Class Exercise 15

Problem: Create an axe model, finish shading the axe, render 2-3 views and upload to the website.

Solution: A model of the axe was created. Two phong textures were created, one for wooden handle (wood phong) and one for the metal axe head (metal phong). Wood 3D texture was added as the color map for the wood phong texture. Various values of the wood 3D texture was then edited to alter the color of the wood, grain pattern of wood, age and randomness of the pattern. Then Environment Chrome was added to the metal phone texture. This gives the axe a polished metallic look. Then a layered texture was created and the wood phong was first added to the layered texture followed my metal phong. A ramp was added to transparency of wood phong and was then adjusted to layer metal phong on top of wood phong.

Project 3 - Rigging human like character

Problem: To rig a human like character and then create two videos, one showing all controls and another a small animation.

Solution: A bone structure was created using create joint tool in Maya and the human like character was rigged.

Date: 11/13/2017

A spine was created for the character and then limbs were created and joined with the spine as the chest (hands) and hips (legs). The eyes were separated from rest of the mesh using a separate mesh tool. The eyes were then constrain as a child to the eye bone, which allows movement of eyes with rest of the head. A control structure was created for the eyes using aim constrain, this allows eyes to be moved individually as well as together. A control structure was then created using parent constrain for the foot to allow movements of the foot. IK handles were then created for legs and hands. Control structures were created for the IK handles using parent constrain. Control structures were created for elbow and knee rotation by using Orient constrain. Control structures were created for head movement as well as hip movement. Driven keys were used to create the hand curling animation and was attached to a custom attribute on the hand controller.

Once all the control structures were created, a new overall controller(TRS controller) was created. The translation, rotation and scaling properties of all other control structures were linked to the overall controller using the connection editor.

Skinning was done using below options:

Bind to : Joint hierarchy

Bind Method : Heat map

Skinning method : Dual quaternion

The mesh and the rig became too heavy for my computer to process and Maya started to crash at random times (sometimes within a few seconds) when i started to create key frames. Hence, I was not able to create a decent animation.

References used : Maya Rigging Fundamentals, pluralsight.com

Animation : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1koi9U6cNlFHqhbhoaqDkfFe7YJZpJIfX

Demo reel : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qzkw5hB1oF6WPTAzOxtfTM7hkE30nXHs

Scene : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fBJy0R7mrAoTZv2OJ4IaqPj2zDnt4k0F

Homework - Learning how to rig human like characters

Problem: Watch pluralsight tutorial on rigging humanlike characters. Describe 3 tools which you learned about and found interesting.

Solution: The following tutorial from pluralsight was referred and below mentioned are some interesting new things learned from the tutorial. 'Introduction to Rigging in Maya' - https://app.pluralsight.com/player?course=introduction-rigging-maya-1669&author=delano-athias&name=introduction-rigging-maya-1669-m1&clip=0&mode=live

Spline IK: The tool can be used to create an IK which will allow the joints to be bend like a curve. The tool creates an IK handle and a curve. Individual control vertices of the curve can be moved to create the bend on the bone structure. The tool is very helpful to create IK handles for animating the torso. A simple curve can help in conveying a lot of emotions. The below image show how spline IK is used to create a sad pose. Source : 'Introduction to Rigging in Maya' on pluralsight.

Class Exercise 12

Problem: Create Ik and FK walk cycles using the humanoid model provided.

Solution: Bone structure was created for the humanoid start from hip to head first. From the chest joint, the bone structure for left hand was created. The bone structure for left hand was mirrored using 'Mirror Joints' function to create bone structure for the right arm. Similarly, bone structure of the left leg was created form the hip joint and the joint was mirrored to form bone structure for the right leg. IK structures were created for both the legs, both the hands and the backbone using 'Create IK Handle' function in maya.

Male Happy walk - IK blend option was turned to 1 for all IK to use Inverse Kinematics. Keyframes were created for each Ik handle to simulate movements on both legs, both hands and backbone. Translation and rotation were used on the IK handles to simulate movements.

Male Relaxed walk - IK blend option was turned to 0 for all IK to use Forward Kinematics. Each bone in the FK was rotated to created movements and key frames were created.

Project 2

Problem: Create an animation of a unicycle lasting 10-20 seconds. The unicycle must be shaded/textured.

Solution: A basic environment which has a big square wall, a ramp and a base was added to the provided unicycle scene to create a space where the animation will run. 4 Blinn materials were created and colors were added to represent the red frame, the black metal pieces, the dark blue seat and the silver metal parts. The textures were applied to different parts of the unicycle. The unicycle was animated to show a couple of stunts and a video of 11 seconds duration was created. Key frames were used to create the animation. Key frames where created for the unicycle to animate all movements like jumps and turns. Key frames were added to the wheel to create rotations for the wheel. Finally, key frames were added to the camera to follow/look at the unicycle while it moved in the scene. Below listed are few on the animation principle used while creating this animation.

Anticipation: The unicycle leans towards the direction and very slightly goes down before making any of the jumps. Thus, anticipating before the actual action and hence calling attention to the actual action which is about to happen.

Pose to pose: The final pose of the unicycle was fixed after the unicycle reaches the ground and the different poses between the final pose and when the unicycle touches the ground was created afterwards. This makes it easier to plan the intermediate poses.

Slow-in and slow-out: The unicycle starts its movements slowly and them picks pace. The unicycle also loses its pace before it stops.

Class Exercise 11

Problem: Create a throwing axe animation using key frames.

Solution: The handle and head of the axe was grouped. Similarly, all components of the target was grouped. Key frames were added to the axe to created anticipation, create the throw, create an arc in the throw, create impact. Once there key frames were tweaked using Graph Editor. Using Hypergraph, change the hierarchy to parent the axe under the target and then add key frames for reaction to axe throw. The throw animation was applied only to the axe and the reaction animation was added to axe and target. This was made possible as the target was parented to the axe using Hypergraph. The animation is provided below.

Class Exercise 10

Problem: Find atleast three examples of the Principles of Animation, describe about each of them.

Solution: Below are three Principles of Animation observed in the movie 'Toy Story'.

Overlap and Follow-Through:

Many scenes use Overlap and Follow-Through to convey speed, motion and flexibility of the objects in the movie. Here woody is a soft toy and hence flexible. In the below scene, overlap and follow-through is used to convey the excitement of the abrupt movements of the kid and also shows that the toy is flexible. Later in the scene, very less overlap and follow-through is used on potato-head to convey that it a hard toy.

Anticipation:

Its commonly used in animation to draw viewer's attention to an action which is going to happen in the scene. Like winding back before running as shown in some animations. In the below scene, the character is about to kick some boxes. To draw attention to the action and to convey the action better to viewers, the right leg of the character is moved backward before its moved in the forward direction to kick the boxes.

Slow-Ins, Slow-Outs:

Motions do not start or stop suddenly (in most cases) and hence Slow-Ins and Slow-Outs makes movements look more natural in animations. In the below scene, the character rides on a toy train and is thrown from a toy train on to a box. While the toy train starts moving, Slow-In is used to make the motion appear natural. However, when the character hits the box, the box and the character moves forwards and Slow-Out is used for an extended period to convey the force of impact and then slowing down after the impact. This provides for natural movements in animation.

Class Exercise 9

Problem: Create four spheres to represent an Orange, an Egg, a Tomato and a Wooden ball. Create a turntable of the still life scene.

Solution: Four NURBS spheres were created and deformed to represent all four objects. A floor was created. Basic shaders were added for each object and bump maps were used for Orange and Egg. A 3D texture was used for the wooden ball and the floor. Camera, Key light (max intensity), Fill light (medium intensity), and Back light (lowest intensity) were added and placed accordingly in the scene. A turntable was created.

The following shaders were added to each object:

Orange: Blinn shader was used and a color was added. 'fractal' bump map was used to add more details.

Tomato: Blinn shader was used and a color was added

Egg: Lambert shader was used and a color was added. 'rock' bump map was used to add more details.

Wood: Blinn shader was used and 'Wood' 3D texture was used.

Batch rendering method was used to render images from the turntable camera using 'Maya software' render. The images were then put together to create the below animation.

Project 1 : Modeling Nemo !

10/4/2017

Problem: Modelling an object my taking pictures of the object as in an animation sheet. Make the model as close as possible to real life.

Solution: The model selected for the project was Nemo from the movie Finding Nemo. Pictures of the model was taken from both sides, front and 3/4 view to use as animation sheet for the project. The body of the model was create by using a polygonal cube and then extruding, scaling, rotating and translating various faces, vertices, and edges of the mesh. Once the basic body was created, I used NURBS circles to create the waves for different fins and the created a geometry by using loft tool. Duplicate special tool was used to duplicate the circles before using loft. This geometry was then modified and converted into a polygon using NURBS to Polygon tool. They were further combined and merged with the body using combine tool and merge tool. Multicut tool was used to created edges to avoid ngons. Inset edge loop tool and Offset edge loop tool was used to add geometry where needed. Each mesh was named and then grouped accordingly.

Class Exercise 8

Problem: Animate a flying text and use atleast 3 Deform tools

Solution: Created a text and created Bend Deform, Flare Deform, Sine Deform. Create key frames to create an animation. The video was created using Playblast function in Maya.

Class Exercise 7

Problem: Create a shoe model using NURBS tools.

Solution: A model of the shoe was created using NURBS objects. The outline of the sole was created using CV Curve tool. The Bevel tool was then used to create a geometry around the edges of the sole. NURBS circles where created to form an array of circles to fill the inside of the sole. Then they were selected bottom up and used Loft tool to create the sole geometry. CV Curve tool and Bevel were used to create straps of the shoe. The heel was created using a NURBS cylinder and then modified using control vertex. Listed below are some tools used in creation of the model.

Loft - Creates geometry between selected NURBS objects in the order they are selected.

Bevel - Helps create a geometry plane along a curve.

Duplicate special - To create multiple duplicates and rotate, scale, translate them at the time creation.

CV Curves - To create curves in the model.

Control Vertex - To select control vertices of an object to modify the object.

Class Exercise 6

Problem: Create model of a pear fruit, as shown in the picture only using NURBS tools.

Solution: Created the pear model by using an image plane. Imported the image plane in side view and created the outline using CV Curve tool. Once half of the outline is made, use revolve function to create full geometry of the pear. Scale, translate and rotate to achieve the shape as in the picture. Repeat the same to create the stem. Use NURBS plane to create the leaf. translate individual control vertices of the plane to achieve the shape of the leaf. Listed below are some tools used in creation of the model.

Revolve - Creates a symmetrical 3D geometry from a curve.

Control Vertex - To select and modify/do an action on one of the control vertices of a NURBS object.

Class Exercise 5

Problem: Watch Pluralsight Tutorial, in Creative Professional:Quick Start to Modeling in Maya: Volume 1. Create solar panel till the end of constructing the brackets.

Solution: A solar panel was created using basic primitives and operations like extrude, inset edge loops, offset edge loops, translate. Below are the 5 new tools learned from this exercise.

• Detach - Separate a portion of a mesh by selecting where to separate. This tool can be used to create shapes like semi circles from a pipe.
• Duplicate - Duplicate any object, the new object will have the same properties as of the original object.
• Duplicate special - To duplicate objects and traslate/rotate/scale at the same time. Can be used to create multiple copies of objects.
• Center pivot - Center the pivot when multiple objects are joined together to create a group or in any similar circumstances.
• Freeze transformation - To reset all transformation variable to 0,0,0.

Class Exercise 4

Problem: Create a detailed model of a couch.

Solution: Create a cube primitive to start off and add division to the bottom face so that we could extrude the legs out from the bottom. Selected the appropriate sub-divisions and extruded the legs. now use inset edge loop tool to form divisions which then can be extruded to for the hard rests and back rest of the couch. Once we have the basic divisions, extrude out the hand rests and back rests. Use inset edge loop tool again to add edges to the hand rest. Translate appropriate edge of the hand rests to form the curve in the hand rests. Add division to the upper face of the seating cushion and the forward facing face of the back rest. Translate appropriate edges to form the natural shape of a cushion. Select the vertical faces of the legs and smooth them to give a natural appearance.

Class Exercise 3

Problem: Create detailed model of top hat.

Solution: Create a cylinder prefab to be used as the basic shape to create the hat model. Add about 8 V divisions to the vertical sides of the cylinder and re-position and scale the top 3 rows of faces to form the upper part of the hat. select the edges (end to end) of the lower most vertical face and extrude the edges to form the sides of the hat. Now extrude the outermost edges to form the final upward shape. This basic structure can be twisted to form the natural twist shown on the model's edges. The points and edges where translated to achieve this.

Class Exercise 2

Problem: Create a solar system model and add key frames to create animations

Solution: A solar system model was created using various primitives and translated them to place the planets at varying distances from the Sun. Moons were created where ever applicable. The Hypershade window was used to create materials (lambert) for each planet so that each planet could have a different texture/color. Key-frames where added to the moons and planets to make them rotate around their own axis. Each moon was grouped and the center of the group changed to the center of the respective planet around which the moon orbits. Key frames were added to the group to make the moon orbit around the planet. The respective moon groups and planets were again grouped to create a new group, to which key-framed were added to create the animation of planets revolving around the sun and the moons moving with the planet while orbiting around the planet. The revolutions and orbit lengths of each planet is designed to mock the actual no. of days and orbit lengths of planets in the solar system. The video was captured using playblast feature in Maya.

Link to Scene: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9CZdo6D5Wp6THhULTZHTkdGYUE/view?usp=sharing

Class Exercise 1

Problem: Build a vehicle only based on primitives by scaling, rotating and translating.

Solution: Low poly vehicle model created with Maya 2017. All polygon primitives were used and translation, rotation, scaling operations operations were used to create the model. The following primitives were used: Sphere for back-lights, Cube to create basic body and pillars, Cylinder for tires, Cone for boot hinges, Plane for glasses and windows, Torus for headlamps, Prism for bumpers, Pipe for exhaust, Helix for external mirror links, soccer ball for external mirrors, and Dodecahedron for hood logo.