Introduction to Animation - Introducing Maya 2011 - page 400

The ile axe_path_v2.mb in the Axe project will bring you up to this point.
Path animation is extremely useful for a number of tasks, but particularly for animat-
ing an object along a particular course. By adjusting the resulting animation curve in the
Graph Editor, you can readjust the timing of the path animation easily.
A good path-animation exercise is to create an atom and draw CV curves around the
nucleus for the paths of the electrons. Then, animate all the electrons orbiting the nucleus
with the paths. Also, try reanimating the Solar_System exercise with paths instead of the
keyframes you set on the rotations.

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To see the position of an animated object a few frames before and after its current position,
you can enable ghosting in Maya. For example, select the animated axe in your scene and, in
the Animation menu set, choose Animate ➔ Ghost Selected. Maya will display the axe's three
frames before and after the current time. To turn off ghosting, choose Animate ➔ Unghost
Selected.

To see the position of an animated object a few frames before and after its current position,

you can enable ghosting in Maya. For example, select the animated axe in your scene and, in

the Animation menu set, choose Animate ➔ Ghost Selected. Maya will display the axe's three

frames before and after the current time. To turn off ghosting, choose Animate ➔ Unghost

Selected.

Axe Project Summation
In the Axe example, you furthered your use of layered animation by beginning with the
gross animation to cover the basic movements of the axe. After those timings were set,
you completed most of the remaining work in the Graph Editor by moving keyframes
here and there to add detail to the motion. You added more keyframes to create follow-
through and secondary movement to insinuate weight into the axe and target.
Without secondary movement in the target, the axe would seem to weigh nothing. With
too much movement, however, the axe would seem too heavy, and the scene wouldn't look
right. Subtle nuances can make stunning differences in the simplest of animations. You also
went back into the animation and replaced the animation method entirely with path ani-
mation. This illustrates the multiple ways to accomplish a task in Maya; finding your own
comfort zone with a workflow is one of the goals in learning Maya.

Replacing an Object
Aside from the need to model objects and texture them, there is the task of animation
setup. Check your pivots, your geometry, and your grouping to make sure your scene will
hold up when you animate it.
It's also common practice in setup to animate a proxy object—a simple stand-in model
that you later replace. The next exercise will show you how to replace the axe you already
animated with the fully textured NURBS axe from the previous chapter and how to copy
an animation from one object to another.