First Time Maya User

I have not previously had much modelling experience as I have not done the perquisite subject Introduction to 3D due to various changes in the structure of my course over the last year or so. That said I have used 3DS Max previously to make a few models of world war two planes when I was in year twelve just for a bit of fun and self learning.

This experience with 3DS Max has left me with some preconceptions about how things in a 3D modelling program should work... All of which do not seem to apply to Maya. I have chosen to use Maya anyway this semester so I can utilise the experience of teaching staff. Although at first I found navigating Maya viewports and various modelling tools awkward when compared to Max I'm not getting used to how it all works, although I'm still struggling to understand the way Maya's node history works.

This week I have begun modelling the first character for my animation which is also incidentally my first character ever. So far the modelling process hasn't been to difficult. I have just been modelling to the picture in my head for the flying dodo and using the various sketches of dodo's I have found as a reference for the dodos head. At this stage I have modelled the Dodo's head, and body in two separate Maya files which I will join later in the week.

I am pretty happy with how it's going although I am not happy with the wing feathers and will have to investigate a better way to add feathers to the wings. Screenshots of progress are below: