The Energon Pub

Hiya! I'm new 'round these parts, just looking for some friendly help...

I tried using the search to see where this threat would go but no matter what I typed into the search absolutely nothing popped up. I checked the FAQ, but nothing was mentioned about it, so I dunno if the search is working properly right now. Anyhoo, if this is in the wrong place I apologize in advance.

Anyway, I'm taking a VERY self-directed class in using Maya for modeling and animating, and my upcoming project for the spring semester at my school is to model a car of some sort and then once the entire car is modeled, to transform it a la Michael Bay's Transformers.

I have seen people on this forum here and there do some work with the G1 transformers, especially modelling heads and faces, etc., along with bodies. Although I want to take a more TF2007 approach to how I construct the robots I want them to be as resembling their G1 counterparts as much as possible.

My initial idea was to do a G1 Hotrod, though despite him having characteristics of a Lamborghini, some kind of Ferrari, and a Pontiac Firebird, I don't think it's quite clear as to what kind of car he is, so finding the blueprints to making a realistic car version of him in CG would be rather difficult.

My current idea is to stick with a red Lamborghini Murciélago and do Sideswipe, who, if memory serves is that kind of car.

The problem I face is that I am really new to Maya, and am not sure if I can make things like heads, robot hands, the Bayformers camera shutter eye things that Optimus had in the 2007 movie, etc. alone, at least not without some form of tutorial. I'm praying I can figure out how to work the tutorials I got from various websites on how to model a car, though they use tools in various programs I'm not very familiar with.

I'm also not totally sure how I'm going to swing things like joints and other robot machinery that would swing out of the car during transformation, not including existing car panels. After I model the body of the car I don't really have a plan of attack, per se.

I was wondering if somebody who knows how to do this stuff can help me through it, or provide me with some advice. I know I'm getting the blueprints for the cars off of http://www.tutorials3d.com , so those should be easy enough to obtain, but assuming that I CAN achieve the making of the car before half the semester's over I'm not sure how to go from there to turn it into a full, standing robot. I may model where the feet come from off of the new bumblebee, etc., but other things I'm not sure for mass purposes, or what my plan of attack should be.

If anyone can help me with making the car into a robot (advice, suggestions, how to use certain tools in Maya, etc.), that would be grand. If anyone can help me with the making of the Lamborghini in addition, that would be even better ^_^

Many thanks in advance to anyone who would be kind enough to help me with this project.