Creating a station ID in Maya and After Effects
Modeling the Objects: The Hat
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We'll start with a simple NURB circle. This will define the inside area of the hat.
Duplicate the curve and scale it outward to define the outside of the brim of the hat.
Continue duplicating, scaling and translating the curves that define the edges of the hat
Until you have 6 as shown. Select the first 4 curves. I prefer the Hypergraph. Feel free to use the Outliner, or just do it manually.
And Loft a surface from these first four curves, as shown.
With this new surface selected, create a Bend Deformer so we can add a little Irish lilt to it.
Rotate it 90º in the Z axis and give it some curvature. I used 0.5.
Now we want to complete the surface between the brim and the rest of the hat. However, if we select the original curve and loft a surface, it will not properly match the surface to which we just added the bend. But, what we can do is create a lofted surface from an isoparm of this surface to the other two curves.
So, let's right-click and select the isoparms, or defining curves, of this NURB surface.
Select the furthest isoparm on the inside as possible. You should be able to click and drag to the center with your mouse. Again, the reason we are doing this is to select a curve that is affected by the bend deform we added.
With this curve selected, shift-select the top two curves from bottom to top.
And again, create a Lofted surface. Take note of the options, as they have changed. We want a "Cubic" surface degree, to create a curved surface. Linear would deliver a straight, non-curved surface.
It's sure'n looking Irish now. Again, this is just a suggestion. Make your hat the way you see fit.
Next, create a Planar surface to cap off the hat using our topmost curve.
This wouldn't be an Irish hat without the little belt that surrounds the bottom of the hat. Anyone know what that's called? I don't. But, whatever.
Duplicate this top surface and move it over a little so it's in its own space.
View the isoparms of this surface.
Select a curve that defines the top area of the belt. With this selected go to Edit NURBS>Detach Surface. This just split the the surface in two. We don't need the topmost surface we just created, so delete it.
Do this again to define the bottom of the the belt and delete the bottom surface. Don't forget, you can now hit "G" on your keyboard to repeat the Detach command. Scale this surface up a wee bit so that it is not interesecting with the hat. This leaves us with the resulting shape.
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Then we should move it back into position, aligned with the hat.
Now for the belt buckle. First, hide the hat objects.
Create a NURBs Torus as shown.
Now if we modify the CVs as such, dragging the CVs on the right outward:
As well as the CVs on the left:
The top CVs can be moved down a little bit.
Move the bottom CVs up.
Next we'll create a NURBs cylinder.
And scale and position it so it is as so:
If we look at this from the side in a wireframe view, we can modify the CVs so that this part of the buckle tapers off.
Group these together. Then scale and position them as such:
Now we need to tweak the CVs of the belt so that it loops through the buckle. I simply used a little bit of scaling and position adjustment.
Dance a jig ... the hat is modeled.