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Tradigital Maya

Tradigital Maya A CG Animator’s Guide to Applying the Classic Principles of Animation

Lee Montgomery

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Montgomery, Lee, 1973- Tradigital Maya: a CG animator’s guide to applying the classic principles of animation / Lee Montgomery. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-12-385222-9 (pbk.) 1. Computer animation. 2. Maya (Computer fi le) I. Title. TR897.7.M648 2011 006.6'96—dc23 2011038124

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed in The United States of America

11 12 13 14 5 4 3 2 1

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For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.elsevierdirect.com

For all those new animators struggling to hone their craft, this book is dedicated to their endeavor and to the

fellow professionals and academics who commit their time to supporting their dreams.

I hope that you have as much enjoyment in reading the book as I had in writing it and that it stands up next

to the other great references on animation out there.

Special mention should also go to my friends and family who’ve supported me throughout my career and

particularly during the last 12 months as I worked on the book. Without the love and support of my

parents I would be nowhere in my life and I hope they’re as proud of me as I am of them.

vii

Contents Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xvii

Introduction – Traditional to Digital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Chapter 1: Arcs – Organic Movement/Natural Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Arcs in Object Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Localized Arcs – Human Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Chapter 1.1 – Animation Test – Bouncing Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Animation Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Maya Grid Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Creating the Bouncing Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Animation Preferences – Key Tangents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Selection and Transformation Tools and Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Animating the Ball Bounce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Copying and Pasting Keys and Setting Height Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Maya Graph Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Breakdown Key (In-between) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Playblast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Changing Key Tangent Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Ghosted Playblack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Refi ning the Animation Timing – Key Tangents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Squash and Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Looping the Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Loop Animation – Curve Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Loop Animation – Bounce Across Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Viewing and Editing the Trajectory Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Validating the Animation and Additional Edits to Refi ne the Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 1.2 – F16 Fighter Flight Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Introducing the Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

EP Curve – Motion Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Motion Path – Connecting the Model to the Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Editing Motion Path Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Contents

viii

Chapter 1.3 – Character IK Arm Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Maya Joint Chains, Forward & Inverse Kinematics, and Additional Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Pose Blocking, Timing & Spacing, and Motion Arcs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Animating with Forward Kinematics (FK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Animating with Inverse Kinematics (IK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

IK Rotate Plane Solver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Blocking in the Poses for the Arm Swing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

In-between Pose – Ease In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Validating the Timing and Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Motion Trail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Editing the Arc on the Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Shifting and Scaling Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Camera Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Editing the Arm Swing – Out/In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Looping the Arm Swing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Editing the New Motion – Arm Swing Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Follow-through on the Wrist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Elbow Angle (Pole Vector). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Chapter 1.4 – Character – Run Rhythm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Scene Setup and Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Lopping the Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Hip Sway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Looping Curves and Fixing Tangency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Looping and Extending the Run Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Chapter 2: Anticipation – Building the Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

F16 Fighter – Takeoff and Fight Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Head Turn Animation/Animation Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

VFX – Dynamics Rocket Smash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Character Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Chapter 2.1 – Baseball Pitcher Throw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Reference and Thumbnailing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Character Asset and Display Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Full Body IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Posing and Keying Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Eff ector Pinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Full Body IK – Eff ector Pinning in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Contents

ix

Reach – T/R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Character Pose Blocking Part 1 – Idle Pose to Coiled Readiness Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Character Pose Blocking Part 2 – Readiness Pose to Moving Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Character Pose Blocking Part 3 – Readiness Pose to Pre-Release Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Chapter 2.2 – nParticle – Rocket Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Introducing the Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Animating the Mechanical Motion for the Rocket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Base Pivot for Pre-rocket Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Arm Crane for Pre-rocket Launch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Emitter Setup for nParticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Emitter Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Nucleus Solver – Ground Plane Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Tweaking the Eff ect on the nParticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Shading and Texturing the nParticles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

No Smoke without Fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Enhancing the Quality of the Smoke Eff ect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Chapter 3: Animation Editing – Timing & Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Timing & Spacing – Anticipation to Follow-through and Overlap . . . . . . . . 142

Timing & Spacing – Appeal – Mood & Characterization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Timing & Spacing – Framing the Action – Camera Cuts and Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Chapter 3.1 – Timing & Spacing – Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Timing & Spacing Pt. 1 – Jump Animation – Spacing Contrast . . . . . . . . 144

Timing & Spacing Pt. 2 – Walk Spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Overall Timing for Walks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Timing & Spacing Pt. 3 – Run Spacing – Overall Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Timing & Spacing Pt. 4 – Run Spacing – Foot/Hip Spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Chapter 3.2 – Re-timing Action – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Introducing the Character Asset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Timing & Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Object Selection Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Editing Timing & Spacing – First Half of Swing Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Editing Timing & Spacing – Second Half of Swing Animation. . . . . . . . . 157

Timing & Spacing – Isolated Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Contents

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Chapter 4: Animation Editing – Ease In & Ease Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

Chapter 4.1 – Ease In & Ease Out – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Overall Timing Edit – Ease In & Ease Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Viewing Timing & Spacing – Motion Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Editing Timing & Spacing – Ease In on Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Pose Edits – Ease In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Editing Timing & Spacing – Ease Out on Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Post Ease Out (Lead Out) & Moving Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Chapter 4.2 – Ease In & Ease Out – Head Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Rig Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Head Turn Animation – Blocking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Adding In-between Key – Linear Ease In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Smooth Ease In – Weighted Tangency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Smooth Ease In Pt. 2 – Double Take on Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Softening the Ease In – Additional Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Re-Timing the Motion – Fast Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Ease Out on Head Turn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Chapter 5: Staging – Framing the Action and Setting the Mood . . . . . . .193

Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Animatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Framing the Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Thumb-Nailing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Chapter 5.1 Thumb-Nails and Storyboards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Thumb-Nails. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Storyboard and Breakdowns – F16 Fighter Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Chapter 5.2 Camera – Advanced Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Camera Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Viewport 2.0 Hardware Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Clipping Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Focal Length/Angle of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

DOF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Additional Viewport 2.0 Quality Settings – AmbientOcclusion/Anti-Aliasing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Motion Blur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Maya Software/Mental Ray Motion Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Rendering with Viewport 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Contents

xi

Online Chapter 5.1: Animatic – Camera Setup . . . . . . . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com

Online Chapter 5.2: Maya Camera Sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com

Chapter 6: Follow-Through and Overlapping Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225

Follow-Through and Overlap – Object Animation, Simulation, and Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Squash and Stretch – Maya Muscle Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

nDynamics – Rocket Smash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Chapter 6.1 – Baseball Pitcher Throw Pt. 2 – Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Pose Blocking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Character Pose Blocking Part 1 – Pre-Release Pose to Step . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Character Pose Blocking Part 2 – Foot Plant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Re-Timing the Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Weight Shift – Throw Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Throw Pose – Corkscrew Follow-Through. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Throw Pose – Corkscrew Follow-Through 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Chapter 6.2 – nCloth – Cape Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Modeling the Base Mesh for the nCloth Cape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Nucleus Space Scale Attribute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

nRigid – Adding the Character Mesh to the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

nConstraint – Connecting the Cape to the Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Previewing the Simulation – nCloth Rest Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Collision Thickness Attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Geometry Cache – Adding the Character Animation to the nCloth Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

nCloth Attributes and Presets Pt. 1 – Leather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

nCloth Attributes and Presets Pt. 2 – T-Shirt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

nCloth Attributes – Refi ning the Simulation to Improve Quality . . . . . . 263

Increasing nCloth Mesh Resolution and Fixing Collision Thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Final Tweaks to the nCloth Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Chapter 6.3 – Prop Follow-Through and Overlap – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Full Body – Major Weight Shifts on Swing and Arc of Bat . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Upper Body – Torso Coil Rotation and Arm/Bat Follow-Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Start Pose to Swing Pose 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Swing Pose 1 to Swing Pose 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

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Chapter 7: Secondary Action – Enhancing the Shot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287

nCloth Simulation/nDynamics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Layered Animation and Supporting Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Detail Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Chapter 7.1 – Hand Animation Rig Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Introducing the Hand Rig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Attribute Connections for Finger Joint Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Working With the Finger Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Animating With the Rig Clenching Fist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Online Chapter 7.1: F16 – Plane Landing Mechanism . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com

Chapter 8: Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311

Pose to Pose – Walk and Run Cycles and Video Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Straight Ahead Action and Combining Both Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Chapter 8.1 – Pose-to-Pose Run Cycle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Leg and Hip Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Mirroring the Pose across the Character (Left <> Right) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Copying Pose from Frame to Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Foot Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Centre of Mass – Weight Rise and Fall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Editing the Motion Curve Through the Graph Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Cycling the Motion Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Hip Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Upper Torso − Main Pose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Torso and Head Follow Through. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Torso Counterbalance Rotation – Part One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Torso Counterbalance Rotation – Part Two. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Head Counterbalance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Arm Swing on Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Mirroring the Arm Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Hip Weight Shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Chapter 8.2 – Dynamics Rocket Smash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Rigid Body Dynamics – Scene Setup and Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Rigid Body Dynamics – Refi ning and Directing the Eff ect . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Dynamics – Scene Setup and Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

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Chapter 9: Solid Drawing and Design – Form Meets Function . . . . . . . . .359

Thumbnailing, Draughting, and Traditional Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Dynamic Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Twinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Character Rigging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Chapter 9.1 – Dynamic Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Leg/Foot Angle and Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Hip Tilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Spine = S-Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Spine Twist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Hand Posing and Finalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Finalizing the Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Action Pose – 01 Gunplay – Blocked in Posing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Action Pose – 01 Gunplay – Refi ned Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Action Pose – 02 Swing – Blocked in Posing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Action Pose – 02 Swing – Refi ned Posing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Chapter 9.2 – Twinning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Twinned Motion – Gestural Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Refi ned Motion and Posing – Gestural Step. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Additional Edit – Timing Off set on Arm Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Online Chapter 9.1: Character Rigging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com

Chapter 10: Appeal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389

Appeal in Character Design and Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Production Design − Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Performance Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Chapter 10.1 – Production Design − Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Female Heroine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Male Athlete 1 – Baseball Pitcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Male Athlete 2 – Baseball Batter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Chapter 10.2 – Lighting and Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Viewport Renderer and Lights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Viewport 2.0 and Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Lighting – Three-Point Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Lighting and Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Chapter 10.3 − Character Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Scene Setup and Rig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Contents

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Surprise/Shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Austere/Aloof. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Dejected/Subdued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Bright/Chatty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Chapter 11: Squash and Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .425

Manual Squash and Stretch and Deformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Character Posing and Squash and Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Facial Animation – Blend Shapes Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Dynamics – Maya Muscle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Chapter 11.1 – Animation Test – Flour-Sack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Squash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Twist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Follow-Through and Overlapping Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Ease In & Ease Out and Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Appeal and Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Chapter 11.2 Character – Hero Jump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Online Chapter 11.1: Facial Animation – Blend Shapes . . . www.tradigitalmaya.com

Online Chapter 11.2: Maya Muscle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.tradigitalmaya.com

Chapter 12: Exaggeration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .465

Baseball Batter Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Walk Cycle Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

VFX Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Chapter 12.1 – Exaggeration – Character Baseball Swing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Animation Lead-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Swing Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Exaggerated Torso Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Bat Angle Edited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Pre-Step Pose1 – Left Foot Raise Exaggerated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Pre-Step Pose2 – Hips Shift Forward Slightly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Exaggerated Action Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Chapter 12.2 – Exaggeration – HumanIK Retarget and Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Character Rig – HumanIK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

HumanIK – Character Controls Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

HumanIK – Character Retargeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

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HumanIK – Retargeting Data to Control Rig – Bake to Rig and Cleanup after Retarget. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Editing Animation on Animation Layer with Eff ector Pinning – Elbow Posing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Animation Edit – Exaggerated Walk – Dejected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Additional Edits 01 – Feet Drag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Additional Edits 02 – Head Lull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Additional Edits 03 – Hip Dip – Weight a Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Chapter 12.3 Exaggeration – Dynamics Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Dynamics – Scaff olding Setup Part 1 – Scene Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Basic Rigid Bodies Setup – Collapsible Scaff olding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Dynamics – Scaff olding Setup Part 2 – Rigid Bodies – Hinge Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Dynamics – Scaff olding Setup Part 3 – Hinge-Connected Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Dynamics – Roof Smash – Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Viewing the Additional Simulated Eff ects in Combination. . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Follow-Through and Overlapping Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Secondary Action and Exaggeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Chapter 13: Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .523

Chapter 13.1 – Recap – The Principles and Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

Pre-visualization, Scene Layout, and Revision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

Character Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Dynamics and Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Chapter 13.2 – Industry Trends Moving Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Industry Specialization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Digital Pre-visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Virtual Cinematography and Performance Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Video Games – Real-Time Animation and Run-Time Blending . . . . . . . . 526

Chapter 13.3 – Selected Reading and Additional Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Timing for Animation , Second Edition by Harold Whittaker and John Halas (Authors), Tom Sito (Editor). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Animation: The Mechanics of Motion by Chris Webster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes , V1 by Walt Stanchfi eld and Don Hahn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

The Animator’s Survival Kit (Paperback) by Richard Williams . . . . . . . . . . . 529

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Acting for Animators: A Complete Guide to Performance Animation by Ed Hooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Cartoon Animation (The Collector’s Series) by Preston Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Animals in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Industry Periodicals, Websites, and Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .533

xvii

Acknowledgments First, I’d like to thank the team at Focal Press for their dedication, support, and patience as I worked on this book over the last year. In particular, thanks to Katy Spencer, for her professionalism as we worked through the technical review and editing process and to Sarah Binns who has guided the project through to fi nal publication.

Thanks should also go to Mike Gasaway for his input during the technical edit for Focal Press. Mike’s understanding of the book’s focus and the commitment he showed in providing detailed input during the edit were invaluable.

Without Laura Lewin and the rest of the team at Focal’s belief in the initial proposal and outline the book would not have been such a success.

I’d also like to acknowledge all of the people I’ve been inspired by professionally within the animation industry over the last 10 years. This book is for the people who have the passion and skill to create the illusion of life through their craft.

The book would also not be possible without the vision of those who work tirelessly to defi ne, create, and improve the software and tools we take for granted in our daily toil as animators. The dedicated product design and development teams at Autodesk should be commended for their commitment to improving the tools and workfl ows we use every day.

xix

Introduction – Traditional to Digital

Many of the principles of traditional animation were developed in the 1930’s at the Walt Disney studios. These principles were developed to make animation, especially character animation, more realistic and entertaining. These principles can and should be applied to 3D computer animation .

– John Lasseter - Pixar, “Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation”, Computer Graphics , pp. 35–44, 21:4, July 1987 (SIGGRAPH 87).

FIG 0.0.1 Run cycle animation – animation arcs and key poses. Welcome to Tradigital Maya! – The source for Maya animators to expand both

their technical and creative skills with reference to the fundamental principles of animation. Please also visit this book’s Web site at www.tradigitalmaya.com!

Where Do the Fundamental Principles of Animation Come From? The fundamental principles of traditional animation are as applicable today in 3D animation as they were almost 80 years ago when they were fi rst applied at the Walt Disney Studios. The 12 principles of animation were originally taught at Disney as the basis for animators to create convincing and believable animation. Although the principles were fi rst applied to cell animation, they are equally as applicable today in 3D animation as they are to traditional animation media including clay-animation, stop-motion, and cell animation.

The 12 principles were originally outlined by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson in their book The Illusion of Life, Disney Animation . The book is considered a standard text for animators, and it is recommended that the reader of Tradigital Maya considers purchasing this title alongside other traditional animation reference guides.

Introduction – Traditional to DigitalIntroduction – Traditional to Digital

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What Are the 12 Fundamental Principles of Animation? The 12 principles of traditional animation are a series of fundamentals, which animators need to consider in practice. The principles were conceived primarily as a framework for animation based on the need to mimic natural weight, gravity, and mass as seen in movement in the real world. The art of creating believable motion in animation is a dark art requiring an understanding of how things move in the real world. Creating sequential frames of motion, both in traditional media and through computer animation that creates the illusion of life and vitality is the key to the animator’s job.

The principles can also be considered as a more general framework for creating engaging performance through animation. A number of the principles, such as anticipation, staging, appeal, and exaggeration, are less rooted in the technical practice of imitating real-world motion and are more directly related to creating drama or characterization. These are analogous to theatre, cinema practice, or acting.

The principles are covered in detail in individual chapter sections throughout this book. Understanding each fundamental principle is critical in creating animations that are believable and engaging for the viewer. Each chapter will provide an introduction to the animation principle that will be covered in the chapter tutorials that follow. As the traditional principles are applied together throughout the book, reference will also be made in each chapter introduction to how the principle has been applied alongside the other animation principles in other chapter tutorials.

Note

Other recommended reference texts for both traditional animation practice and 3D animation are provided in the fi nal chapter of the book.

FIG 0.0.2 Principles in practice – arcs, anticipation, timing & spacing, and ease out.


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Summary of the 12 fundamental principles that are covered throughout the book are as follows:

Arcs – Arcs naturally occur in most motion in the real world because of the eff ect of gravity, inertia, and the hinged arc motion of animal limbs (see Fig. 0.0.2 , fi rst screenshot from left). Anticipation – An action should be preceded by anticipation; this is both a theatrical device and a fundamental of motion in the real world when objects and people gather energy before action (see Fig. 0.0.2 , second screenshot from left). Timing & Spacing – Eff ective timing & spacing of animation underpins all the other animation principles; understanding the intervals between major motions and how to edit keyframe timing to eff ectively convey the action is a key fundamental (see Fig. 0.0.2 , third screenshot from left). Ease In & Ease Out – Objects and people do not move at a constant speed or velocity. There should be a build up or acceleration to motion and a deceleration that follows. This can only be achieved through eff ective timing & spacing (see Fig. 0.0.2 , fourth screenshot from left).

FIG 0.0.3 Principles in practice – staging, follow-through, secondary action, and pose to pose.

Staging – Staging is a general concept that can be applied throughout animation. It is similar to framing in fi lm practice and is the ability to communicate ideas with clear and readable framing (see Fig. 0.0.3 , fi rst screenshot from left). Follow-Through and Overlap – Objects do not move at the same time; there should be a natural follow-through or overlap in motion, think of an arm swinging a bat or a fl owing cape, the motion overlaps after the body (see Fig. 0.0.3 , second screenshot from left). Secondary Action – Secondary action is motion that supports the main animation. Think background elements, characters props, or mechanisms that add interest and believability to motion (see Fig. 0.0.3 , third screenshots from left). Pose to Pose and Straight Ahead – Pose to pose and straight ahead are two diff erent methodologies that can be applied when creating animation. Pose to pose is the most commonly used methodology and requires the animator to “block in” the major poses for the animation before refi ning the in-between frames. Straight ahead is more spontaneous and is a less-planned approach (see Fig. 0.0.3 , right screenshots).


xxii

Solid Drawing and Design – Skills in traditional arts including drawing, sculpting, and design are important in computer animation; without the ability to create believable forms and pleasing shapes in animation, the illusion will break (see Fig. 0.0.4 , fi rst and second screenshots from left). Appeal – Appeal is a general animation principle that can also be applied to production design. Appealing character design and performance requires an understanding of characterization and performance as well as eff ective application of the other principles in tandem to convey mood (see Fig. 0.0.4 , third screenshot from left). Squash and Stretch – Squash and stretch is a principle that is required when animating the natural change in volume or shape in organic or soft-bodied objects. In 3D animation, this can be mimicked through simulation such as Maya’s nCloth and muscle systems (see Fig. 0.0.4 , fi fth screenshot from left). Exaggeration – Exaggeration is another general principle that should be applied across all areas. Readability in animation is key and can only be achieved through strengthening or exaggerating the animation, so that it is engaging for the viewer (see Fig. 0.0.4 , right screenshot).

Each fundamental principle should be considered not just in isolation but alongside the other principles to create a unifi ed statement. For example:

• Eff ective timing & spacing of animation is required to create both believable ease in and ease out or follow-through.

• Without strong framing or staging of an animation sequence, the anticipation or build up to the action will not be readable or eff ective.

• Strong secondary animation on background characters or other elements alongside overlapping motion and follow-through will help enhance a sequence as additional elements add appeal to the overall mood being created.

Applying the Principles in Maya To get started, you’ll obviously need either a fully licensed version of the software or a trial version to work through the tutorials. The tutorials were put together primarily in Maya 2012; a fully functional 30-day trial version of the latest release can be downloaded from – www.autodesk.com/maya-trial.

FIG 0.0.4 Principles in practice – solid drawing, appeal, squash and stretch, and exaggeration.


xxiii

The tutorials in the book cover the full range of technical and creative skills that you’ll need to apply the traditional animation principles eff ectively in Maya.

Maya Tutorial Scene Files The Maya tutorial scene fi les referenced throughout the book can be downloaded from the book’s Web site, www.tradigitalmaya.com . Please refer to the instructions on the book’s Web site regarding installation of the Maya tutorial scene fi les and media. The scene fi les are organized by chapter section and should be downloaded prior to working through each chapter tutorial.

• Technical fundamentals – the Maya interface, navigating the scene and edit (see Fig. 0.0.5 ).

Basics of how to navigate the Maya user interface to select and modify scene elements will be covered in the initial chapter tutorials. Being comfortable with the user interface and able to select and modify the elements whilst animating is essential for getting great results with less frustration.

• Scene organization and selection and modifi cation through Maya’s display layers, Outliner, Channel Box, and Attribute Editor will be covered throughout.

• Accessing specifi c elements for edit from the Maya Attribute Editor will also be used throughout to change properties while animating. Diff erent display modes and toggles to speed up scene selection, preview and edit will also be covered.

• Technical fundamentals – keyframing and editing motion (see Fig. 0.0.6 ).

Initial tutorials will introduce you to the fundamental tools and workfl ows used to animate within Maya. Understanding the basics of how to set keyframes for animation in Maya on the timeline and how to edit motion timing and position is a key.

Technical workfl ows for further editing motion timing and keyframe interpolation through the Maya Dopesheet and Graph Editor will also be covered throughout.

FIG 0.0.5 Technical fundamentals – The Maya user interface.


xxiv

• Character animation – inverse kinematics, control rigs, human IK, and posing (see Fig. 0.0.8 ).

The main focus for the tutorials within the book is character animation. Basics of working on isolated areas of character posing will be introduced in initial chapters alongside explanation of the fundamentals of inverse kinematics for character posing.

Full character control rigs will be provided for you to work through the full animation exercises in the later chapters. Both standard Maya character Control Rigs and Maya human IK Rigs will be provided. Both the technical process of posing characters for animation and creative workfl ows to create believable motion will be explored.

• Traditional media and reference (see Fig. 0.0.7 )

Usage of traditional media and reference, including thumbnailing and storyboarding, will be encouraged throughout the book. The principles of solid drawing and staging are required to eff ectively pose characters for animation that are naturally weighted and move correctly. Solid draughting skills are also required to create eff ective layouts for storyboards and plan out revisions to the animation whilst working.

Thumbnail pose reference will be provided for the majority of the character animation tutorials. Pose break downs for the extended tutorials will be provided either at the start of the tutorial or as the tutorial progresses. Creating iterative thumbnails to plan out specifi c body posing will also be encouraged as will creating your own reference thumbnails and revisions during the projects. The reader is also encouraged to consider other reference sources such as photography, video reference, and life study to assist in understanding how the character should move; additional guidance around where to apply thumbnailing and reference is provided in Chapter 5 .

FIG 0.0.7 Thumbnails and character posing.

FIG 0.0.6 Keyframing and editing motion – Motion Trails, Ghosting, Graph Editor, and Dope Sheet.


xxv

• Dynamics – rigid body dynamics (collisions) particle simulation (nParticle) cloth simulation (nCloth), and Maya muscle (see Fig 0.0.10 ).

Workfl ows for technical setup and refi nement of dynamics and simulation will also be a focus for the book. Although these areas are considered more the domain of a technical animator or Visual Eff ects Technical Director (VFX TD),

FIG 0.0.8 Character animation – control rigs, human IK, and posing.

FIG 0.0.9 Technical setup – connections, character rigging, and detail controls.

• Technical setup – character skeleton rigs, inverse kinematics, control rigs, constraints, and connections (see Fig. 0.0.9 ). These techniques are also covered in the online chapters, so please see the Web site for more information.

Although the main focus of the book is applying traditional creative skills in analyzing and refi ning animation, we will also be looking at the technical tools and workfl ows within Maya to create great animation controls and rigs.

Tutorials focusing specifi cally on Character Rigging, Blend Shapes Setup, and Maya Muscle are included as additional online tutorials available for download from the book’s Web site, www.tradigitalmaya.com .

Understanding the fundamental technical strengths and limitations of how your character or object control rig has been put together will help to provide a broader understanding of how the controls work for animation when posing and keying.


xxvi

Additional Resources and Reference Additional Media and Online Book Tutorials Reference media, along with a number of additional online chapter tutorials, are also included on the book’s Web site for download: www.tradigitalmaya.com .

The additional online chapter tutorials complement the main book tutorials and cover technical rigging, setup, and cameras.

The book is not intended as an exhaustive guide to either all areas of traditional animation practice or technical application in Maya. As such, the reader should consider additional technical and creative resources as they look to expand their skills as an animator.

Maya Documentation and Tutorials The documentation and tutorials included with Maya provide a solid basis for working with the software. Please refer to the Maya documentation as you work through the tutorials in the book, especially if there are any technical areas of the interface or tools you are not comfortable with. Additional reference guides and tutorials for Maya are also available in both print and online, and it is encouraged that the reader considers purchasing these if they are looking to expand their skills in a specifi c area of the software.

Animation and Industry Reference Additional creative reference for traditional animation practice is also encouraged as the reader works through this book and looks to further their skills as an animator. A thorough understanding of both the media of computer animation and the current industry practice is also encouraged for any animator, whether they’re new to the industry or experienced.

their eff ective application to create believability to the viewer still requires a fi rm understanding of how to create natural weight, timing, and gravity through application of the traditional principles. As the eff ects are directed by the artist, creative decisions and choices are available to refi ne the results to enhance your animations and eff ects.

FIG 0.0.10 Dynamics setup – rigid bodies, nParticles, nCloth, and Maya muscle.


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Included in the fi nal chapter of the book are a number of additional recommendations for further study, which the reader should consider as they work through this book.

Please be sure to visit this book’s Web site, www.tradigitalmaya.com , for online chapters covering more animation techniques, as well as the Maya scene fi les referred to throughout the book.

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