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Creating Procedural Animation for an Insect in Maya

by Beau Janzen

In this Maya tutorial, we'll explore a method of creating MEL scripts that automatically generate motion of a walking ant. Software required: Maya 2015.

What you'll learn

In this Maya tutorial, we'll explore a method of creating MEL scripts that automatically generate motion of a walking ant. We'll look at driving our ant's stepping legs, head, antennae, and secondary body motion with scripts that respond to the changing position of the ant. In addition, we'll set up our rig so that the position of the ant can either be manually controlled by an animator, or guided by a procedural wandering path complete with automatic aim and pauses. By the end of this Maya training, you'll have learned techniques to better incorporate scripting and automation into your rigs. Software required: Maya 2015.

About the author

Beau Janzen is a CG Supervisor with over 24 years’ experience in digital animation production. In that time, he has served on a wide variety of projects ranging from feature films, television series, commercials, and stereoscopic ride films. His work has spanned the full spectrum of CG production including on-set supervision, concept design, production pipeline design, and project coordination. In addition to his production work, he has over ten years of classroom teaching experience.

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