What you'll learn

In this Maya tutorial, we will use animation and dynamics techniques to create a combat scene. Throughout the lessons we will take a straight-ahead approach to animating a fight scene between three characters, using some basic techniques for establishing timing and camera angles before getting to work. Along the way, we will utilize the spontaneity the straight-ahead method allows in order to experiment with different narrative and choreographical choices for our scene. Because combat scenes often involve the participants being damaged, we will explore different methods for simulating damage on our character rigs, using deformers like blend shapes as well as dynamic elements like particles and lightning effects. By the end of this training, you'll be able to approach any scene requiring character interaction with the confidence to give yourself the freedom to explore different creative options while remaining true to the needs of the story. Software required: Maya 2012.