Hard Surface Modeling for Games by Jordan Cain

Want to build hard surface stuff that actually holds up in-game and on camera? In this course you design and model a full hovercraft in Maya, go from high poly to game-ready low poly, and sort out clean UVs that won’t cause headaches later.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Design a hovercraft with gameplay and cinematic needs in mind
• Model clean hard surface forms in Maya
• Use a traditional High Poly to Low Poly workflow for games
• Decide what to model in geometry vs. what to leave for textures
• Create clean, functional UVs for production models
• Refine and troubleshoot a model until it’s ready for engine and render

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic familiarity with Maya navigation, no hard surface experience needed
• Tools: Maya, 3-button mouse
• Hardware: 64-bit PC capable of running Maya smoothly

📝 Description

This isn’t timelapses and guesswork. It’s 13 hours of real-time, narrated work in Maya where you see every click, hotkey, and fix. Jordan walks through the full build of a hovercraft, and talks through why he’s doing it that way. That thought process part is gold if you want AAA-style results.

You’ll start with design and blockout. How big should panels be? Where does the pilot see out? What reads well from far away in gameplay vs. close-up in a cinematic? Then you push the high poly until it looks right, build a tight low poly over it, and unwrap UVs that actually make sense for texturing.

What I like here is how practical it stays. No skipping the boring parts. You get the full loop: modeling decisions, UV unwrapping, cleanup, and that last 10% of polish that makes a model usable instead of just pretty in viewport.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Beginners and students who want a solid start in hard surface modeling for games
• Maya users who know the basics but struggle with clean topology and UVs

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Jordan Cain is a hard surface artist focused on models for games. He teaches the way he works in production – direct, step-by-step, with a lot of attention to modeling workflow and clean results. This course leans on that experience to show how design choices, topology, and UVs come together on a real game asset.

🏁 Final Result

• A portfolio-ready, game and cinematic-friendly hovercraft built in Maya, with optimized low poly and clean UVs