Maestri's Fish, Part 1: Body

These steps are extracted from Maestri's video, "Modeling with Edit Poly 1."

1. Create a box defining the body of the fish, excluding all the fins. Include 7-8 length segments, 3 height and 3 width segments.

2. If you are using a reference image, center your box over the image and extend it to cover the necessary width.

3. Convert the box to Editable Poly. (Right-click and select Convert to Editable Poly.)

4. Select Vertex sub-object mode. Move vertices to define the shape of the body. Use Scale to ensure symmetrical adjustments. Work in Left view first, then Front view.

5. Create a sphere to serve as the eyeball. Set number of segments in the sphere to 12. Position the eyeball in an appropriate place.

6. Switch to Front View. Turn off Subdivision Surfaces in the Editable Poly rollout. Swith to Face sub-object mode and select the Face that lies over the eyeball sphere. Click Inset tool on the Editable Poly rollout. Create an inset around the eyehole. Select the inner face of the inset and Extrude it in to create an eyesocket.

7. Move the eyeball out until it is correctly positioned. Turn Subdivision Surfaces back on, switch to Vertex sub-object mode, and contour the eye opening by moving and scaling vertices.

8. SAVE.

9. Slice the fish in half: Switch to Face sub-object mode and select all the faces of the object. Scroll down in the Editable Poly rollout to Slice Plane. Adjust the rotation of the slice plane if necessary. Hit the Slice button.

10. Switch to Left viewport. Grab the half of your fish model that does not contain the eye. Hit the Delete key. Answer Yes to "Delete Isolated Vertices?"

11. SAVE.