Technical Tutorial: How to Make a Sign in Maya

In this tutorial, I'll be showing you how to make a sign like one might hang on a wall in the 3D modelling program Maya.

FIRST, create a long, thin cylinder, like so.

SECOND, duplicate it, then turn each of the cylinders at opposing 45 degree angles, so that they make a sharp angle.

THIRD, create a thin torus, change the first two rotation variables to 45 degrees. Place the two opposing angled cylinders so that they're close to intersecting. Then, place the thin torus at the center, as pictured.

FOR THE SIGN, make a cube and drag it out into a long, skinny block, like pictured, at about 1.25x thickness jutting out from either side of the cylinders.

NEXT, assign a material such as Phong E that has a bit of shine to it to the toruses and cylinders, and brighten the color up to more of a light grey/darkish white, as pictured.

Finally, give the block part of the sign either a wooden texture of your choice, or, if you don't want to give it that "royalty free unity asset" feel, assign it a lambert material, and color it brown.