to add a texture file to this next, browse on google and under images find a mud texture you want to use, type in something like free mud textures, then when you have a texture you like save it to my pictures on your computer. MAKE SURE THE FILE YOU DOWNLOAD IS A JPEG!

Now go window > rendering editors > hypershader now when its open look at the left hand side where it says blinn use the scroll bar and scroll down till you see one called surface shader and select this. We will use a surface shader because light does not affect them at all in the scene.

When you have created the surface shader we need to open up the attribute editor if its not open (located at the top under the minimize to taskbar) now where it says out colour you can see a slide bar and across from the slide bar a chequered box, click the chequered box, this should create a pop up window

This is the box that should have appeared, right at the top where it says 2d textures make sure this is set to normal other wise it will do a projection texture which is something we don't want right now, then click the word file.

When you click the word file in the attribute editor you have some new choices, where it says image name and then the space click the folder across from the space, this will open up a browser, use this browser to select the image that you downloaded, once you have found the image LEFT click on the image and click open this will load the texture you downloaded on to the surface shader. Now in the hypershader click this tool below

This tool will open up all the section of the surface shader in the work area, I always do this so that its not a mess down there and I can easily get to the texture that I am using.

Right in the outliner reselect the floor (not the paving slabs) in the hypershader RIGHT mouse click and hold over the surface shader that's our floor and select assign material to selection and then our floor now has a texture assigned to it.

Now repeat steps 10 to 16 but find a sky texture file ( http://thumbs.photo.net/photo/85919-sm.jpg the one I used) when you repeat these steps press 6 in the perspective view to see the textures applied to the scene you should have something looking like this.

We now have the floor and the sky textured but what about the paving slabs they look terrible just that plain colour so instead of using a texture we can load it lets use a pre built in tool to make one that could work.

Window > rendering editors > hypershader where it says blinn scroll down to a lambert, we will use a lambert because unlike a blinn they don't shine, now in the attribute editor across from the word colour click the chequered box again and this time in the pop up box click Brownian. In the attribute editor we now have some options to play with to get the texture how we want it look below to see a image of the setting that we want for it and the colours

Once you have set the lambert up like this in your outliner select the pavement group and then in the outliner RIGHT click on the lambert we created hold down the RIGHT click and then chose assign material to selection.

There you go you have created the scene for the trash can its far from perfect but it has helped you learn some tools that are very handy to know in maya 7 and in all 3D packages.

Render the scene out if you remember how to and have a look at what you have created :D

In the next tutorial we will make a hedge for behind the trash can to hide some of the sky so it doesn't look like its just been placed there, and we will also model a fence to go before the hedge, this will teach you some more tools that you might need to know :D

First you need to have followed my other guide on how to model the trash can if you haven’t please visit and follow this guide.

First things we need to do is create a polygon plane so go to the top menu create > polygon primitives > plane, now in any view port press W and use the green arrow to move the plane down so its just above the feet, so basically the feet go through the plane as this isn’t really that important. Now press R in any view port and using the perspective view and the yellow box scale the plane so that it’s huge! Now we need to get out a resolution gate so we can see what we will render for the image.

Right the next step is to in the perspective view in the white menu and click view and go view > camera setting > resolution gate this will now create a box in the view, you see anything inside of this box will be rendered out and anything not will be cut off.

Now we go window > outliner and select the plane we created and CTRL and D so we make a copy with the copy press E and in the perspective view and with the red rotate tool turn the plane till its stood up 90 degrees, if you want to be precise with the angle open the channel settings, to do this go to the top right hand corner and under the close window x you will see a image this is the channel editor when you open this up go to the rotate X section LEFT mouse click and change it to 90 and press enter.

Now in the top view port click with the MOUSE WHEEL and press W and move the plane so that it’s behind the trash can, this will create a floor and background for the scene.

Now lets get some lights into the scene go to create > lights > directional lights, now we will use these for our two point based light system that will give a nice effect to the scene. With the first light you have created in the top view port press W and with the yellow box in the middle LEFT mouse click and drag the light so that its in front of the trash can and to the left a bit, then press E and with the green rotate tool move the light till its pointing towards the trash can. Now move to the front or side view and press W and using the green arrow move the light so that it’s a fair bit above the trash can, now press E and use the red rotate tool to point the light downwards towards the trash can.

The step above as put the first light in place now we need to play with the setting to get the light how we want it, click on the light in the outliner and now we need to open up then attribute editor, remember the channel editor well not the middle one but the one after is the attribute editor click this.

Now where we have loads of new settings we have one called colour, click in the white box that is next to the word for the colour palette to open, choose a colour you think best suited for the scene I went for a soft yellow/orange colour as this is like a spring or summer colour. Then click shadows to drop down a new section and scroll down to where it says use ray trace shadows and check the check box and that’s the first light created and set up.

Now CRTL and D the light so we have a clone before we do anything click use ray trace shadows so it’s turned of as in the real world unless there is another nearby source of light the sun only casts shadows. Now in the top view port middle click and press W and with the yellow box move the light directly across and behind the trash can, then press E and with the green rotate tool turn it till it faces directly at the trash can and towards the other light, now in the front or side view MOUSE WHEEL click and press W and move the light till its just above the floor and then press E and with the red rotate tool point the light at the trash can.

Now in the attribute editor with the light selected scroll to the word colour and change it from the colour you have selected to a colour in the opposite direction from the one you choose so if you choose the soft yellow/orange like me it will be a blue/green semi hard colour.

Now we have the background and the lights set up now for the materials we will use in this scene, go window > render editors > hypershader this will create a new pop up with some features we will use.

Now in the hypershader on the far left section click on the word blinn or the image above it to create a blinn material, now lets create the black for the trash can middle section, now in the attribute editor with the blinn selected click the grey box next to the word colour and change it to black in the colour palette that appears, scroll down to the word reflectivity which should be set to 0.500 click and change this to 0.200 and press enter if you want to change the specular colour to a softer grey.

Repeat the last step this time instead of making the black colour select a gold colour from the colour palette and leave the specular colour but still change the reflectivity, and create another one but this time we need a silver colour so in the colour palette change the colour to a light blue/grey colour, leave the reflectivity at 0.500 and set the specular colour to a light blue colour.

Now we have all the colours we will be using for the scene lets assign them to the objects we have created, first in the outliner with the hypershader still visible click on the object names pcylinder1 and then in the hypershader on the black colour RIGHT click and hold and choose the option assign material to selection now if you notice the inside of the trash can as turned black! Now in the outliner select the two pPipe1 and 2 and the first grouped object this is the detail we created on the trash can, and assign the gold colour to them like we did above and repeat with the legs but assign the silver colour, another way is to MOUSE WHEEL click on a blinn or any material and drag and drop on to a object in the perspective view.

Now we have all the objects textured and the scene is lit we need to set it up for a render now remember when we clicked the attribute editor tool at the top, next to it on the left is a weird movie clipboard click this to bring up the render options we will need to change.

Now with the new pop up we need to do some changes, where it says render using then a drop down box it should say maya software change this to mental ray, this is a powerful rendering tool that will help create even more realistic lights and shadows. Now if you don’t have the option mental ray it means the plug in is not turned on and needs to be so lets cover that.

Go window > settings/preferences > plug in manager and in the new pop up locate the plug in called mayatomr.dll and click both check boxes next to it.

Close the rendering settings and reopen them and re do step 16 you should now have mental ray options select this and wait for thee render setting to change, once this is done click the mental ray tab and from here we can begin to set the scene ready for rendering, first step change the quality presets from draft to production and then scroll down to final gather and click the check box (you have to click the word final gather to create the drop down).

Now in the perspective view move the camera around with ALT and LEFT mouse button to rotate the camera, ALT and MIDDLE MOUSE button to move the camera and ALT and RIGHT mouse button to zoom in and out, once you have got the trash can in to the shot and you are happy click the first movie clipboard sign to start rendering the view. Once this is clicked a new pop up appears and slowly your image will render out be warned this can take some time!

Now you have created the trash can, gave it some light and textures your all done! I shall next work on a tutorial to help you create a better floor and give the background a file of a sky texture so you can learn about importing texture files.

2. Now we move to the top menu bar and go to create > polygon primitives > cylinder and we click the small box at the right of the word, clicking this box in Maya will bring up he create properties for that object allowing you to change aspects before you create the cylinder

3. Now we have the object create properties open we need to make sure that the subdivisions around axis are set to 20, this will create a smooth cylinder, and then the axis is set to y and not x or z.

4. Now in all four views you can see a line object of the cylinder, this is due to the fact the views are set to view outline only at the moment, middle mouse click in the perspective view port, normally the top right view and press 5 on your keyboard. Now using ALT and RIGHT mouse button you can zoom in closer to the now solid object.

5. Now I don’t think the object is as tall as we really need it to be so let’s do some modifications to the object. The first step is to make sure the object is selected, only you need to do is Left mouse click on the object to highlight it, then press R on the keyboard to go to scale mode. Now we have four coloured boxes coming from the object we will be using the green box. With your LEFT mouse button click and hold on the green box and move upwards to you have the height you think best suited for the trash can.

6. Now we will model the opening in the street trash can, click and hold the RIGHT mouse button over the object and a new pop up menu appears, while still holding the RIGHT mouse button move the mouse to the word FACE and release. Now the object as turned blue with little squares every so often these are the polygon faces.

7. Now in your front or side view doesn’t really matter which, using the LEFT mouse button click and drag a box around all the top faces. Done correctly it will look like this below.

8. Now we have the top faces selected we need to make a extrude, first lets make sure we are in modelling mode. On the top menu under the words file, edit and modify is a drop down menu bar if you don’t see this go display > UI elements > restore UI elements. Now in the little drop down menu please make sure its set to Modelling and not rendering, animation or dynamics.

9. On the top menu go edit polygons > extrude face and click, now you may have noticed that on the faces you had earlier selected there is a new tool showing, this will allow you to scale and move the new polygon faces you had just created. In the top view port use your scroll wheel and click in the view to activate it, now press R on the keyboard to bring up the scale tool, now don’t forget ALT and RIGHT mouse button to zoom in, now using the yellow box in the middle of the object LEFT mouse click and scale the new faces inwards until you have a rim on the object.

10. Now once again go edit polygons > extrude face and this time with the tool that appears use the side or front view, Left mouse click the blue arrow hold it down and move the new faces towards the bottom of the object but leaving a gap. Now if you go to your perspective view you can see the object if you hold ALT and LEFT mouse button you can rotate the view, ALT and MOUSE WHEEL to move the view.

11. Now we have the basic shape lets create the next section, go to create > polygon primitives > pipe and click the small box across from it, now in the new box that has appeared set the thickness to 0.1 press enter and then make sure the subdivisions around axis are 20 and that the axis is y, press create.

12. Now in the top view port press R and using the yellow box like early scale the object to that it just touches or is just inside the most outer edge of the cylinder we created. Then in the front or side view press R and using the green box scale it thinner so you have what looks like a rim. Check the image below to see what you should have.

13. Right making sure that we still have the rim we created selected (if not select it) on the keyboard press CTRL and D this will duplicate the object for us instead of having to recreate one. In the front or side view use the green arrow (LEFT MOUSE button) click and drag it upwards, move it so it just over laps the top of the cylinder and creates an edge.

14. Now we want to add some detail to the two rims, now on the top menu go create > polygon primitives > cylinder and click cylinder we don’t need the box as we have it already set up for us. In the perspective view press R and use the yellow box to scale the cylinder down, the yellow box will scale in all the three axis of the object. Once the cylinder as been scaled down so that it’s thin enough to fit between the rims move to the front or side view. In one of these views use the green box to scale the object upwards so you have a thin tall cylinder like the one below.

15. Now press INSERT on your keyboard while you have the new cylinder selected, now in your top view port (and the other view ports) a new tool as appeared, it has a yellow box with three handles, using the top view port and the red handle LEFT mouse click and drag the box so that its in the centre of all the objects. Press INSERT again to turn it off.

16. Now if you press W you will notice that the move tool for the object is now located in the middle of the trash can, now what we are going to do is very simple, using CTRL and D we will duplicate the object then press E to bring up the rotate tool, we will then LEFT mouse click the green rotate section in the top view port and rotate the new object so that it lines up with the rim lines, (if you do make a mistake CTRL and Z will undo your last step) repeat this until all the rim lines have a cylinder on them like below.

17. Now on the top menu go windows > outliner and a pop up appears this is a list of every object that you have created in Maya, here you can rename objects so you know what they are, but you don’t need for this tutorial but in later life you should always name your objects. LEFT mouse click on the object called pcylinder2 in your outliner move down to you see pclyinder21 (you should see 21 or you haven’t made enough cylinder around the trash can) on pclyinder21 SHIFT and LEFT mouse click on the object in the outliner. This should have selected all the cylinders in between the two you selected. Now again in the top menu go edit > group then modify > centre pivot.

18. Now for the feet of the trash can, go create > polygon primitives > cylinder and click the little box again, now lets make some changes we want the subdivisions along the height to be 3, this will allow us to bend the polygon how we need it to look, click create, in the perspective view press R and scale the object so that’s its about the same thickness and all the other cylinders we created, but maybe just a bit thicker. Press W and move the object to the side so you can see it clearly, and in the side or front view press R and scale the cylinder as tall as you want for the foot, remember it will go from the bottom rim to the floor.

19. Now RIGHT mouse click and hold on the object and go to vertex and release, the object should have turned blue with purple squares, now in the front or side view LEFT mouse click and drag over the bottom set, and the next two set or vertexes leaving out the top set, this should mean you have only three sets selected, now press E in any view, now in the perspective view use the blue rotate section to bend the cylinder this will help begin to shape the feet, now select the bottom vertexes and the next ones up only press E again and using the blue rotate tool bend it the other way to create the foot. You should have something like the image below.

20. Now once again press INSERT and move the box that appears into the middle of the cylinder that is the trash can and use CTRL and D to duplicate and then press E and rotate the new object so its on one of the four very dark black lines on the grid do this two more times until you have all four feet. Now in your outliner select the four feet that you had created and group them and centre pivot them like we had covered before.

Well that’s all for the time been, I will begin writing the next tutorial on how to set up a two light based system, shadows, simple texturing to create a final piece that any beginner to Maya could be proud to create like the one image above.