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
Extending the length of motion capture data
You often need more animation of a motion sequence than is provided in the
motion capture data. For example, you may need to have a walk cycle that is
substantially longer than what was provided in the original file. You can use
the Trax Editor to edit the motion capture data and create clips that can be
cycled to make longer animation sequences. When you cycle a clip, the clip is
extended in length with duplicate animation from the original clip over a
defined interval of time.
If you want to cycle a clip, you must first determine areas within the animation
sequence where the clip repeats seamlessly. For example, if you want to create
a walk cycle from the motion capture data, you need to determine the time
(frame) where the right foot is planted on the ground, and then move forward
in the Time Slider, frame by frame, until you find the next frame where the
right foot is planted on the ground in exactly the same (or very similar)
manner, and then create a clip. The resulting clip will contain two steps of
the walking motion. The clip can then be cycled to produce a motion that
repeats. How seamlessly it cycles depends on the original motion capture data.
In the steps that follow you create a walk cycle from the motion capture data
by:
■ Creating a clip from the walking portion of the motion capture sequence
that can be repeated.
■ Cycle the clip to create a longer walk sequence.
To create a clip that can be cycled
1 In the Time Slider, drag the current time indicator to frame 6.
The skeleton updates in the scene to a walking pose where the right foot
is planted on the ground.
2 Drag the current time indicator forward in the Time Slider until you reach
frame 45.
At frame 45, the skeleton is posed in a similar manner as it appeared at
frame 6. If you use this range of frames (6 to 45), you can create a clip
that can be cycled.
3 In the persp view ensure the skeleton is selected.
4 In the Trax Editor menu, select Create > Animation Clip >
.
The Create Clip Options window appears.
248 | Chapter 6 Animation