Toolkit - Maya Long Jump Animation

In Simon's class today we had to pick an action and animate it using a pre-existing rig. I based my animation off of a long jump. Here is the playblast for what I did in the lesson:

Toolkit - Film Scores & Mixing Audio

In Kat's last lesson we looked at film scores and mixed audio from an existing song to make a new one. Here is my audio from the class:

Toolkit - Maya Walk Cycle

In Simon's class today we worked on making a walk cycle animation. This is the playblast of the work I did in the lesson:

Toolkit - Introduction to Animation

Rigs

Motion Paths

MEL

Dynamics

Toolkit - Pre-Visualisation Continued

Camera Shake

Pass By

Shake Drop

Contra Zoom

Toolkit - Pre-Visualisation Continued

In Simon's class today we continued with pre-vis shots. Here's the playblasts from the lesson:

Distance and Tracking

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

Shot 4

Camera Coverage

Individual Shots

Final Edited Scene

Toolkit - Non-Linear Deformers

In Simon's previous class we had a look at non-linear deformers and what they can do when modelling in Maya. We tried each of the options in the menu and I thought they all did really interesting things! In future I think it'd be fun to make an animation using the deformers because I looked a bit like they were dancing when you rotated them around! Here's some screenshots on the experimentation we did this lesson.

Simon also asked us to look at the deformer tutorial online, which I had a look at and also found really interesting. It talks more about using the deformers in animation, which is something I'd definitely like to experiment with in the future.

Toolkit - Pre-Visulisation

In Simon's Monday Maya lesson we looked at pre-vis. After explaining all of the features of pre-vis, we worked on different animated camera shots and playblasted the finished examples.

Pan Rig Playblast

Staircase Rig Playblasts
180 Degrees:

360 Degrees:

720 Degrees:

Pitch Rig Playblast

Dolly Rig Playblast

Crane Shot Playblast

Toolkit - Maya Alley Details & Rendering

Today in Simon's class we finished off our alley! Mine isn't completely done because I need to put the crates in still (I'd also like to play about with the lights a bit more!) Apart from that, I'm all done, and I've got a render that we edited in Photoshop to make it extra polished. I think it's looking really good so far!

Toolkit - Maya Alley Texturing

Today in Simon's class we worked on the previous alley model we had made and began to set it up for texturing. I didn't have my finished file with me for the lesson so I used an unfinished one which is why it looks a little scruffy!

We learnt how to properly apply materials onto surfaces, and how to use the UV editor to edit the texture so it isn't stretched or warped. By doing this, when it comes to putting the final texture on, it'll be a lot easier as we've already smoothed out all the problems. We will move on to actual texturing next week!

Toolkit - Maya Texturing

Today we worked on creating textures in Maya. We made 7 spheres and used the hypershade to create different surfaces for each of them. We explored all of the basic materials like lambert, blinn and phong. Here are my spheres:

After this, we moved on to making different kinds of common materials. Here are some of the examples we completed in class. I really enjoyed doing this!

Silver

Chrome

Gold

Glass

Glow

Toolkit - Maya Alleyway

I have completed the first video for the alley. Here is the lamp post, start of the crate and alley environment.

Toolkit - Maya Scooter

Finally finished the scooter we were asked to model using the Maya tutorials!

Toolkit - Follow Through and Overlapping Action

In Nat's lesson today we worked on some more principles of animation: follow through and overlapping action. During the class we had to build on the ball we made last lesson to give it a tail/limbs, and then make those extra features move along naturally with the ball. Nat suggested doing a rabbit ball with ears that flop, or a cat with a tail. I decided to do a rabbit and wanted to make it a bit more detailed than a ball so I started with a new Flash document and sketched out a basic cartoon bunny. Here is my rough animation, where the bunny hops up and down and follows the arcs I've drawn in:

As you can see, the ears move more independently from the body, which is called overlapping action. When the rabbit stops and the ears keep moving, that's called follow through. It's generally used for things like hair and clothes on people, as after they stop moving, the hair/clothes naturally keep on going even though the person wearing them has stopped. After finishing my rough GIF, I used the rest of the lesson to neaten it up. I started with a 1920x1080 canvas but I realised I wasn't using a lot of the space, so I made it a bit smaller. Here's my finished product:

I really enjoyed this lesson, especially because it had rabbits in it! I liked recapping follow through and overlapping action, since the last time I went over the principles of animation was about a year ago! It was also nice to do a more detailed animation, building on from the skills we learnt with the bouncing balls.

Toolkit - Maya Ray Gun

Ray gun Maya tutorial

Toolkit - Maya Egg Cups

In this tutorial we explored polygons, NURBS, and subdivions to make different egg cups.

Toolkit - Maya Trolley

In our third Maya lesson, we made a trolley following a tutorial Simon gave us. We have also been set the goal of completing some of the tutorials on the Maya tutorial website. Here is the finished product: