In todays session of animation 101 we began by looking at Maya software for 3D animation as the group that did stop motion last week would be doing the A-B in Maya this week. Before doing so we looked at an example of the A-B motion in a set of a car that had been done in Lynda.com and if we had the software we could look at and play with it. This then lead to a discussion about how new technologies are taking over old techniques such as on old kid shows like Bob the Builder and Postman Pat which were originally stop motion and puppets but soon progressed into CGI cartoons, almost completely forgetting the classics of the past.
I could see some reasoning within this part of the lecture as old classic films or TV shows get a face lifted reboot for the modern day era such as the new Netflix series Voltron Legendary Defender which was the latest reinvention of the 1980's classic anime series Voltron Defender of the Universe where it all began, and this like many others does make a reference to the past incarnation such as the stories and settings. However some completely forget the reminders of the past, and just want people to get current, so to speak with the new hi tech world, you might say we're low tech people in a high tech world.
In terms of the stop motions we did last week we began showing off some of our work and whilst mine was good I didn't account for the 25fps delay on the first frame, but given how this was my first go it was only natural to make a mistake, as Joe pointed out that we make mistakes but we do to learn from them. Many other peoples were good but had similar mistakes such as accidentally kicking the camera tripod like Paige for example. I could see that her animation was in focus and went at a gentle pace this was something to consider for the next time that I did a stop motion exercise.
We were then shown some attributes of the Maya software and told to download it via Autodesk and we could get it for free via the student licence for about three years which was the length of the course itself. I was slightly hesitant at this idea as I was rather weary of downloading new programs for my mac computer given that when I once downloaded Flash Player to watch cartoons I accidentally caused myself a headache with adware specifically Mac Adware cleaner which had plagued me for a good long time until I got rid of it, and since then I've been less than trusting and being on the side of caution with my computer and any updates to my programs.
We watched an example of the A-B motion shown to us by James and he showed us how to create keyframes by right clicking on the channels box and selecting key select which inserted a keyframe in the timeline and once moved across to another place on the grid another keyframe was created on 25 to create the frame length. Being familiar with the Maya software from my work experience at TT games in Wilmslow I was familiar with some of the prospects and tools in Maya but I realised that I would need to reacquaint myself with some of the tools for later use in the course. The process seemed simple but the key thing to remember was to play around with the software to get acquainted with the software and its tools. The timeline had to be 100 frames and the speed was as before with the stopmotion 25fps.
If we wished to access the settings for the software or a tool we had to go to the little person with the gear on his back located in the bottom right corner of the layout screen. We could even alter the build up and slowdown of the object that we were doing by altering the wave in the time frame or even using one of the path tools in the toolbar. There were many polygon tools for us to use in the polygon box and when doing the animation we had to make sure the dropdown menu was on animation in order for it to be rendered when finished. In terms of the animation itself we could preview it at certain stages using a feature called playblast which converts it into a quick time video file which would render the piece at it's current stage or finalised stage in its development.
We were tasked to create an A-B animation piece using Maya by next Friday, and they would need to be shown on a vimeo account or on a memory stick, I realised that I would need to install the Maya software on my computer and so I went to Johnny and James and asked them questions like how to apply for the license or how much space it would take up and how it would impact my mac computer as a whole. They both demonstrated and told me what I needed to know if I was to do this and given it's a course requirement I decided to just take the plunge, as they say, because taking a risk is what this course was about. I would download the software but it seemed clear I would need to get to grips with the tools and actions as some of my knowledge of the program had been lost to the ravages of time, however I decided to persist and try as I had to put my hesitance behind me and get this job and task done ready for next week, without excuse or question.
Upon downloading Maya for my mac I took the time to get acquainted with the settings of the software and watched a tutorial on how to do key frames in Maya. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTRBRq3WqQ) It stated to hit the 's' key to input key frames and since I was starting out in Maya I decided to use this approach for the time being. When doing animations the animation tab had To input the cube I selected the cube from the polygon list and placed it onto the grid. I then started to place in the key frames, and remembering from the stop motion I had to include a 25fps hold at the start of the animation so the eyes could adjust to seeing the cube.By clicking the "s" key the keyframes were inserted then I worked on the cube movement and moved the cube across the grid to the other side then placing in another keyframe for the end point. The piece had to be handed in as a play blast so to save it as a play blast, I went to the playback option and selected play blast and this was rendered as a quick time preview. This was saved to my memory stick for submission and looking back it wasn't bad for a first attempt at animating in Maya. However I could tell I would possibly get feedback for things that I possibly missed but this was okay as I was still learning how to animate in Maya.
I could see some reasoning within this part of the lecture as old classic films or TV shows get a face lifted reboot for the modern day era such as the new Netflix series Voltron Legendary Defender which was the latest reinvention of the 1980's classic anime series Voltron Defender of the Universe where it all began, and this like many others does make a reference to the past incarnation such as the stories and settings. However some completely forget the reminders of the past, and just want people to get current, so to speak with the new hi tech world, you might say we're low tech people in a high tech world.
In terms of the stop motions we did last week we began showing off some of our work and whilst mine was good I didn't account for the 25fps delay on the first frame, but given how this was my first go it was only natural to make a mistake, as Joe pointed out that we make mistakes but we do to learn from them. Many other peoples were good but had similar mistakes such as accidentally kicking the camera tripod like Paige for example. I could see that her animation was in focus and went at a gentle pace this was something to consider for the next time that I did a stop motion exercise.
We were then shown some attributes of the Maya software and told to download it via Autodesk and we could get it for free via the student licence for about three years which was the length of the course itself. I was slightly hesitant at this idea as I was rather weary of downloading new programs for my mac computer given that when I once downloaded Flash Player to watch cartoons I accidentally caused myself a headache with adware specifically Mac Adware cleaner which had plagued me for a good long time until I got rid of it, and since then I've been less than trusting and being on the side of caution with my computer and any updates to my programs.
We watched an example of the A-B motion shown to us by James and he showed us how to create keyframes by right clicking on the channels box and selecting key select which inserted a keyframe in the timeline and once moved across to another place on the grid another keyframe was created on 25 to create the frame length. Being familiar with the Maya software from my work experience at TT games in Wilmslow I was familiar with some of the prospects and tools in Maya but I realised that I would need to reacquaint myself with some of the tools for later use in the course. The process seemed simple but the key thing to remember was to play around with the software to get acquainted with the software and its tools. The timeline had to be 100 frames and the speed was as before with the stopmotion 25fps.
If we wished to access the settings for the software or a tool we had to go to the little person with the gear on his back located in the bottom right corner of the layout screen. We could even alter the build up and slowdown of the object that we were doing by altering the wave in the time frame or even using one of the path tools in the toolbar. There were many polygon tools for us to use in the polygon box and when doing the animation we had to make sure the dropdown menu was on animation in order for it to be rendered when finished. In terms of the animation itself we could preview it at certain stages using a feature called playblast which converts it into a quick time video file which would render the piece at it's current stage or finalised stage in its development.
We were tasked to create an A-B animation piece using Maya by next Friday, and they would need to be shown on a vimeo account or on a memory stick, I realised that I would need to install the Maya software on my computer and so I went to Johnny and James and asked them questions like how to apply for the license or how much space it would take up and how it would impact my mac computer as a whole. They both demonstrated and told me what I needed to know if I was to do this and given it's a course requirement I decided to just take the plunge, as they say, because taking a risk is what this course was about. I would download the software but it seemed clear I would need to get to grips with the tools and actions as some of my knowledge of the program had been lost to the ravages of time, however I decided to persist and try as I had to put my hesitance behind me and get this job and task done ready for next week, without excuse or question.
Maya Animation piece:
Upon downloading Maya for my mac I took the time to get acquainted with the settings of the software and watched a tutorial on how to do key frames in Maya. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTRBRq3WqQ) It stated to hit the 's' key to input key frames and since I was starting out in Maya I decided to use this approach for the time being. When doing animations the animation tab had To input the cube I selected the cube from the polygon list and placed it onto the grid. I then started to place in the key frames, and remembering from the stop motion I had to include a 25fps hold at the start of the animation so the eyes could adjust to seeing the cube.By clicking the "s" key the keyframes were inserted then I worked on the cube movement and moved the cube across the grid to the other side then placing in another keyframe for the end point. The piece had to be handed in as a play blast so to save it as a play blast, I went to the playback option and selected play blast and this was rendered as a quick time preview. This was saved to my memory stick for submission and looking back it wasn't bad for a first attempt at animating in Maya. However I could tell I would possibly get feedback for things that I possibly missed but this was okay as I was still learning how to animate in Maya.
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