Creating in Maya after using Blender for so many years is like performing an invasive medical procedure using only plastic silverware.

I reach for the Blender hotkeys and end up clumsily changing edit modes without realizing that I have also unintentionally deleted the vertexes I wanted to extrude.

But I realize that Maya is a very powerful tool, that learning it is helpful, and that these problems are the same as those I encountered when I began working with Blender. My Maya class assigned me to create a character, so I decided to make it in both Maya and Blender.

The initial sketch is not mine; it was drawn by my friend Etai Dvora. As can be seen from a highly recommend trip to his gallery, Etai works solely in 2D. He was kind enough to sketch a front and side views of an invented character for me to see the quality of the 2D to 3D translation.

The Original Sketch by Etai Dvora

The process is the same in both Blender and Maya. I begin with a cube, apply a mirror effect, and extrude the vertexes over the sketch.

Modeling in Maya

The front and side views are usually sufficient for creating the general outline and keeping consistent proportions. Since this is all the assignment required, I did not continue to add details with are only useful in 3D.

Modeling in Blender

Final Render

I hope this is the first of many 2D to 3D projects to become bilingual in the language of modeling.

An interview with Etai is scheduled for a future episode of The Blender Show.