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
In general, a white region of skin is influenced nearly entirely by the joint
selected in the Influence section of the Tool Settings window. A gray
region is influenced significantly by one or two additional joints.
The reason the left breast becomes irregularly shaped as you pose the arm
is that some joint is exerting too much or too little influence on the
breast.
5 Select each entry in the Influence list to determine which joints are
influencing the irregular region of the breast. The region will be a shade
of gray (or white) when you select the appropriate joints. The
left_arm_root is the main influence. The upper_back, mid_back, and
left_top_rib also have influence, though not exactly in the same region.
Modifying skin weights
You can modify the skin weights for any of the influencing joints to alter the
irregular region. If you don’t get the desired results when you change the skin
weights of one of the influencing joints, you can undo your changes and try
another influencing joint.
In general, it’s best to modify the skin weights of the most influential joint
first, then work with less influential joints if you don’t get the desired results.
Modifying skin weights requires experimentation.
In the next steps, you’ll modify the skin weights for the left_arm_root joint.
To modify skin weights using the Paint Skin Weights Tool
1 Select left_arm_root in the Influence list.
2 In the Paint Weights Menu section of the window, set Value to 0.1 and
turn on Add.
3 Drag the mouse pointer to paint the irregular region of the breast. Each
stroke adds 0.1 (10%) to the skin weight. The weight for a skin point has
a maximum value of 1 (fully white).
TIP Painting skin weights using a tablet with stylus allows you to take
advantage of pressure sensitivity.
Repeat the strokes several times until the irregular region becomes
smoother. The jagged, asymmetrical wireframe at the breast becomes
more symmetrical as the skin becomes smoother. The region whitens,
which indicates increased influence from the left_arm_root joint. Note
324 | Chapter 7 Character Setup