2009
Table Of Contents
- Contents
- Overview
- Maya Basics
- Polygonal Modeling
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lesson
- Lesson 1: Modeling a polygonal mesh
- Introduction
- Setting modeling preferences
- Using 2D reference images
- Creating a polygon primitive
- Modeling in shaded mode
- Model symmetry
- Selecting components by painting
- Selecting edge loops
- Editing components in the orthographic views
- Editing components in the perspective view
- Drawing a polygon
- Extruding polygon components
- Bridging between edges
- Adding polygons to a mesh
- Splitting polygon faces
- Terminating edge loops
- Deleting construction history
- Mirror copying a mesh
- Working with a smoothed mesh
- Creasing and hardening edges on a mesh
- Beyond the lesson
- NURBS Modeling
- Subdivision Surfaces
- Animation
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor
- Lesson 2: Set Driven Key
- Lesson 3: Path animation
- Lesson 4: Nonlinear animation with Trax
- Introduction
- Open the first scene for the lesson
- Creating clips with Trax
- Changing the position of clips with Trax
- Editing the animation of clips
- Reusing clips within Trax
- Soloing and muting tracks
- Scaling clips within Trax
- Open the second scene for the lesson
- Creating clips from motion capture data
- Extending the length of motion capture data
- Redirecting the motion within a clip
- Beyond the lesson
- Lesson 5: Inverse kinematics
- Introduction
- Open the scene for the lesson
- Understanding hierarchies
- Viewing hierarchies using the Hypergraph
- Creating a skeleton hierarchy
- Parenting a model into a skeleton hierarchy
- Applying IK to a skeleton hierarchy
- Creating a control object for an IK system
- Constraining an IK system
- Limiting the range of motion of an IK system
- Simplifying the display of a hierarchy
- Applying parent constraints on an IK system
- Planning an animation for an IK system
- Animating an IK system
- Beyond the lesson
- Character Setup
- Polygon Texturing
- Rendering
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Rendering a scene
- Introduction
- Open the scene for the lesson
- Creating shading materials for objects
- Refining shading materials for objects
- Maya renderers
- Rendering a single frame using IPR
- Rendering using the Maya software renderer
- Batch rendering a sequence of animation frames
- Viewing a sequence of rendered frames
- Beyond the lesson
- Lesson 2: Shading surfaces
- Lesson 3: Lights, shadows, and cameras
- Lesson 4: Global Illumination
- Lesson 5: Caustics
- Dynamics
- Painting
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Painting in 2D using Paint Effects
- Lesson 2: Painting in 3D using Paint Effects
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Brushes and strokes
- Rendering Paint Effects strokes
- Paint Effects on 3D objects
- Creating a surface to paint on
- Painting on objects
- Using turbulence with brush stroke tubes
- Using additional preset brushes
- Mesh brushes
- Converting mesh strokes to polygons
- Modifying a converted polygonal mesh
- Beyond the lesson
- Lesson 3: Painting textures on surfaces
- Expressions
- Scripting in Maya
- Index
Beyond the lesson
In this lesson, you learned how to:
■ Set keys for attributes, then use the Graph Editor to refine the animation
and remove unnecessary keys. This is a typical workflow when keyframing.
You can animate most any attribute in Maya, not just the Translate, Rotate,
and Scale attributes of a surface. For example, you can animate the intensity
of a light, the transparency of a surface, the rotation of a camera view, or
the position of CVs.
■ Work with the Graph Editor to adjust the animation attributes animation
curves directly.
The Graph Editor is the best tool for editing keyed animation by reshaping
animation curves. You can use it to change key positions, add or remove
keys, and alter the fluidity and symmetry of animation.
Each key point on an animation curve has a Tangent setting that specifies
the curvature leading into that point. The default Tangent setting (Spline)
creates rounded curvature—useful for animating attributes that change
smoothly over time. The Linear setting creates angular curvature, useful
for a bounce effect or any other abrupt change in attribute value. Other
Tangent settings are available for different animation effects. For example,
a Stepped setting lets you make an instantaneous leap in value, useful
when you want to flash a light off and on.
■ Use the Time and Range slider to play back your animation.
Although the Graph Editor is a popular animation tool, you can also cut,
copy, paste, and delete keys directly in the Time Slider to edit animation.
Select a key position in the Time Slider, then right-click to select the desired
operation from a pop-up menu.
You may find the following techniques useful when keyframing your
animations:
■ There are alternative object display modes that quicken the display of
animation in the scene view. When you select Shading > Bounding Box
(from the panel menu in the scene view), Maya displays simple box-shaped
geometry in place of the actual objects in your scene. The simpler shapes
enable Maya to respond to any camera and object movement faster. The
drawback is that you cannot edit the shape of the objects in this display
mode.
■ It is generally a recommended practice to animate a parent (group) node
rather than objects themselves. By animating a parent node, you can avoid
200 | Chapter 6 Animation