Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
The Production Process: Creating and
Animating the Objects
As discussed in Chapter 1, “Introduction to Computer Graphics and 3D,” production is
typically divided into phases to make workflow easier to manage. In this project, you'll
first create the Sun, the planets, and their moons; then, you'll animate their respective
orbits and rotations.
Creating the Sun and the Planets
The first thing you're going to do is create the Sun and the planets. Follow these steps:
1. Choose File
➔
New Scene (or press Ctrl+N). Maya asks if you want to save your cur-
rent scene. Save the file if you need to, or click Don't Save to discard the scene.
2. By default, Maya's screen should begin in an expanded perspective view. Press the
spacebar to enable the four-panel view. When you're in the four-panel view, press
the spacebar with the cursor inside the top view panel to select and maximize it.
3. To create the Sun, you need a primitive sphere. A
primitive
is a basic 3D shape. First,
let's turn off a Maya feature called Interactive Creation that is on by default. Turning
off Interactive Creation allows you to create the sphere at the center of the grid (the
origin) without having to click and drag its size
and then reposition it manually. Uncheck Cre-
ate
➔
NURBS Primitives
➔
Interactive Creation to
toggle it off, as shown in Figure 2.6. For more on
how to create primitives with interactive feed-
back, see the section on primitives in Chapter 3.
4. With Interactive Creation turned off, choose Create
➔
NURBS Primitives
➔
Sphere.
Doing so places a NURBS sphere exactly at the origin—that is, at a position of 0,0,0
for
X,Y,Z
. This is good, because the origin of the workspace will be the center of the
Solar System, too.
5. Select the word
nurbsSphere1
in the Channel Box to the right of the Maya UI (shown
in Figure 2.7), and enter
Sun
to rename it. If you don't see the Channel Box in your
Maya window, please refer to the section on the Channel Box in Chapter 3.
Figure 2.6
Turning off
Interactive Creation
n U rbS and p olygonS
n U rbS and p olygonS
NURBS and polygons are two types of geometry that you can create and edit in Maya. We'll
explore the uses of each modeling type in Chapter 4, “Beginning Polygonal Modeling,”
Chapter 5, “Modeling with NURBS, Subdivisions, and Deformers, and Chapter 6, “Building the
Red Wagon.”
NURBS and polygons are two types of geometry that you can create and edit in Maya. We'll
explore the uses of each modeling type in Chapter 4, “Beginning Polygonal Modeling,”
Chapter 5, “Modeling with NURBS, Subdivisions, and Deformers, and Chapter 6, “Building the
Red Wagon.”
