Using Maya: Making the 'Seals' using the Extrude tool.

Example of Japanese Origami Seal.

 

With many parts of my door, I have used the 'Extrude' tool to make more efficient meshes and also to get interesting shapes. For part of my door, I have Japanese Origami Seals that hang from the rope around the top half of the structure. To make this, I started off by making a basic cube.

I then adjusted the size and width of the cube until it was the right shape for the seal.

I then need to subdivide the object so I could extrude. I did this by using the 'Insert edge loop' tool.

I clicked the options box next to the tool and selected 'Multiple edge loops' and changed them to 2 divisions. This would make a total of 3 sections to the shape. Using multiple edge loops enables me to have accurate distance between the edges. Something I couldn't do so perfectly if I did it manually.

I then selected the 'Faces' tab and selected the area in which I wanted to extrude.

I then clicked the 'Extrude' tab and dragged it out sideways.

Once I made the size of the new extruded shape accurate. I then selected the bottom face of that extrusion and pull it down (to mirror the previous shape)

I then wanted to add another edge loop so I could repeat this process.

This was done by clicking the options again on the 'Insert Edge loop' tool but this time using 'Relative distance from edge' as this enabled me to make an edge where ever I wanted. If I used the previous setting, it would subdivide the shape too much.

Once I completed that part, I repeated the process until I had four rectangular shapes that were all part of one object.

This is what it looks like with good subdivisions and all faces extruded correctly.

 

Lastly, I rotated it with the rotation tool so it would look and hang like a real Japanese origami seal!