Emily Holden Looks at Two Different Ways to Model a Basic DNA Strand in Maya.

Medical Artist and Animator Emily Holden offer some insights into two different ways that you can model a DNA strand in Autodesk Maya. Her 2-part tutorial imparts two very different techniques for creating the structures.

The first way is a look at using Maya’s Animated Snapshot to set of the ladder-like structures of the DNA strand. The second way aims at using the twist deformer to create the classic helical shapes needed.

Overall, there could be a few ways to model DNA; perhaps one could make use of Maya’s motion graphics toolkit. There are also some scripts that will let you create DNA parametrically.

You can support Emily Holden to create these tutorials by pledging as little as $1 per Thing. Visit her on Patreon.
“I do put a lot of work into these videos for free,” Holden says. “I cannot prioritize creating them as financially; I put my freelance projects first. If you can support me for as little as $1 per video, then I can hopefully be able to create more videos like this!”