Introduction to Maya

(Video/Lesson 35)

Yesterday I started working on the materials and shading on the ship to make the model appear more realistic. I just finished video/lesson 35, where I used ramps to drive material channels, specifically using incandescence to make parts of the pipe glow from exhaust, and crater/fractal materials to certain faces of the model .  Before this, on video 34, I was introduced to the hypershade window where I began applying and manipulating simple materials. The property and attribute editors have been important to adjust and create the materials/effects.

Introduction to Maya

 20 (above & below)

 22 (below)

(Video/Lesson 20 & 22)

These screenshots are from videos/lessons 20 & 22. After creating the canopy and extruding the thruster compartment (which involved a lot of the multi-cut tool, editing mesh, and extruding) I started and finished the front guard which required many of the tools I had used previously, especially multi-cut, editing mesh, and the extrude, move, and scale tools. Currently I am on video 22, where I am in the process of modeling pieces between the wings by duplicating faces, extruding them, and adjusting vertices/edges to form the pieces in between the wings.

Introduction to Maya

(Video/Lesson 17 & 18)

This is my first summary over the Introduction to Maya project, and the screenshots are from videos/lessons 17 & 18, where after beginning to create the base shape of the ship, I extruded up the top section and created the canopy. This mainly involved the use of symmetry, the extrude tool, the multi-cut tool, scale tool, and move tool. Previously, I had created the basic body shape for the ship using the scale tool to match the model to the reference photo and extruded out the wings as well as cutting out specific parts to match the reference, using the target weld and bridge tools to make the model more accurate. Currently I am finishing part 18 and creating the canopy for the ship by moving vertices and extruding out specific parts of the model to reflect the reference photo.

12 Principles of Animation

VIDEO

The video explains and defines each principle of animation, and then shows a short example of what it looks like and how it works with numbers, letters, and shapes.

The 12 principles of animation are squash & stretch, anticipation, arcs, ease in & ease out, appeal, timing, solid drawing, exaggeration, pose to pose, staging, secondary action, and follow through

Squash & Stretch: gives illusion of weight and volume to a subject, often used for comical effect

Anticipation: prepares audience for action, increases realism of action- sometimes used to heighten suspense

Arcs: humans and animals always move in arcs, this increases realism of subject's action(s)

Ease In & Ease Out: subjects need time to slow down/speed up- drawings between extreme poses provide subject with greater realistic movement

Appeal: characters need to captivate audiences, complicated faces and lack of symmetry make it difficult for audience to connect or find them appealing

Timing: more frames create slower action, while fewer frames create faster action

Solid Drawing: adds weight, volume, and 3D illusion to subject

Exaggeration: presents physical features/elements of a character in exaggerated form, shows emotions and movements more

Pose to Pose: for highly emotional/dramatised scenes- drawing a few key frames for each action then filling in the intervals

Staging: communicates primary mood, action, or idea of a scene

Secondary Action: emphasises and supports primary action of subject, while providing scenes with greater life

Follow Through: refers to parts of subject that continue to move after a completed action