Finished Props

        Once I was happy with the shape of my props, I assigned them suitable materials. For the table and the arrow, I made sure to chose the materials for the separate components before combining the meshes into a single object. This was not necessary for the chair or bow as they only needed a single color/material, so the meshes could be combined beforehand. 

Moom, with the finished and shaded Table, Bow & Chair.

Cupid's Arrow

        The trickiest materials were the wooden chair and table top. The images I found for the table were all too small really to cover the entire surface, hence in close up the wood texture is quite blurry and stretched. However, as there won't be any close ups of the table top in the animation, I didn't see this as a major problem for the time being. From a distance, it looks suitable wooden. The chair was a different story. The wooden texture images I found, when applied to the chair, looked very odd. The wood grain was inconsistent, running in different directions and sizes.

        Unsure whether this would look strange and out of place in the final animation, I have for the moment opted to keep the chair a plain cream colour. However, I still have the option to change the material later on. For any future projects using Maya, I will definitely take more time to learn more about textures and shaders, and how to achieve more convincing and realistic materials.

Chair, with the same material as the Table Top