Category: Maya

First, we saw the bases of the bonus rule, so Nick wanted us to use the graph editor to get the rule of bonus. 

We created a staircase and kept a ball on the topmost stair, changed the timeline setting FPS to 30, end the timeline at 120 and right-clicked on the play, selected playback speed and selected Play Every Frame, Max Real-time. In frame 120 move to the right view then take the ball and moved the ball in Z translate and gave it a keyframe by right-clicking on the Z translate clicking on the key selected, set one keyframe on the top of the stairs at frame 1. Did the same thing in Y Translate.

In the workspace on the right-hand side selectvanimation, and a graph editor will open, select Y Translate, we started the keyframe where the ball should hit the stairs and moved the tangents, to only move one tangent we need to click on break tangents, this way give the ball a fell of bonus. ( it’s not easy as it sounds 🙂 )

From poly haven, we download an ERX file to light up the scene and gave metals to the ball and to the stairs added a plane as a floor and give it Ai shadow matte. Now we had to do one ball with every less bonus, it was the same way how we created the other ball, but in the graph editor, it would be more state and not curves like the other ball, then we render it.

Later Nick introduced us to Bullet in Maya, Bullet is a physics engine that lets us create large-scale, highly-realistic dynamic and kinematic simulations which will help us build our Rube Goldberg machine. 

There are 3 prominent opinions, first is the Active Rigid Body which is when the object has to move with the dynamics, second  Passive Rigid Body which is when you don’t want the object to move with the dynamics and stay kinematic, third is Rigid Body Constraint, this will help with getting an anchor point in the centre of the object and make it move like a seesaw. Using these tools we have to make a Rube Goldberg machine within 4 weeks.

Nick wasn’t well so he didn’t come in, but he took the class online. We started off by adding lights to our scene so we can render it out we used a 3 light setup we sued a spotlight to make the setup.

Then we had to make a tongue with a cube > add subdivisions > use vertex to give the tongue shape> put in the mouth and use edge to make sure it fits in the mouth> in attribute editor add colour and name>in outline out the tongue under jew_rotate so it moves with the mouth.

Next was to do the colour correction, open hypershade>graph on the tool bar>graph materials on selected objects a node graph will open> press tab and type colour correct> from your face out colour contacted to in colour of your colour correct> get the right tone or you face by playing around with colour offset>contact the out colour from the colour correction to specular colour in your standard surface>add one more color correct> put the out color of the 2nd correct to coat color and base color change the color offset to get the right tone> after making the changes got to the presets on the material click on skin> under subsurface make the tone is changed to red to give it a subsurface scattering.

The next step is to render the file, go to render settings change the setting on frame/animation ext to “name.#.ext” under frame range put the keyframes you want to render and select the image size you want it, also tick on merge AOVs and half-precision.

I add this video in Davinci resolve because I don’t have after effects and Davinci is for free and does the same job. I added a background gave to a blur and colour-corrected the face to match the background.  

Modelling the face was fun and hard, fun because we had used a lot of new tools and hard because of all the crashing and forgetting to save the file and doing the whole thing again and again. I really liked the shape editor, which used to make the movement of the facial expiration, but sometimes I use to keep two of the target on and both would get affected and I had to command it whole thing again and do it again, overall it was a fun experience.

Last week Nick told us to get audio so that we can sync with the face we model. So I thought I will use a shot from Loin King, but then Nick told me to use something which not animated. So I picked up this.

After I downloaded the video we had to put it in After effects or Premer pro and then export it as a jpg and the audio had to be converted to WAV format to put it in Maya. To import the video on your background of the Maya window we had to go to view>import image> then select the 1st jpg where to have saved it> import, then go to image plane attributes then click on a use image sequence.

If you have edited your video and the jpg doesn’t start from 1 then in frame offset put the number it states from and it should line up. To import the sound you need to right-click on the timeline go to audio> import audio select, then your audio should be there.

The first step in lips syncing is to open the mouth of the model when your reference character opens his/her mouth and keyframe it at the right time. Nick told that was the better way to do it if we don’t have a reference, we should keep our hand under our jaw and say the lines and when we feel our mouth pushing down on our hand add a keyframe there. The next step is to open the shape editor and use the sculpting tool to make the facial expiration. and keyframe it with the mouth opening and closing

whit3fck (2013),The Departed - Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself. YouTube[Online Video]. Available fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JYJhWIwGUw&ab_channel=whit3fck [9th November 2022].

We had to fix our modal jaw so that we could make the puppet movement with our modal. When I say puppet movement I mean to say the jaw going up and down. After making surer that our joints are in the right place we started working on the facial reactions.

So to get the facial reactions we use the shape editor tool. When you click on the shape editor a new window opens and then you need to add a target and make sure you have clicked on the edit button then go to sculpting and use the tool to get an expiration you like then when your happy with the face switch the edit off. Then you can move the control front and back to achieve the expiration. This way we had to so smile, frown and blink.

The tools we used in this class:- Shape Editor, Sculpting, Pull, Paint Skin Weights and Timeline.

We continued perfecting our face model. We started off by making facial reactions like blinking. The next step was to give motion to the whole head first, we had to add joints and add keys in the frame so it moves at the right time. Then we tried to open the mouth for that we had to use paint skin weight tool to paint the upper half and the lower half. At the end of the class, we started working on the teeth.

This week, we continued from where we left off last week. First, we added the eyes and then used shape editors to get different facial expressions. We then improved the face material and assigned it to the head, later using the UV editor to make sure the material and the head are aligned appropriately. We also opened up Mudbox. This is an extension of Maya where we learnt how to use the clone and burn tools to give the eyelid the same texture as the face. We then got this material back to Maya and assigned the face.

This week we had to use “quad draw” to model a face. It is like making a mask over a 3D face. We had to make sure that the mask had been squared and evenly distributed so that it looked smooth while making the model talk. We made one half of the face and then duplicated that half on the other side to get the whole face. We also used sculpting tools to add more details.

We had to complete our hot air balloon, by adding a few elements and making it more complex in appearance. So we started to add ropes with knots to connect the balloon to the basket. We then learnt how to use UV maps and how to unfold the UV map for a round object and then add textures for the burner and the metal object.

Nick started the class by showing us new tools to create a hot air balloon which we had to export to Nuke, for making a composition. We didn’t make the hot air balloon right away, but we made a wine bottle and glass using EP curve tool, this tool works as a pen tool which can be used to draw a line. Following this, revolve is used to create a 3D shape of the line. The next step was to add glass material to the glass and the bottle. To make the wine, we just had to remove the outer face and keep only the inner face of the object and fill the hole with a deep water material.

We then made the hot air balloon using the same technique that we used for the wine. For the body and other parts of the hot air balloon we used extrude, bend, duplicate special, latisse, and then we applied the material.

In week 2 we made a lego man by using simple and base tools. We used a cylinder to make the face and later extruded the top and the bottom part. We used a cube to make the body and used the vertex to shape the body. Making the legs was a little more complex- we had to use a cylinder, extrude and edge loops to make it. The hips were made by using a cylinder and extruding the top and flattening the vertex. The hands were done by using a cylinder and then shaping the shoulders then later used a softener to smoothen the mesh. I used UV editor to shape the face of the lego man.