Track Modeling

This is the final outcome of My Washboard.

This are the steps done:

First and foremost, create a plane polygon on the grid with the attributes given.

A plane polygon is place on the grid.
Assign new material > Blinn and add the image outline.jpg in. 'Smooth Shade' and 'Textured' must be turned on in order for the image to appear on the plane. I have to normalize the UVs so that the image will be at the center of the plane.

Go to Mesh > Create Polygon Tool to start plotting the points of the image. The method of the plotting is shown on the PDF file.

Turn off the visibility of the image to view the points drawn. The drawing of the track is flat on the grid, so, rotate it such that it looks like it is standing on the grid.

Extrude the track to expand so that it looks longer.

Add another 2 edges and select 2 faces and extrude it downwards. After extruding it downwards, select the new face that was created and extrude it out.

Use edge tool to select the 2 small edges if the outer new polygon and bevel.

For the tracks to have a nice curve, select Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Bend

My Reflection when developing the Track:
The basic tools plays an important part. Edges, faces, extrude and more. As I do the exercises, I find that Maya/3D is so much fun. I was struggling when reading the track modeling instructions for the first few parts but then I realise that I was reading and following the instructions rather than understanding it. So I redo the whole track by understanding it and applying the methods I've learnt so far. And yes, it is so much better and so much fun ! :)