Fluid dynamics are rapidly becoming a powerful alternative to particle effects. In the first lecture of this series, effects animator David Schoneveld introduces you to the rules of fluid production, showing how Maya Fluid Effects can be used for everything from smoke, dust and explosions, to underwater plane crashes and more. David details the fluid menu, emitter and container attributes, as well as shading and texturing, while conveying an understanding of the dynamic attributes of fluid dynamics and their uses in production. The lesson also details the basics of ponds, emphasizing an understanding of the fluid shader and texture controls. Continue Reading
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In the second DVD in this series on Maya Fluid Effects, effects animator David Schoneveld imparts a detailed view of the various methods and advanced features of particle and rigid body control through fluid dynamics. This multi-faceted lesson takes you through the beginning and inter- mediate techniques of the Ocean Shader before revealing how you can create object-avoiding particles without scripting. The lesson culminates by teaching you how to create particles driven by fluid dynamics that can interact with an object or character.
This tutorial demonstrates how to generate a volumetric ground
explosion that is software rendered with cloud particles. Through
the use of emitters, particles, fields, collisions, instancing,
expressions, cloud shading, lighting, rendering and compositing,
the effect is generated from scratch. Continue Reading
This is Chris’s first lecture in a series on character animation using Maya. In this lecture Chris introduces the basics of feature film style character animation. Starting with the bouncing ball and then moving on to using a character rig, Chris gives you a guided tour of the inner workings of Maya, covering the interface and how to develop good workflow habits. He discusses the basics of acting and emotion and demonstrates how to setup the always challenging walk cycle, from blocking in and smoothing out the animation to refining it by adding attitude and feeling.
This is Chris’s second lecture in a series on character animation using Maya. Using the same character rig as in Character Animation: Fundamentals, Chris leads you down the twin paths of successful character animation: mechanics and emotion. Conjoining believable motion with believable acting is the holy grail of animation, and this duality is demonstrated by animating the bouncing man. Chris covers appealing poses, believable weight distribution, activation of limbs, use of gesture to demonstrate attitude, the aura of the character and effective utilization of the stage.
This is Chris’s third lecture in a series on character animation using Maya. In this lecture, Chris delves ever deeper into the world of acting and its most important aspect: the character’s internal thought process.
Chris covers the fundamental principles of lip sync and dialogue, from keying the audio track and breaking it down to phrasing and inflection. Building on earlier themes, including dynamic posing, contrast of shape and emotion, line of action and use of negative space, Chris shows you the step-by-step process of bringing a scene to the level of full 3D theatrical animation. Continue Reading
This lecture is an introduction to character animation as it relates to video games and interactive media.
Instructor Robert Coddington takes you step-by-step through the basics of Maya, its animation tools, the graph editor and dynamic character posing. He guides you through the animation of simple, yet expressive game-style assets, demonstrating simple loops and transitions and creating a run cycle. As an added bonus, this DVD also includes a professional quality character rig so you can follow along and get started animating in Maya right away.
In this DVD Robert Kuczera guides you through his character animation process from beginning to end. He first describes how to prepare the Maya Workspace to improve and optimize your work- flow. Next, he shows how to prepare a scene for animation and animate the character. He discusses the timeline, Graph Editor, Dopesheet, layers, shelves, hot keys and MEL scripts. Robert demonstrates how to use filmed reference material to identify the key poses and place the breakdowns and in- betweens. The lecture is focused on showing you how to animate precisely and quickly through the camera. Robert presents an insider?s view of how professional animators work, showing workflow and techniques with supporting discussions on the principles of animation.
In the third DVD of this series on Maya Fluid Effects, effects animator David Schoneveld reveals the numerous methods he uses to create and control fluid explosions, covering dynamic, non-dynamic and texture-based effects. He teaches you how to use, and maintain control of fields with fluid containers. The lesson also covers the basics of flame construction, and explains how to use the Maya presets to build effects quickly and efficiently.
In this tutorial we will be taking a look at how we can use Photos as mask to build controlled displacement on our model inside of ZBrush. We will be using textures, alphas, ZBrush deformation tools and 3D layers. The Final 3D ZTool and images will be provided with the tutorial.
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