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
Selecting the parent node at the top of the hierarchy also selects the items
contained in the hierarchy below. Selecting a child node lower in the hierarchy
selects any child nodes that are lower in the hierarchy.
Hierarchies allow you to create complex structures with relationships between
components. For example, when you animate a hierarchical model, you simply
need to select and move the parent node of the hierarchy and the rest of the
model (child nodes) also moves.
Regardless of whether you decide to animate the mechanical arm using FK or
IK, or a combination of both methods on the same model, the best approach
involves making the mechanical arm model into a hierarchical structure.
Creating a hierarchy for the mechanical arm ensures that:
■ Components of the hierarchy can be rotated as if they were one unit. A
common pivot point is created at the parent node level. This allows the
separate components to rotate as one unit based on their membership in
the hierarchy. For example, if the mechanical arm’s base (parent node) is
rotated, anything lower down the hierarchy, for example, the mechanical
arm which is constructed of child nodes, will also rotate because of its
membership and position in the hierarchy.
■ When a particular segment of the model is posed and keyframed, the
components that are lower in the hierarchy are also posed and keyframed.
Viewing hierarchies using the Hypergraph
In the following steps, you use the Hypergraph to view the hierarchy for the
mechanical arm. The Hypergraph is a scene management editor that presents
a graphical view of the scene hierarchy. It allows you to more easily create,
understand, and manage the hierarchy of objects and nodes in your scene.
To view hierarchies using the Hypergraph
1 From the perspective view’s panel menu, select Panels > Layouts > Two
Panes Stacked.
The workspace displays two panels stacked on top of each other with an
identical perspective view of the scene.
2 In the lower panel, select Panels > Hypergraph Panel > Hypergraph
Hierarchy.
The lower panel displays the Hypergraph.
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