Research and Critique On Object

Research
I researched on approaching to make toys like my pink pig. I noticed a variaty of methods to approach and make soft toys. Most people usually use NURBS and control vertex to slowly form out the object by manipulating these points which gives a similiar effect as using a Polygons Object and moving its vertexs while activating Soft Select mode.

However, after trying out these methods i felt that it maybe a bit problematic to form out the main shape of my pig with just a NURBS sphere. Therefore, I deceided to try using a low subdivision Polygon sphere and move the vertex while pressing the shortcut key for smooth repeatedly. I found this method of mine pretty effecient in its own way as by moving the vertex's of a low subdivision sphere i am able to shape out the rough shape of my object quite fast. After shaping it would i would then manipulate it's vertex's to slowly enlarge the body or make it "fatter" at the place needed. One of the videos showing the usage of "control points" would be  found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwR1gzbTpc&feature=related

In conclusion, through my research i found out that there is no real shortcuts in making soft toys as soft toys is not a solid objects like I have been doing during class like a bucket or maybe even a gameboy. For soft toy objects there is a need to craft out the object slowly and surely bit by bit as soft toy's are technically different all round making it impossible to use shortcuts like using the polygon creation tool to make the thickness of the side of a bucket and using revolve to shape it out.

Critique on my own creation
Even though I researched on how most people shape soft toy the biggest mistake I ever made was the head for my pink pig due to my lack of foresight. The shape of the head of my 3D pig is quite different from my soft toy, my soft toy's head is more "compressed" from the nose to the neck and the head is pushed backwards quite abit. I attempted to fix it up, but since my head and body was two parts i had to merge the vertexs togather and by merging them the form of the head would stretch out and change. In addition, my pig's head is rounded with alot of vertexs making it is extremely difficult to move it around to fix.

However, I do believe a there is a better way around this compare to my own method of doing things. For example, using NURBS for my toy may have been able fix this problem as NURBS have the ability to move using control vertex without affected the whole object unlike what Soft Selection mode does. Therefore, by using nurbs to move and manipulate the object part by part there is a chance I would have been able to shape my pig's head correctly.

Aside from my biggest mistake, another inevitable mistake I believe I did would definately be the tail. The mistake itself was inevitable as there was a bug with maya which did not allow me to use difference to form the hole for the tail to fit in nicely. Furthermore, by using difference the pig and the tail as a whole would disappear from MAYA itself. Therefore, i had to delete a face of the bottom of the pig and moved the vertex disrupting the vertexs of my pig in a unnatural way. I also believe there may have been another way around this if I had consulted my teacher about it.

Another mistake I did would definately be the cheeks of the pig. Since my pig is a furry object the cheeks is pretty furry itself and it follow the shape of the pig's head. I attempted to give a similar effect by starting with a cylinder and slowly manipulating it's vertex's to fit the shape of the pig's face. After matching the shape of the face i made use of the extra outter vertex's to maintain the shape of the face and merge in a "flattened" semi-circle to give the cheek it's puffy looks. Even though i manage to give off a similiar effect it was not satisfying.

The last and final mistake I believe would be the ears of my pig. Like the cheeks I attempted to make a similiar effect and i did. However, I managed to make ears that resembles just tiny bit of the actual ears but the results were definately not satisfying.

All in all I believe my object was poorly made with my lack of foresight and experience for many things. Even though yes my 3D pig figure does have charateristics that make's it resemble the original pig toy but it lacks the many tiny details to make it look 100% similiar to it.