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
Creating clips with Trax
A clip is a time-independent sequence of animation data for one or more
animated attributes that you create from existing animation (keyframe
animation, expressions, constraints, motion capture data, and so on). A clip
is time independent, allowing you to position, scale, and cycle a clip
independently of other animatable attributes or other clips. This means you
can arrange the clips into a particular sequence, and then play it back to see
the results. You can adjust the timing, length, and rearrange or edit the same
clips in a different order to modify the motion sequence.
Most commonly-used clips are reusable sequences of animation that are easy
to sequence or blend with other clips. For example, suppose you create three
clips: a karate punch, tumble, and kick. You can run the clips in any order,
and you can repeat clips or blend the motion between them. You can scale
or cycle clips to alter the time frame over which the animation occurs. You
can either return the clip to its original state or reload a duplicate of the original
source clip and begin again. In this way, the Trax Editor allows you to
experiment with animation sequences on a character.
In the steps that follow, you key some animation for the aircraft and then
create clips from the keyed animation for use in the Trax Editor.
To create keyframe animation for the aircraft
1 From the perspective view’s panel menu, select Panels > Orthographic >
front.
The panel updates to display the aircraft’s side from the front view.
2 In the front view, click on the aircraft to select it.
3 In the Channel Box, set the following:
■ Translate X: -25
The aircraft is repositioned at -25 along the X axis. The aircraft disappears
from the front view because it has been repositioned outside of the
viewing area.
4 Dolly and track the front view until the aircraft appears on the lower left
hand side of the front view as shown below.
228 | Chapter 6 Animation