Before i dived into it, I thought about setting myself some goals in Maya. This is what i have covered. This also shows the progression of my quality of work, mainly in the modeling aspects.
1. Modeling _ basic shapes
Modeling lego pieces: This is where i tested my modeling skills, and learnt new methods when using polygons.
I also experimented with shadowing and light, and got a feel of how the two work with eachother, and how i can use these efficiently in my scene. Really enjoyed experimenting with those tools in this scene and was a great test of my approach to laying out my scene to appear realistic.
2. Animating basic shapes
(For better quality find my vimeo page)
My goal for this piece was to animate in maya, focusing on a principles of animation. For example, i really wanted to show the weight of the shapes, and have them move in a way that gives you a feel of spontaneous energy.
I also wanted to suit the soundtrack (prodigy-invaders must die) so each movement compliments the flow or rythem of the music.
I hope that in the first scene (with the tube shapes) it is evident that i have payed close attention to each tube, as they move in clusters to the soundtrack, reaching different heights. I feel that the position of the camera doesn't give opportunity to appreciate the easing of the animated tubes as they shoot up then reach the aphex slowly, then drop at different speeds.
This was also a test of animating the camera with the movement of the piece, which is the aspect i feel i executed well in this. I took a lot of care over how i wanted to express this, and planned out carefully where i wanted to shoot it. My favorite part of this has got to be the movement of the camera as it captures the tube falling and impacting the surface. At this point i discovered that the camera could be used as an effective tool to help exaggerate the movement of the animation, and give the audience a feel for the weight of the shape and the force behind the movement.
The design of the shapes i am very satisfied with, although the modeling wasn't the main focus, i feel it helps introduce a concept, like a visually post modern style piece. Overall, i have defiantly befitted from this experiment and am so much more confident with animating in Maya because of this.
3. Modeling _ Sculpting
I also spent some time getting to know the sculpt geometry tool, and experimenting with its settings to achieve the shapes i want. Here are some renders of the experiment i carried out:
I attempted to create a mouth feature on a simple polygon sphere. Modeling and sculpting out the lips was a real challenge and was good to practice with this tool. Im not totally loving this piece. The outcome isn't how i planned, but was only a small experiment.
If given more time i would pay closer attention to how i sculpt the upper lip. It has too much depth and perhaps not as smooth as i want. Someone said this mouth look like it belongs on a cartoon fish. (??) Sounds to me that it definitely needs more tending to!
None the less i feel ive accomplished something here, and definitely learned a lot through this experiment also!
4. Modeling_Face by face
I watched this step by step tutorial on modeling in Maya, about building a robot. I took notes on how this person was going about modeling this. Firstly they set up 4 panels surrounding each edge of the stage, (which were equally the same distance apart form the center mark of the stage.) These panels were of 4 different angles of the robot model. Which allowed you to use as a guide to building the robot.
This robot was built face by face, meaning each face was applied and moved into place individually. There was a common use of tools such as extrude, append to polygon, split polygon, create polygon, and merge vertex. Which i thought would also be something important to get under my belt and learn how to use efficiently.
Here i have put these techniques into action, and built a model of the 'Predator' mask. (Due to all the excitement over the new Predator film, i figured it would be a fun idea!) For this i used 2 different panels to help guide me, which were photos taken from the internet. To see fly through video of predator mask go to my vimeo page.
5. Setting up lights
Here my goal was to effectively use the lighting tools in Maya, to help my scene look realistic, and work as an environment. Im not sure if i have accomplished this realistically in this experiment, but this stands out to me because i widely experimented with all the different types of lighting to help me get what i wanted in this scene. It was fun to experiment with the color of lighting and how it plays off the color of the scene.
In this scene below, the yellow light color helps make the inside of the building appear warm and cozy, and reflects nicely off the pure white color of the snow.
Also it was fun experimenting with positioning the light around the apparatus of the scene. For example the bars in the window. You can see how the light bounces off the bars and results in this expression of light which is disturbed by the shape of the bars.
Also the light inside the window is positioned high above the window, thus projecting this stretched out appearance of light on the ground. It was also a challenge to get the right amount of strength of light in this scene. As the yellow light is quite strong, the directional light used to expose the snowy atmosphere, was applied with low intensity to help exaggerate and draw attention towards the light coming from the building.
I also played around with some fluids in this, which is totally irrelevant to this experiment, but i felt the chimney was crying out for some smoke, so i figured was a great opportunity to get to into working with fluids! Good times!
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