In this chapter, you learned about the basic modeling workflows and how best to approach a model. This chapter dealt primarily with polygon modeling and covered several polygon creation tools as well as several polygon subdivision tools. You put those tools to good use by building a hand and smoothing it out, as well as making a complex model of an old-fashioned steam locomotive. The latter exercise stressed the importance of putting a model together step by step and understanding how elements join together to form a whole model. You’ll have a chance to make another model of that kind in Chapter 6, when you create a little red wagon.
Complex models become much easier to create when you recognize how to deconstruct them into their base components. You can divide even simple objects into more easily managed segments from which you can create a model.
The art of modeling with polygons is like anything else in Maya: your technique and workflow will improve with practice and time. It’s less important to know all the tricks of the trade than it is to know how to approach a model and fit it into a wireframe mesh.