WordsByBuzz: a blog on 3D animation

Learn Maya and 3D animation!

WordsByBuzz: a blog on 3D animation - Learn Maya and 3D animation!

Video 39 – Spring 2012: Using a file texture as a material color and making a material stick

This is the thirty-ninth in a series of brief videos on how to use Autodesk Maya to create animated projects. The videos are meant for beginners and each one focuses on a specific topic. In this video we return to textures and materials.  We look at using a file texture as the color of a material and at making sure that once a material is assigned, it will not wander. The video is on vimeo.com.

Thirty-sixth video – Spring 2012: Extruding a face to create a wall and using a file texture as a color for a material

This is the thirty-sixth in a series of brief videos on how to use Autodesk Maya to create animated projects. The videos are meant for beginners and each one focuses on a specific topic. This video returns to extrusion, this time looking at the extrusion of a face along a curve to create a wall, and at using a file texture as the color of a material.  The video is on vimeo.com.

Thirty-fifth video – Spring 2012: Using soft select to smooth a model and soften edge to smooth a rendering

This is the thirty-fifth in a series of brief videos on how to use Autodesk Maya to create animated projects. The videos are meant for beginners and each one focuses on a specific topic. This video looks at the issue of smoothing models made with polygon geometry. In particular, we look at using soft select to more gracefully manipulate an object and at smoothing the rendering of edges by adjusting normals.  The video is on vimeo.com.

Thirty-third video – Spring 2012: Timing a soundtrack to animation

This is the thirty-third in a series of brief videos on how to use Autodesk Maya to create animated projects. The videos are meant for beginners and each one focuses on a specific topic. This video looks at the process of timing a sound track to the movement in an animated scene. We see that Maya is not a sound editor and that the sound track must be made outside of Maya. And, the resulting video with sound also has to be made outside of Maya.  The video is on vimeo.com.

Thirty-second video – Spring 2012: A Maoi in stone and in metal

This is the thirty-second in a series of brief videos on how to use Autodesk Maya to create animated projects. The videos are meant for beginners and each one focuses on a specific topic. This video is a little different in that it gives a quick overview of the creation of a model of a Moai statue.  Moais were made by native residents of Rapa Nui in the Pacific Ocean several hundred years ago.)  It then then compares a stone and a metal material finish for the Moai – and at how fundamental a difference this makes in the statue’s visual impact.  I do not cover the process step by step, as the techniques used to make the model have all been covered in previous videos – but importantly, it was made with a very small subset of polygon and subdivision tools.  The video is on Vimeo.

Thirty-first video – Spring 2012: Creating a shirt in nCloth and rendering from a camera

This is the thirty-first in a series of brief videos on how to use Autodesk Maya to create animated projects. The videos are meant for beginners and each one focuses on a specific topic. This video is longer than average, over twenty minutes. In this video, we look at two things: First, we return to nCloth and make a shirt. We then hang the shirt on a hanger. Then, we go to the walk-in closet scene built in a previous video and put the shirt and hanger in the closet. Second, we take our first look at viewing and rendering a scene from the perspective of a camera.  The video is on Vimeo.com.