Animation Mentor Maya Springboard Workshop Session 3 to Final

A lot was covered.  Unfortunately it seems gremlins interfered, so much of my notes and work were lost.  When even one's backup files are toasted (in a bad way), one must keep calm and carry on.  I hope to have the resources in the future to recover what was lost, but for now here is some salvaged material:

Sessions 3 through 5
These 2 renders incorporate the humanoid model I created in Session 2. I created everything else in them as well, in order to learn basic modeling, shading, and lighting concepts.

Session 6
This was done to learn cycles. I created the globe in Adobe Illustrator, then imported the vectors into Maya where I converted them to a polygonal object. I modeled the human from polygon spheres.




Session 7
I used 2 nurbs-curve squares and a circle as a guide, while manipulating curves in the Graph Editor to guide the sphere in a circular path with minimal key frames. I used a Motion Trail to verify my work.




Session 8
This assignment involved bouncing 2 balls, each with a different bounce. Unfortunately, the version with final textures was lost.




Sessions 9 and 10
This video is an almost final version of an almost final assignment. It is meant to incorporate the concepts learned through the course by having the robot-arm move the cylinder to the platform.




Session 11
After the robot-arm animation, came a one-legged hop animation. Unfortunately, nothing worth sharing is left from that.

I have completed Class 3 at the time of my posting this, so I should have plenty more work prepared to share very soon.

Animation Mentor Maya Springboard Workshop Session 2

We covered the Hypergraph and building hierarchies.

Hit the Insert key to change a selected object's pivot point, 1st to unlock, then again when in the desired position.

.ma files can be adapted to open in older versions of Maya by editing the year in a text editor like WordPad.

To get to the Hypergraph hierarchy window go to
Window > Hypergraph hierarchy

The f key frames all, just like in a view pane.

To group objects:
1. select them
2. Ctrl G
or go to Edit > Group

doubleClick the root of a chain to minimize or open it.
 
To create a Parent/Child realtionship:
1. select child
2. select parent
3. type p

To unparent:
1. select child
2. Shift P


The assignment was to model a hierarchy of a humanoid.

Animation Mentor Maya Springboard Workshop Session 1

We covered the basic maneuvering in Maya.

These are the settings we were instructed to make in Preferences:
UI Elem
-all on
Settings
-24fps
Anim Pref
-Auto Key
-Default In & Out
Undo
-Infinite

Window > Outliner
lists objects, which makes them easier to select from than the view port.

The + and - keys on the Number Pad change the manipulator handle size to make it easier to see.
F
frames all objects that are selected in the view port.
A
frames all objects in the view port.
W
switches to the Translate tool, used for moving a selection in the X, Y, Z dimensions.
Shift leftClick
creates all dimensions of an object uniformly.
Ctrl D
duplicates a selected object.
leftClicking on the top or bottom piece of a nurbs cylinder selects that piece

Files should be saved as .ma Maya Ascii format so that they can be used in different versions of Maya.  .mb Maya Binary files are not as flexible.

Our assignment was to duplicate an example image of objects on a shelf.  We were given the image and a file containing the shelf model.  We modeled the objects and positioned them on the shelves to match the image.

Animation Mentor Maya Springboard Workshop Session 0

Term: Winter 2011
Mentor: Steve Adamson
http://gearworxprod.com/

No assignment, but I did take notes.

The book "Stop Staring" by Jason Osipa was recommended, particularly for working with a facial rig.

The Sony MHS-PM5 bloggie HD Video Camera was recommended for covertly ('inconspicuously' might sound better) recording reference video because of it's rotatable lens and relatively low price.

These websites were additionally recommended for finding reference footage, models, and 3D animation info:
http://www.turbosquid.com/
http://www.3dtotal.com/
http://www.cgsociety.org/

That's all from Session 0.

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome to the blog.  My purpose here is to share information relating to animation from my perspective.  I come across good share-worthy bits all over, and I'm making this my place for them.

As animation is the illusion of life (I'm pretty sure it is not the other way around.), many things contribute to making us better animators.  Animators draw from acting, visual art, and many angles of storytelling, so the content  limits here will not be very strict.

I recently started the Advanced Studies In Character Animation program with Animation Mentor.  Much of the initial content here will be based on my class notes.  I encourage you to share what you've learned too. Let's get started!