3D Animation for the Raw Beginner Using Maya

Roger "Buzz" King is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he teaches 3D animation for the Computer Science Department and ATLAS, an institute dedicated to the application of technology to the arts. He is a member of the board of advisors for a graphics startup, the cofounder of a second graphics startup, and currently focusing on his 3D modeling studio (http://BuzzWorks.buzz). He holds an AB from Occidental College, Los Angeles and a Ph.D from USC. His research has been funded by the US Air Force, Navy, NASA, DARPA, DOE, NREL, Smithsonian, IBM, and AT&T. He has served as an expert FBI witness and been involved in the original development of the Encyclopedia of Life.

Acknowledgments


Author


The Book's Web Site


Getting Oriented


Focus and Approach of This Book


A Necessarily Nonlinear Approach to Learning 3D Animation


Perhaps the Most Important Principle


3DbyBuzz.com


What Maya (R) Does and Does Not Do


The Special Needs of Gaming


Workflow Within and Around Maya


Other Applications Commonly Used by Animators


The Big Picture


Inside Maya


Other Application Needs


Working with Prefab Content


The Cabana of Cool Concepts


The Small Subset Approach to Learning 3D Animation


Every Animation App Is Unique


How to Use This Book


Prerequisites


Contents of This Book


A Motivational Example


Art and Engineering


A Final Note


The Maya Interface and Modeling Concepts in Maya


The 3D World of Modeling and Animation


Seeing the 3D World through the Eyes of Maya


A Warning: The Maya Interface Can Be Intimidating, Don't Be Dispirited


The Main Window


A Note on Changing Geometry Modes


The Hypershade


An Object and Its Attributes


The Render View for Creating Single Render Tests


Render Settings and the Batch Renderer for Creating Multiframe


Renderings for Video


How to Find Something in the Maya Interface


Maya's Data Folders


Two Kinds of Modeling in Maya


Terminology


Meshes


Surface-And Not Solid-Modeling


Vector versus Raster Graphics


Polygon and NURBS Modeling


Choosing between Polygon and NURBS Modeling


NURBS Modeling Modes


Maya Is Always Rendering


Subdivision Is Alive and Well


CUDA


Curved Lines, Bezier, and NURBS


Core Tools: Translate, Scale, and Rotate in Maya


Some Trig


Translation, Scaling, and Rotation in 3-Space


In Sum


Reference


Modeling, Creating Materials, and Rendering


Modeling as a Subjective Process


Deliberate Modeling


Models and Objects


Top-Down Modeling


Adding Detail with Precision


Choosing the Model Hierarchy


Building Models in Separate Scenes and Using Display Layers


Create Versions of Models That You Can Retreat To


In Sum


More on Layers in Maya


Using Curved Lines and mental ray to Make a NURBS Glass Dish


From Curved Lines to Smooth Surfaces


Creating a Series of NURBS Curves


Revolution!


Putting a Glass Material on the Dish


Two Software Renderers


Two Important Perspectives


Rendering by Tracing Rays


Glass in mental ray


The Background


More mental ray Computations: Quality


More mental ray Computations: Indirect Lighting


Shadows as Roots of Models


mental ray's Advantage


The Renderer's Main Job


Using Polygon Extrusion to (Start to) Make a Hand


Polygon Modeling: Basic Shapes


Recursive Refinement


The Hand


Using NURBS Lofting and Extrusion to Make a Saguaro Cactus


Using Reference Images


NURBS Extrude


Sculpting


Lofting


Projection


Loft Again


In Sum


Hierarchies of Objects, a Polygon Example, Detailed Polygon Modeling, and a NURBS Example


Basic Concepts


Modeling Hierarchies


Objects


Formal Notions


Hierarchies


Another Example


Extending the Notion of a Hierarchy


The Importance of the Outliner


Using Bevel, Extrude, Detach, and Combine to Make a Mailbox


A Working Set of Polygon Modeling Tools


Creating a New Edge


Beveling


Extrusion


Detach


The Clip


Beveled Letters


Making a Polygon Moai


Rapa Nui


A Modeling Exercise: Making a Moai on Your Own


Making a Moai with Polygon Modeling


Smoothing and Rendering


Smoothing a Polygon Model: Many Choices


Smooth Tool


Using the Smooth Tool Locally


Adding Faces and Manipulating New Faces, and Beveling Edges


Manipulating Normals to Smooth Edges


Smoothing with mental ray, without Changing the Geometry


Surgically Mending an Imperfect Model


Merging Edges in a Single Piece of Geometry


Removing a Face with Merge to Center


Filling in a Hole in a Polygon Model with a Bridge Tool


Making Small and Graceful Changes to a Model


Sliding an Edge


Soft Move


Aligning Objects


Using the Sweep of a Cylinder and Resizing to Make a Breadbox


A NURBS Surface


The Sweep of a NURBS Surface


Nested Objects


Finishing the Geometry of the Breadbox


Materials, Bump Maps, Lights, Projection versus Normal Textures, Connecting NURBS Surfaces, and Layered Textures


The Bottom Line


Working with Maya Materials to Make a Tabletop


Ways to Surface a Model


Textures and Materials for the Maya Software Renderer


Bump Maps


Finishing the Table Scene


Materials or Textures?


Lights


Ambient Light and Shadows


Directional Light and Shadows


Point Light and Shadows


Spotlights and Shadows


Area Light


mental ray Light Shaders


mental ray 2D and 3D Lights


Depth Map versus Raytraced Shadows


The Varnished Table


Being Creative with Textures for Bump Maps: Making a Road and a Sidewalk


More Bump Maps


Completing the Scene: Creating a Light Pole and Painting 3D Geometry to Make Grass


Creating a Layered Texture in Pixelmator


Photographs for Textures


Working outside of Maya


The Uses of Bit-Mapped Images


Blending Layers


Rusty, Painted Metal


Layering Capability Native to Maya


Brief Note: Various Color Systems


Cylindrical Projection of an Image Texture on the Cactus


Projection or Normal Texture?


Projecting Textures


Conversion to Polygons


Types of Projections


Tiling


Adjusting the Projection of a Texture


Stitching NURBS Surfaces to Make Carpeted Stairs


Isoparms


Connecting Stairs


Putting a Material on the Stairs


Using the Append to Polygon Tool for Connecting Two Stairs


Using a File Texture as a Material's Color and Making a Material Stick


A Texture as a Color of a Material


Assigning an Image to a Material's Color Attribute


Adjusting and Fixing the Material Placement


Adjusting the Material's Ambient Color Attribute


Using Polygon Face Extrusion and a File Texture as a Lambert Color to Make an Ice Rink


Extruding the Wall


Using a File Texture for the Fence


Using Two Layers for Ice


Textures versus Geometry: Bump Maps versus Displacement Maps


Bump Maps versus Displacement Maps in Maya


Bump Maps


Displacement Maps


The Resulting Render: Comparing Bump Maps to Displacement Maps


Particle Dynamics


Use Emitters Sparingly


Saving Render Time


Rocket Pollution and Hardware Particles


The Attributes of the Emitter and the Particles


Using Software Particles in nDynamics to Create Trix


nDynamics in Maya


Particle Dynamics Engines and Solvers


Emitting Trix into the Glass Bowl


Colliders


Scaling the Trix


Ramp Textures


The Trix's Ramp


Gravity


Action!


An Aside


Creating a Cloth Flag with nDynamics


nDynamics Meets Geometry


A Flag


Putting a Texture on the Flag


Making the Flag Flap


Creating Rain with nDynamics


Downward Gravity versus the Upward Bounce of a Collider


Two Planes: Rain Clouds and the Ground


Rain Particles


The Ground


Making It Rain


Instancing


Specialized Dynamics Applications


A First Look at Adding Animation


Moving an Object along a Motion Path


Creating a Path


Putting an Object on a Path


From the Camera's Perspective: A River Ride


Keyframing an Object


The Timeline


Creating Keyframes


Using the Graph Editor to Reuse Animation


The Graph Editor


Motion Cycles


Driven Keys


Using Skeletons to Simulate Natural Movement


Inverse Kinematics versus Forward Kinematics


Inverse Kinematics in a Leg


The Power of Inverse Kinematics Skeletons


The Fuzzy Border between Modeling and Animating


Using NURBS, Shatter, and Fur to Make an Egg and Crack It


Smooth Modeling for an Egg


Cracking the Egg with the Shatter Tool


A Chick and Fur


Maya Fur and nHair: An nDynamics Effect


Using Blend Shape to Animate the Leg of the Chick Being Born


Animating a Chick Leg with a Blend Shape


Using a Bend Deformer to Animate Rolling Up a Pool Cover


The Bend Deformer


Animating a Swimming Pool Cover


Bouncing a Squishy Ball with a Squash Deformer


Keyframing the Ball


Running and Rendering the Scene


Using the Lattice Deformer to Damage Our Mailbox


Morphing the Mailbox


The Rendered Result


A Note on Using the Lattice Deformer


Using Deformers for Modeling: An Important Detail


Light Fog, Fluids, and Another Look at Materials


Fixing a Tiled Texture with Overlays


Experimenting with Textures


Adding Noise to the Tiling Lines


Two Final Notes on Tiling


Making a Seamless Texture with Maya Paint


Painting a Seamless Tiled Texture


Creating and Tiling a File Texture


Making Glass Bottles with NURBS and mental ray


The Three Bottles


mental ray Settings


A Bottle inside a Bottle


The Render


Glass and Particles for a Single-Frame Image


The Scene


Fluid Containers


mental ray Glass


The Background


Rendering Settings


Using Light Fog and Glow to Create a Night Scene


Fog


A Sidewalk and Street Scene with Fog


Making a Material Behave Like a Light


The Render


An Example Model: A Closet


Multiple Coordinate Systems in Maya


Opening and Closing Doors with the Rotate Tool, and Bounding Boxes


Adding Detail to the Doors with the Interactive Split Tool


The Render


One More Look at World Space versus Object Space


Making a Shirt out of nCloth and Rendering from a Camera's Perspective


A Shirt Made of nCloth: Starting with a Basic Shape


A NURBS Hanger


Extruding Sleeves, Making Arm and Neck Holes, and Refining the Shape of the Shirt


A Passive Collider Hanger and Fields


Letting the Cloth Drape on the Hanger and Creating a Camera


The Camera's Perspective and Rendering


Timing Animation to a Soundtrack and Rendering Multiple Frames


Opening up the Time Slider: Making Room for Audio


Sound in Maya


Guiding the Keyframing of a Scene with the Sound Wave


Rendering with the Batch Renderer


Using the Graph Editor in Maya to Fine-Tune Animation


Frame and Value


The Rotation Curve


A Useful Tool: fCheck


Light Linking to Accentuate the Closet Doors


Controlling Lights


Why Control Lights Artificially?


Three-Point Lighting


Fill Lights in Maya


Placing and Positioning Models in a Scene


Controlling Lights from the Hypershade


Specialized Animation Techniques


Skeletons, Inverse Kinematics Handles, Rigging, and


Skinning a Simple Humanoid


HIK: The Skeleton Maker in Maya


Maya's Skeleton Generator


Skinning


The Rig


Solvers


Making Your Character's Body More Organic


Controlling the Movement of a Skeleton: Pinning and Constraining, and the Sticky Checkbox


A Last Remark


Active Rigid Objects and Gravity: A Bowling Ball and Pins


The Bowling Ball and Pins: Collisions


Four Rigid Bodies


Making the Ball Move: Gravity!


Calculating Collisions


Using Soft Body Dynamics to Age a Moai Statue


Turning the Moai into a Soft Body


Before and After


Using the Channel Box for Keyframing the Transparency of a Moai


Making Our Moai Disappear


Using an Expression to Rotate a Doorknob


The Rendering


A Note on Using the Outliner Window


Using Maya Expressions and Variables to Animate Models


Example 1: Applying an Expression to the Visibility Attribute of an Object That Has a Material with a Glow Intensity


Example 2: Our Squashing Ball


More Maya Embedded Language (MEL)


Creating an Ocean Water Swell


Using nCloth as Water and Applying Gravity


The Ball Falls through the Water and Creates a Rippling Swell


Specialized Materials and Material Effects


Making a Toon Cow


The Vector Renderer


The Toon Shader


Making a Graffiti-Covered Wall with Paint Effects


The Paint Effects Canvas


Painting on an Image


Choosing a More Realistic Effect


The mental ray Sky Dome


The Rendering


Baking a Material


A Homemade Sky Dome


The UV Texture Editor


The (u, v) Surfacing Problem


A Planar Projection of a Normal File Texture and Using the Move and Scale Tools to Adjust It


Using the Scale Tool in the UV Editor


Rotating and Flipping


A Closer Look at the UV Editor: Creating and Manipulating UV Maps


A Doorknob's (u, v) Texture Mapping


The UV Smudge Tool


A Comparison of Different UV Editor Mappings


Multi-App Maya Workflow, Managing Complex Scenes, and Sculpting Applications


The Inter-App Workflow Dilemma


Plug-Ins That Work Pretty Well


Specialized Modeling: Bipeds


Exterior Environments: Vue and Terragen


Specialized Modeling: Sculpting with ZBrush


Stand-Alone Renderers: Maxwell, Octane, and Indigo


Translating Materials: The Rendering Plug-In's Main Job


Sculpting Applications and Sculpting with Maya


ZBrush and Mudbox


Reducing Meshes in Maya


Maya's Soft Modification Tool


Advanced Light and Materials Properties and Effects


Ambient Occlusion


Global Illumination and Final Gathering


Caustics


Light Emitting Materials: Irradiance


Coloring mental ray's Glass Material


Coloring a Material with Lights


Using Anisotropy with mental ray to Control the Transparency of Frosted Glass


Using the Penumbra and Drop-off Settings on a Maya Spotlight


Adjusting the Resolution Attribute of a Directional Light in Maya


Adding Raytrace Shadows and mental ray Sun and Sky to the Bottle


The Cabana


A Beginner's Project: Basic, Top-Down Architectural Modeling


Reuse


Reference Images


Modeling with Texturing and Animating in Mind


The Cabana


Using Prefab Content to Flesh Out a Scene


Building the Cabana: Workflow


A Note on Animating Humans


The Cool Concepts of the Cabana


Cool Concepts


Index