3D Animation Using Maya

Workspace — Organization (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya)

If you’ve ever read through the Alias manuals, you may remember this line: “Maya is nodes with attributes that are connected.” It keeps coming up again and again due to its importance in defining the way the software works. It also bears mentioning that there are often a few different terms used to convey the […]

Modeling — Geometry Types (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya)

Geometry comes in a few different flavors. Maya can be used to create NURBS, polygonal, and subdivision surface geometry. Each has its own particular strengths t7T*J and weaknesses; learning to use all three types is important. Here’s a broad oversimplification that’ll get a bunch of people all worked up. •    NURBS are good for creating […]

Animation — Copying Keyframes and Moving Pivots (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya) Part 1

There are many tools in Maya that can be used to automate or speed up otherwise tedious tasks. One such task is the creation of regular repeating movements in an fflUP animation. For example, to make a yo-yo go up and down on a string you would: •    Place a keyframe for the yo-yo’s Translate […]

Animation — Copying Keyframes and Moving Pivots (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya) Part 2

Animation Exercise — Pivot Points 1.    Set your project to understanding_maya\Chapter02\animation_pivot_wagon. 2.    Open the scene animation_wagon_pivots_begin.ma. 3.    You’ll see a little red wagon, made up of a number of parts, such as the body, wheels, handle, yoke, and axle. Try selecting and rotating each part. You will find that the pivot points are not placed […]

Shading — Material Types (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya)

The major material types differ fundamentally in the way they handle specularity. Specularity helps define shininess, glossiness, or highlighting. Look at the different materials in Color Plates XI and XII. The mathematical algorithms used to process this specularity give the material types their names. (They are generally named after the computer graphics researcher who developed […]

Lighting — Spotlights (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya)

The spotlight radiates light from a single point toward a target in a cone-like fashion, much as does a flashlight (see Figure 2.37). The controls are also more complex than those found on a point light, because Maya allows you to specify things like the angle of the cone of light and the way in […]

Rendering — Camera Basics (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya)

The view you get through the perspective panel usually looks more interesting than the Front or Side views because of its non-orthographic view and its wide-angled lens. When you want to create even more interesting shots, in which there are pans, dollies, cranes, and even simulated Steadicam-style movements and rack-zooms, you’ll need to animate the […]

Project 2 — Rolling Egg (Refinements) (3D Animation Using Maya)

•    Use the copy keyframe command to repeat the egg’s rotation. •    Set a spotlight. •    Create an animated camera. •    Select different shader types and specularity settings.

Review — Attribute Editor (Intermediate Skills) (3D Animation Using Maya)

Remember the Alias party line: Maya is nodes with attributes that are connected? Well the Attribute Editor is the main panel you will use to change these attributes on your objects, lights, cameras, and shaders. The Ctrl-a keyboard shortcut brings it up quickly, so that you may use it without interrupting your workflow. Its contents […]

Workspace — Hypergraph (Intermediate Skills) (3D Animation Using Maya)

There is no better way to visualize the connection of nodes to each other than the Hypergraph. The Hypergraph is really a flowchart of your scene and your objects. It can be arranged to represent the physical layout of nodes and their relationships to each other. Take a look at the Hypergraph from a simple […]

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