Thursday, June 28, 2012

CLASS 10 : Modeling and Animation II: Intro to 3D Animation in Maya

Welcome back from the break!

Updated Schedule for the rest of term:
Class 11: Thursday, July 5th 3-6 pm
Class 12: Tuesday, July 10th, 3-6 pm
Class Cancelled: Wednesday, July 18th 12-3 pm
Class 13: Wednesday, July 25th, 12-3 pm with guest instructor, Jakub Pazera
Class 14: Wednesday, Aug 1st, 12-3 This will be your last formal class.
Wednesday, Aug 8th: Supervised work period
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Intro to 3D Animation in Maya: 

For some of you this will be your first look around in Autodesk Maya so we'll get a feel for the interface with some simple exercises.
First up .. everyone's favorite assignment - BOUNCING BALLS: Part 3!

Why am I so cruel making you do this for the THIRD TIME..? Because there is no other more effective way to practice animation principles while getting used to the Maya tool set.

You can always animate simple primitives by keying the geometry. By all means, if you're new to Maya, you may do so. On real productions, however, we interact with our models via a control rig so I'm providing you with a simple one. Normally we do not animate directly in the rig file, we have the file reference the rig from another location. 


Click to download Maya Ball Rig
I've given you both .ma and .mb files and we'll talk about the differences.

We'll also talk about file referencing and how it's used on productions. 

I'll introduce you to the Graph Editor, a dark and scary fun and friendly tool that is absolutely essential for working with timing and spacing. By the end of class you should be able to know without a doubt what different types of action will result from different types of curves in your Graph Editor.  Digital Tutors has some excellent video explanations of the Graph Editor -- a powerful tool that you should be very comfortable using by the end of this assignment.

'Cause and Effect' art installation by Ana Soler
Exercise: Bouncing Balls in Maya
Assigned: 04/07/12
Due:  05/07/12
% of Final Grade: 5%
Animate at least 2 contrasted bouncing balls showing as many of the principles of animation as you can. Balls should be in the same file. Be sure the balls have very obviously different weights. Animate them either until they exit the screen or come to a stop. You may add primitives such as cubes, planes, and use them to create simple obstacles such as stairs, a wall, a room, or a sloping plane. Find a flattering camera angle from which you can see your animation clearly. Tracking camera moves to keep the balls in the scene are permitted but keep the camera move very simple.

Rolling, squashing, and stretching is totally optional.

You may make the objects different colours if you wish. Please do not light these or apply any special textures. No marks are given for rendering.

The final output should be 2 files: an .avi and an .ma file. 

Files should be named as follows:
tdonovan_ball_000.avi
tdonovan_ball_000.ma

The file number (000) should be whatever version of the file you hand in. You can hand in any version up to 999. This could come in handy if you need to resubmit. You can simply send me the new file with the new version number.

Careful with your file naming.
No caps. No extra spaces. No extra descriptors.

Rubric: 
Exemplary:  Advanced grasp of animation principles evident. Balls have unmistakable and contrasted weights.
Excellent:  Strong grasp of most of the animation principles with few mistakes. Balls have clear and contrasted weights.
Acceptable: Reasonably executed animation utilizing most of the animation principles with some mistakes. Balls bounce clearly and believeably with some contrast.
Not Acceptable:  Lack of evident understanding of the animation principles with several mistakes. Balls not clearly contrasted.