Planning and Executing a Complete Animation in Maya
Want to learn how to tell a compelling story with your animation? This course is for you. You'll learn beginner rigging and animation skills in order to plan and animate the solution to the "X Marks the Spot" problem. Software required: Maya 2016.
What you'll learn
Storytelling is an essential part of the animation process, as it informs your artwork and excites the audience. This course, Planning and Executing a Complete Animation in Maya, will teach you animation and storytelling skills as you solve the "X Marks the Spot" problem. Throughout the course, you will take a scene with an "X" arbitrarily located somewhere in the scene and, in a short amount of time, move the main character, "Arty: the walking ball" to the X in a compelling manner. You will also deal with three phases of storytelling: beginning (build-up), middle (climax) and ending (resolution). As well, you will create a character and an environment that will allow them to tell that story as effectively as possible, and in the process, begin to learn that, as an independent animation storyteller, you have the benefit of controlling all aspects of your character and environment to tell your stories. By the end of this course, you will have improved your rigging and animation skills as well as learned how to create a captivating story for your audience. Software required: Maya 2016.
Table of contents
- Lesson and Geometry Introduction 4m
- Creating the Enumerated Attribute to Switch Geometry Visibility 5m
- Follicle Placement on the Ball, Head, and Robot 7m
- Creating and Naming the Leg Joint Chains 8m
- Install the leg IK chains 7m
- Creating, Naming, and Placing Groups 8m
- Using Set Driven Key and Custom Controls to Animate the Foot 9m
- Creating the Right Side Foot Controls 6m
- Adding Space Switching to the Foot Controls 9m
- Cleaning up the Scene and Rig to Prepare for Skinning 6m
- Quick UV Mapping for Single Mesh Geometry 7m
- Binding the Single Mesh Leg Geometries to the Joints 8m
- Painting Weights on Arty's Legs 9m
- SDK the Visibility of Arty's Legs 3m
- Adjusting the RP Geometry and Binding to the Joints 10m
- SDK'ing the Right Leg Visibility and Location 6m
- Rigging Lattice Controls on the Robot Probe 8m
- Finishing the Robot Probe Geometry 8m
- Fitting the Legs and Reversing Normals 7m
- Controlling the Blendshape Node with a Custom Controller 10m
- Finishing Rigging the Custom Controller 10m
- Action Analysis and Setting up the Workspace 8m
- Taking the First Side Step 10m
- Copying and Pasting Key Poses 7m
- Refining the Side Steps 8m
- Taking the Tentative Step 8m
- Animating the Impact/Surprise Bounce 12m
- Animating Fallback Bounce 10m
- Squash and Stretch to Stop 9m
- Animating the Front Foot 10m
- Animating the Back Foot 10m
About the author
Eric Kunzendorf has been teaching computer graphics and animation at the college level for the last two decades at such varied institutions as Jacksonville University, the New Hampshire Institute of Art, the Atlanta College of Art, and the School of Visual Arts’ Savannah campus. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Art history from Columbia University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from the University of Georgia. Eric has contributed to several works including "Mastering Maya 8.... more