Category: Maya

I didn’t do more blend shapes this week because I accidentally did too much blending last week. I changed the walk cycle to liven it up.

Firstly, I felt that the walk I did last time was not natural enough, even like a straining old man walking, so I changed the rhythm of the walk and adjusted the direction and angle of the sphere itself so that the globe wobbles like an “8.”

I then added head tilts and head drops to the ball movement to make it look more flexible.

I didn’t use the toe and other controls on the foot in the last exercise, so this time I used the “foot roll” and “toe roll” controls to give the toe a bending effect and to make the center of rotation of the foot is the toe.

I then added some rotation to the foot to make it look like it was rotating outwards so that it would simulate each hard toe step.

To start adjusting the walking rhythm, I wanted to bring out the force of the stride so that the body would go faster after each stride due to the forward point.

Finally, add a squeeze effect to the body of the ball. This will make the ball look flexible.

And now you can get a flexible walk cycle!

In this class, the teacher taught us some rough rigging. We made a cube man with simple geometric models and bound the simple model with controllers and joins so that the model could move freely. It is a troublesome choice for me to make active models without joins and without skin weight. But I still got an excellent chance to review all the skills for creating a model and rigging

First, build a cub model, place the midpoint of each limb at the body joint, and plan the parent and child limbs in outliner correctly.

Create a controller for each joint with a curve, and plan the relationship between each curve, keeping the midpoint of each controller consistent with the center of the joint it controls.

Create new joints from the side view, ensuring that each joint has bone support

Bundle IK handles for the bones of the two legs.

Select the bones of both legs, make a group, and parent with the hip controller

star_borderSelect the leg bones and use the pole vector to bind the controller and bones, enables controller to control knee orientation.

Create layers, select all polygons, and create a new layer to ensure that the model will not be selected by mistake when making animations

Your movable model is ready!

Today, we learned how to use the simplest hand model to make the action of grabbing something and throwing it out. The controller and parent were used, which helped me review many things.

The way to make a simple hand:

Use the simple hand made a grab movement.

Add two locator, one for the hand, other for the ball

Finally, I combined the small ball animation I did in the first week with today’s practice to make the effect of grabbing and throwing the ball.

And we Then we made a small animation of squirrel jumping, mainly to control the squirrel’s tail to swing more naturally.

After the class, I used my free time to practice more, trying to make the squirrel more flexible:

First, Finish the jumping movement of squirrels in place, and make it become a cycle.

Then copy paste

And you can get a bouncing squirrel!

Today, we learned how to make objects move with curves, use the sine function to create a fishtail swing, and use a camera with the camera target. Our teacher said we could add more effect to this animation, so I used the substance painter to paint the UV texture for the shark to make the model more realistic. I want to make an animation of a shark swimming leisurely in the ocean after eating its prey.

Model

Model: I made some shape changes to the default model in Maya, using some shark pictures as reference to make the tail sharper, adding the rounded eye, and four different shapes of teeth.

reference：

model：

UV Texture：

And I made a new scene, create the reference.

Next, create a curve as the path

Then add a sine controller to the shark model to make the shark tail wiggle

Add a new camera and aim

Final step, add a skydome light, found an deep sea HDRI

Final：

We make a new animation practice as well:

And the home work: sketch posing of people

Intro to Maya

The first week of the class covered the basics of Maya. Although I was pretty skilled, I still learned some shortcuts that already forgotten, which was a good review for me.

The main canvas.

The most important panel – Graph editor (Used to edit key frames)

Panel that you need to use when you’re using Maya, and I remind some of the function in the class.

I think outliner is the most convenient panel. It can help me straightforwardly to find the hidden model.

Most of maya’s shortcuts are shit and ctrl puls the right mouse button.

In class, the teacher explained how to make the ball bounce animation. I had learned it a long time ago, but I still learned some new movements. I thought it still very interesting.

Bouncing ball in Maya

I use different controllers for different activities. The outermost controller is used to transformation of the ball; the controller above the ball is used for deformation, and the controller in the innermost circle is used for rolling. In this way, the ball can be rolled without affecting other controllersI use different controllers for different activities. The outermost controller is used to transformation of the ball; the controller above the ball is used for deformation, and the controller in the innermost circle is used for rolling. In this way, the ball can be rolled without affecting other controllers.

The timing of the ball hitting the ground and the squash by force is the most important point, and having this animation makes the ball even more vivid.

Final effect