maya blog: maya tutorials and maya information: 3D CG labo

Maya tutorials:character setup (5): facial animation with Wire Deformers

2008-11-20T06:49:29Z

In this tutorial, I will explain the method of facial animation with Wire Deformers.]]>

For the explanation about the skeleton and skinning, please refer to
Maya: character setup (1): skeleton and skinning
For the explanation about adjusting skin weights, please refer to
Maya:character setup (2): adjusting skin weights
For the explanation about IK handle, please refer to
Maya tutorials:character setup (3): IK handle
For the explanation about Blend Shape Deformers, please refer to
Maya tutorials:character setup (4): facial animation

Make the NURBS curves in the place where you want to deform and create facial expressions.

Select Deform > Wire Tool

Select the object(s) that wants to be deformed, then press Enter key.

Select the curve(s) that wants to be used for the deformation, then press Enter key.

You will see the objects reverse red as shown in the above figure.

Select the one of the curves and open the Attribute Editor.

Put the distance value where each curve influences the object
to Dropoff Distance in the wire tab.

When the bind is done to the skeleton, you make the wires 'Child' of appropriate Joint.

You move the CVs of each curve and make the facial expression.
You will set the keyframes and complete animation.

Maya tutorials:character setup (4): facial animation

2008-11-12T07:18:56Z

In this tutorial, I will explain the method of animation of face of the character
(facial animation).
I will explain the setting of the constraints and the blend shape deformers.
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Preparation

Unbind the object to which you will apply the facial animation.
Select the object
Skin > Detach Skin

(You will leave the eyeball unbinded.
You will bind again the objects other than the eyeball later.)

Settings of the eyeball
　
Set The pivot point of the eyeball to the center of the object.
Select the eyeball
Modify > Center Pivot

Make the eyeballs the "child" of neck (the joint of head).

The easiest method is to rotate the eyeball in this place and to set the keyframes.
You may have the eyeball can controlled the glance ahead.

Make two locators
Create > Locator
then move them to the front of each eyeball.

Select the locator and the eyeball in this order
Constrain > Aim Constrain

If the eyeball turns Z axis first、Aim Vector 0 0 1

Make a group of the locators, make it the "child" of neck (the joint of the head).
You will move this group,
when you move the eyeballs to the same direction.

You will see the node of the aim constraint under the each eyeball.
(If you want to release the constraint, you should delete this node.)

Basics of the blend shape deformers

Duplicate a ball of polygon or NURBS.
Name them base, targetA, targetB, and targetC.
Deform targetA, targetB, and targetC by moving vertices or CVs
as shown in the above figure.

Select targetA, targetB, targetC, base in this order,
Deform > Create Blend Shape
The blend shape deformer node was made.

Objects whose shapes you want to use to deform the shape of another object
are called the target objects,
and the object being deformed is called the base object.
The base object's resulting deformed shape is called the blend shape.

　
Open the Blend Shape Editor Window
Window > Animation Editors > Blend Shape...

There are a target object name and a slide bar corresponding to it.
When you raise the slide bar up
the base object becomes the shape of the target object.

The numerical value enters under the slide bar
according to the position of the bar.
It is possible to input directly.(A minus value also).

When the Key button is pushed, a keyframe is set.

When the KeyAll button is pushed, the keyframe is set
to all target objects.

When the Select button is pushed, the blend shape deformer node
(in this case, blendShape1) is selected,
and you can display the blend shape deformer node in the Graph Editor
or if necessary you can delete it.

It is necessary to deform the target object in Component mode (i.e. vertices, CVs).
In Object mode, blend shapes are not deformed with transform, rotation, and scale.

Once you setup the blend shape,
you must not delete and not add vertices or CVs of the all objects.

Setting of facial expression with the blend shape deformer

　
You should duplicate the object.
The frequency is the same as the number of the facial expression that you need.
You deform the duplicated object, and you model the facial expression.

When it is not a single object, you should make them to the group.
You should make the order of the object in the group the same order.

The above figure is an example of the face objects and the teeth objects.

Select the target object (or group) sequentially,
and select the base object (or group) at the end.
Deform > Create Blend Shape

Open the Blend Shape Editor Window
Window > Animation Editors > Blend Shape...

Setup keyframes of the target objects and make your facial animation.

You may make two or more blend shape deformer of each object without making it to one group.
(for instance, face and tongue, etc.)

You can edit the keyframes of the blend shape deformer with opening the Graph Editor

After setting blend shape deformer,
you can deform the target objects again.
If necessary, you deform them and adjust the facial expression.

Setting of blink

　
Select the target object that shuts eyes in the Graph Editor,
Edit > Keys > Bake Simulation
Set 1(default) to Sample by value then push Bake button
You will get all frames keyframed.

(In general, Bake simulation is a command that converts the simulation
of the dynamics into the key frame.
Here, I used it to make the keyframes simply every one frame. )

You choose about three frames from one at random,
and lift up to 1 with the Translate tool.

（This is an easy setting method.
Of course, there is a smart method made random by MEL or Expression, too. ）

Moving blend shapes together

　
If the number of the target objects is not same as shown in the above figure,
you can't make them to groups,
and you also can't make them one blend shape.

Then, you make the blend shape of the face (bsFace),
and the blend shape of the teeth (bsHa).

Open the Set Driven Key Window
Animate > Set Driven Key > Set

(1) Push Select button of the blend shape of the face (bsFace).
(2) Push Load Driver button of the Set Driven Key Window.
(3) Push Select button of the blend shape of the teeth (bsHa).
(4) Push Load Driven button of the Set Driven Key Window.
(5) Click the face target object that moves together (faceOpen).
(6) Click the teeth target object that moves together (haOpen).
(7),(8) Set 0 to the value of target objects.
(9) Push Key button of the Set Driven Key Window.
(10),(11) Set 1 to the value of taget objects.
(12) Push Key button of the Set Driven Key Window.

Then, the slide bar of the teeth target object moves,
when you move the slide bar of the face target object.

Repeat (5) - (12) process for each target objects that move together.

It is also possible that you set two or more teeth target object to the face target object.

Maya tutorials:character setup (3): IK handle

2008-10-31T01:36:23Z

　
In this tutorial I will explain the method of setting the IK handles.
]]>

When the joints are set to the models of the character, binds are done,
and the skin weight is adjusted,
you can make animation by setting the keys to the joints.

When operation to which the character grips the ball is done for instance,
each joints of the shoulder, the elbow, and the wrist are rotated from the upper-body,
and however, when the angle of the joint of "parents" is changed
even if the palm is taken to the position of the ball,
the hand is away from the ball,
and the angle adjustment of each joints are needed again.

Then, to control the joints from "child" of the joint,
you will set IK(inverse kinematics) handles.

For the explanation about the skeleton and skinning, please refer to
Maya: character setup (1): skeleton and skinning
For the explanation about adjusting skin weights, please refer to
Maya:character setup (2): adjusting skin weights

Setting of IK handles

Select Skeleton > IK Handle Tool
Click the joint of the shoulder and the joint of the wrist in this order.

The IK handle is made, and you can move it with the Move tool.

It is displayed by the icon like the above figure in Outliner.

Set the IK handles to both hands and both feet.

When you select the IK handle, and (Show Manipulator Tool) is clicked,
the pole vector is displayed in the shoulder
the twist disk is displayed in the wrist
as shown in the above figure.

You can move the pole vector with the Move tool.
You can move the twist disk by clicking directly.

You can control the direction of the elbow and the direction of the knee
by using both the pole vector and the twist disk.

(You can drag the manipulator of the pole vector
to the place where you can select it easily.)

You can make the animation by setting the key frame to the IK handles.

Setting of preferred angles

When the IK handles are set,
the joint might turn in the direction that you do not intend.
(Though it doesn't happen when you have applied the angle before binding the joints)

At this time, bend the joint in the direction where you want to bend it,
select the joint
Skeleton > Set Preferred Angle

Then you can set the IK handles.

Tree structure of the IK handle and the joints

　　
In the tree structure that there are no "parent and child" relations
in the IK handles and the joints as showing in the above figure of the Outliner,
you struck a key frame (once) to the IK handles of the arm and the foot,
and set the key frames to bodyRoot (the root joint).
Then, you will see animation where bodyRoot, the arm, and the foot
do not move together as shown in the above figure.

　　
You make the IK handles of the arm the "child" of bodyRoot.
Then, you will see animation where the foot is fixed
and bodyRoot and the arm move together as shown in the above figure.

In the animation of walking or running, the foot of the character grounds.
For that case, you will not make the IK handle of the foot
the "child" of the root joint.
It will be easy to set animation.

In animation that the character flies up and makes one rotation,
you will make the IK handle of the foot the "child" of the root joint.

Anyway, it is necessary to set "parent and child" relation between
the IK handles and the joints by the movement of animation.

IK spline handle

　
For instance, the IK spline handle is set
when a lot of joints are connected and move like a tail.

Select Skeleton > IK Spline
click the start and the end of the joints.
The NURBS curve is made with the IK spline handle as shown in the above figure.

The joints move according to the curve when you move the CVs of this NURBS curve.

The spans of the NURBS curve is 1 in default, you change it if necessary.
Select Skeleton > IK Spline Handle Tool　
change Number of Spans

Moreover, the NURBS curve is not generated automatically,
and you can control the IK handles making another NURBS curve.

Make a NURBS curve.
Select
Skeleton > IK Spline Handle Tool
uncheck Auto Create Curve
select the start of the joints, the end of the joints, the NURBS curve in this order.

Maya tutorials:character setup (2): adjusting skin weights

2008-10-24T02:40:33Z

The deformation not intended might happen to the smooth binded skin.
You should adjust the skin weights and control the deformation.
]]> For the explanation about the skeleton and skinning, please refer to
Maya: character setup (1): skeleton and skinning

adjusting skin weights with the brush tool

The deformation with the joints is proportional to the distance from the joints.
The level of the deformation is called skin weights in Maya,
and you change it with the brush tool.

The skin weights is allocated to vertices in polygon and it is allocated in CVs in NURBS.

Select the object to which you adjust,
in the Animation menu set
Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Paint Skin Weights Tool

The chosen object changes into the monochrome display as shown in the above

When it doesn't change into monochrome, or the display is changed while working,
click in the tool bar.

It is shown that near white or more, the stronger the influence of the joint is.

The deformation of the side is improper for the above figure.
You will paint the part black.

Moreover, the display changes into monochrome,
and the option window of the skin weights brush opens.

The list of the joints is displayed in Influence.
You select one joint that you want to adjust weight,
and you setup the following each item for painting.

Radius(U)	Brush Radius (Rdius(L) is minimum radius when using pen stylus)
Opacity	Brush Transparency. In this case, strength.
Paint Operation	Replace　When making it to black.
	Add　When making it to white.
	Scale　Scale
	Smooth　weight is made smooth.
Value	Brush Brightness. The higher, the whiter.

The cursor becomes the cursor of the brush tool in workspace, and you can paint.
The painting is done to Vertices in polygon, to CVs in NURBS.

This weights adjustment is done for each joints in each necessary objects.

If it is necessary, the weights is mirror copied.
Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Mirror Skin Weights
The mirror copy in the direction of X specifies the Mirror Across ･YZ option.

When you want to input the skin weights value,
you choose the vertices of polygon or the CVs of NURBS in the component mode.
And, you open the component editor.

Window > General Editors > Component Editor...

The adjustment of skin weights was completed in the step to here.

The trouble of modeling might be found at this stage.
You will have to correct it from the stage of modeling.

If so, you should ...
(1)Select the Root joint, and Skin > Go to Bind Pose
(2)Select the objects you should change, and Skin > Detach Skin
(3)Correct the objects.
(4)Selects the objects and the joint, and Skin > Bind Skin > Smooth Bind
(5)Adjust the skin weights again.

Because the skin weights disappears when the object is detached, you should readjust them.

The objects that doesn't want to be deformed by the joints

　
If there are objects that need not be deformed with the joints
like a bat which the character holds,
you make them a child of the joints like the above figure.
Bind need not be done.

Maya tutorials: character setup (1): skeleton and skinning

2008-10-16T08:37:51Z

To animate character objects,
you should setup the skeleton and make the objects skinned.
In this tutorial, I am going to explain how to construct joints
and how to bind the objects to the skeleton.
]]>

The basics of joints

Make a polygon cylinder with hight divisions 4.
In the Animation Menu Set
Skeleton > Joint Tool

Click 4 or 5 times at the center of cylinder,
press the Enter key to complete the joint chain.

You can see small circles and arrows between the circles.
The circles are called Joint, the arrows are called Bone,
and all the circles and the bones system is called Skeleton.

You can see the joints are hierarchical (parents and child relationship)
in the Outliner.

You can change the joint size with
Display > Joint Size

Select the cylinder and joint1
Skin > Bind Skin > Smooth Bind

Now you rotate the joints, the cylinder object is deformed.
And if you selsect the joints, the object reverses in red.

The process to make the objects deformable with the joints is called Bind.
And the binded objects are called Skin.

Setting up joints with the character objects

It is recommended to make a character object posing....
the hands are horizontal or slightly lowered.
the legs are slightly opened.

You will put the joints in this order, and press enter key.

The center of body: belly - navel - root of shoulder - neck - upper of head - Enter
Arm(left side): shoulder - elbow - wrist - Enter
Leg(left side): root of leg - knee - ankle - foot ahead - Enter

Side view is the above.
The joint of the knee is lightly bended.

Top view is the above.
The joint of the elbow is also lightly bended.

Because the joints are hierarchical, if you move the parent joint the child Joint moves together.
To move only the parent joint, turn the Move Tool to Pivot mode with Insert key.

Setup finger joints as the above.

The names of the joints are changed.

bodyRoot　the center of body
shoulderL　the left arm
legL　the left leg
finger 1 - 4　the fingers

Move finger 1 - 4 with to the child of armL2.
Also move shoulderL to the child of shoulder.
Legl1 to child of bodyRoot.

　　
In the Outliner the hierarchy of joints are as the above.
You see the joints are chained with Bones.

Select shoulderL
Skeleton > Mirror Joint
in the Option window, select Mirror Across YZ

Select legL1
Skeleton > Mirror Joint

The joints are mirror copied and are completed.
You will change the names of the copied joints.

Select bodyRoot joint and all of the model objects
Skin > Bind Skin > Smooth Bind

Then if you select the joints, the object reverses in red.

You should rotate the joints while choosing all of them one by one,
and check whether the position of the joint is appropriate as a joint.

And you should also check whether they are appropriate for
the animation which you will make.

At this stage, you need not worry because you will correct the place
where an unnatural deformation such as armpits has happened.

Correcting the position of the joints

(1) Select the joint and Skin > Go to Bind Pose,
the pose of the object will return first.

(2) Select the all of objects and Skin > Detach Skin,
the skin(objects) will be unbinded.

(3) (If it is necessary,) delete the right half of the joints.

(4) Correct the position of the joints.

(5) Repeat the procedure of the mirror joints and bind.

(6) Change the names of the joints.

Moreover, because the number of divisions is few,
the part where the joint was bent might look rough.
It is necessary to correct the modeling data before you do bind.

The correction result of the joints is the above.
Joints of the ear and joints of the side were added.

Because the side was greatly deformed when the joints of the arm was moved,
the joints of the side was put to control it.

If you set the key frames to the joints by the setting to here,
you can make basic animation.

You should move the object by not the modeling data but the root joint.
The rotation and the scale are also similar.

Smooth bind and rigid bind

Make two polygonal cylinders with a lot of numbers of
divisions in the center, and put joints on
the inside as shown in the above figure.

Execute the following two.
Skin > Bind Skin > Smooth Bind
Skin > Bind Skin > Rigid Bind

Left is smooth binded, and right is rigid binded.
In smooth bind, it can be seen to be bent smoothly.

In character animation, I recommend you to do bind with smooth bind.

Maya Tutorials:making fireworks with particle

2008-10-09T06:45:16Z

In this tutorial, I am going to explain how to make fireworks with particles.
You should setup particles for smoke effects which is shot into the air,
and spark effects.
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For basics of particle, please refer to
Maya Tutorial:basics of particle

The timing in this tutorial is the below

1 - 15 shot into the air, smoke particles are generated
15 - 17 spark particles are generated
20 - 25 a Drag field affects

Settings for the smoke which is shot into the air

Make a NURBS sphere, set keyframes to animate the sphere shot into the air.
The keyframes are 1 and 15 frame.
It is better if you set the keyframes only on transform Y.
You will duplicate the sphere later and you can move them to X direction easily.

Select the NURBS sphere, and
Particles > Emit from Object
Particles will be generated from the object.

Settings of the Emitter are the above.
Setup the Rate (how many particles are generated in a second)
frame 1 - 10 1000
frame 15 0

Settings of the Particle are the above.

Assign a Particle Cloud material to the particle,
and connect a Ramp texture to the Life Transparency,
then transparency will change at time.

For more detailed explanation, please refer to
Maya Tutorial:basics of particle

Connect a Turbulence field to the particle to move randomly.
The animation at this stage is shown in the above.

Settings for the sparks

Select the NURBS sphere, and
Particles > Emitte from Object

Two Emitters are connected to the object as the above.

Settings of the Emitter are the above.
Setup the Rate
frame 1 - 14 0
frame 15 5000
frame 17 0
Set more than 0 to the Tangent Speed,
then the particles will be generated randomly from the surface.

Settings of the Particle are the above.
Set the Particle Render Type to Tube.

Assign a Particle Cloud material to the particle,
and connect Ramp textures to the Life Color and the Life Incandescence.

By connecting a Ramp texture to the Life Incandescence,
it is possible to make particles lighten at the moment of explosion.

Set more than 0 to the Glow Intensity, then they will seem to shine.

The animation at this stage is shown in the above.

a Gravity field influences the particle.

a Drag field influences the particle.

Settings for the Drag field are the below.

Make the Drag field the child of the sphere.

Set Magnitude value
frame 20 0.05
frame 25 3

Duplicate the particles

Select the sphere,
Duplicate it with option Duplicate Input Graph,
then all of the connected node(Emitter、Particle、Field) will be copied.

You will move the timing of animation.
It finished.

maya particle: crushing building

2008-10-04T13:42:46Z

]]>
size 320x240

format FLV
video
codec On2 VP6
data rate 700k/sec
frame rate 30/sec

audio
mp3
16kbps mono

application Adobe After Effects CS3

I tried another formats and another settings but this setting was most clear.
(I also tried the size 640x480 that is recommended by yutube)
I am not satisfied with this uploaded movie because this is very noisy.

I must study more.

Maya Tutorials:explosion using particle instancer

2008-09-03T07:13:55Z

In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to generate exploding pieces with particle instancer and particle expressions.]]>

instance a object to particles

Select particle and object in this order
Particle > Instancer(Replacement)
The particles are replaced by the object.

The instanced geometry object can be
a single object, animated or not animated,
and can be a sequence of objects in different shapes or positions.

making exploding pieces

Emitte particles from sphere object as the above,
connect the particles with Gravity and Turbulance fields.

(For more explanation of particle,please refer to
Maya Tutorial:basics of particle)

Make some splinter objects,
(in this example, I made 4 pieces of objects)
select all the objects and the particle in this order
Particle > Instancer(Replacement)

In this step, it seems that only one object is instanced to the particles.

Select particleShape and open the Attribute Editor.
Click General button in Add Dynamic Attributes.

The Add Attribute Window will open,
enter a variable name r_off in Attribute Name,
select Vector, Per Particle,
click Add button

Add Attributes r_spd and rot according to the same procedure as r_off.

Add index attribute with Data Type Float.

In Per Particle(Array) Attributes,
you can see the attibutes, index, rot, r_spd, r_off, are added.

Open the Expression Editor
(Window > Animation Editors > Expression Editor...)

Select Object Filter > Dynamics > Particle,
select particleShape
select Creation radio button (to make Creation Expression), enter expressions below

index = Id%4;
r_off = <>;
r_spd = <>*1;

Click Creat button.

（index = Id%4; 　4 is number of objects
r_spd = <>*1; 　1 is multiple of rotation
6.28 is one rotation for the unit of the radian
rand(6.28) a random floating point number between 0 and 6.28)

Select Runtime before Dynamics radio button (to make Runtime Expression), enter expressions below

rot = r_off + r_spd * age;

Click Creat button.

Select particleShape, open the Attribute Editor,
in instancer tab, set Rotation Angle Units to Radians

In particleShape tab
set ObjectIndex to index, set Rotation to rot

Completed.

Maya Tutorials:particle expressions

2008-08-31T10:02:50Z

In this tutorial, I will explain how to randomize the particle radius with expressions. For the basics of particle, please refer to
Maya Tutorial:basics of particle

Randomizing the particle radius

Open the Attribute Editor of particleShape,
click General button in Add Dynamic Attribute

Select radiusPP and click Add button
in the Particle Tab of Add Attribute window.

Open the Exrpession Editor with
Window > Animation Editors > Expression Editor...

Select particleShape with
Object Filter > Dynamics > Particle

Select Creation radio button and enter expression below

radiusPP = rand(1,5);

Click Creat button.

（ rand(1,5) returns a random number between 1 and 5 ）

Particles are generated with randomized radius.

]]>

Maya Tutorials:basics of particle

2008-08-23T10:53:00Z

If you control particle, you should set up many attributes.
And there are many methed to control particle.
I will explain how to set up particle in a simple way.
]]>

Three important nodes of particle control
Maya controles particle with tree nodes.
Emitter - the source where particle is generated
Partile - particle itself
Fields - the forces to influence particle

Emit prticle from object

Make NURBS or Polygon object and select it,
In Dynamics Menu Set, Particles > Emit From Object

Move the Time Slider, then you will see partciles are generated as above.

Emitter and particle are made, and emitter is the child of the object.

Open the Attribute Editor, selsect emitter tab, change Emitter Type Omni to Surface
Then you will see the particles are uniformly generated from surface.

Rate　number where particles are generated in one second
Speed　speed of particle
Speed Random　 randomness of speed
Tangent Speed　the magnitude of the tangent component of emission speed for surface.
The default value is 0. If you enter a value greater than 0, particles are emitted randomly for surface.
Normal Speed　the magnitude of the normal component of emission speed for surface.

click the particleShape tab

Max Count　number where particles are generated in maximum. -1 is no limit.

Lifespan Mode	Live Forever	particles don't disappear
	Constant	particles disappear
	Random range	particles disappear randomly

setting particle attribute(continued)

Particle Render Type　
If you render with Maya Software,you should select the one of tree render type,
Blobby Surface,Cloud or Tube.

render type	suitable expression	material
Blobby Surface	Drop of water, mud	Rambert,Blinn etc	Threshold sets blending of the particles
Cloud	smoke, cloud, fog	Particle Cloud
Tube	fire works, spark, splash	Particle Cloud	Radius0 - radius of tail、Radius1 - radius of head、Tail - length

If you select the partilce render type, you should click Current Render Type button,
then suitable attributes are displayed.

Setting the Particle Cloud material
If you select the Cloud or Tube render type, you should creat Particle Cloud material with Hypershade
Create > Volumetric Materials > Particle Cloud
and assign it to the particle.

You should connect the Texture Mappings to Life Color, Life Transparency, Life Incandescence.
You should not connect them to Color, Transparency, Incandescence.

In the above, Ramp Texture is connected to Life Color,
and also connected automatically to Color.

In the above, the particles are rendered with Ramp Texture connected.

The Texture is mapped to the time axis
(from the time a particle generated - to the time a particle disappears)
so you should select Constant or Random range
in the Lifespan mode attribute.

fields

Select particle
Fields > Field Name
then the particle is cennected to the field,
and is influenced by the field.

If you want to connect another field to the particle,
select the particle again and
Fields > (another)Field Name

The types of fields are below

Air	air,wind
Drag	friction,brake
Gravity	gravity
Newton	gravitation
Radial	pushes or pulls like a magnet
Turbulance	turbulance
Uniform	pushes objects in a uniform direction
Vortex	vortex

The attributes are different according to the fields,
but Magnitude and Attenuation are common.

Magnitude　strength of field
Attenuation sets how much the strength of the field diminishes as distance
to the affected object increases.If it is 0, the force remains constant over distance.

Window > Relationship Editors > Dynamic Relationships
The Dynamic Relationships window appears.
If you select particle in the left column, then the connected fields are highlighted.
If you turn off highlighting, it is not connected to the particle.

Maya tutorials:material animation

2008-08-20T08:15:19Z

]]>
A object like cylinder might not seem to rotate
only by the keyframe of the rotation being set.
The material will have to be set appropriately.
How to animate the materials is explained here.

Flowing tape

A tape object modeled by NURBS.

Connect Bump Mapping to Blinn material.

Adjust Repeat UV of place2dTexture,
set keyframe on Translate Frame.
（Please refer to Maya tutorial：attribute animation）

Bump mapping is moving.

Bump mapping is moving, and the tape is moving slightly.

A cylinder rotating

Set a Blinn material to the cylinder, and set rotation keyframes.
Only the upper surface seems to rotate only by this setting.

Three kinds of materials will be set as shown in the above figure.
(1)The lower side, Blinn material with reflection.
(2)The upper side, Blinn material with reflection and bump mapping hair line.
(3)The upper surface, Blinn material with radial highlight and bump mapping

(1)The lower side
Connect Env Ball of Environment Texture to Reflected Color.
Connect File Texture of reflected image to Env Ball.

(2)The upper side
The same setting as (1), plus Bump Mapping.

(3)The upper surface
The same setting as (1), plus Bump Mapping and highlight.

Bump mapping Specular Color

The mapping is connected with As Projection to NURBS surface.
Rotate place3dTexture of this mapping.

The cylinder object group is rotating,
the side upper Bump Mapping and upper hightlight are moving.

Turn on Motion Blur at the Render Setting Window.
Set Motion Blur Type 2D,
ajust Blur Length.

Maya tutorials: rendering animation

2008-08-16T09:04:01Z

To render an animation, you must set up the Render Settings.]]>

Open the Render Settings Window
Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings
Or click (upper right of Maya interface)

(1)The name of folder in where rendered images are saved.
If this is not your project, you must set your Project.
(File > Project > Set...)
(2)The name of the first rendered image file
(3)The name of the last rendered image file
　　The settings (4) - (8) appear to (2),(3)
(4)The prefix of rendered images files.
If you do not enter here, .mb file name is used as prefix.
(5)Select file name.#(sequential number).extension
(6)Select Tiff to read image files with Premiere,AfterEffect,PhotoShop
(7)Star frame, End frame, Step
(8)Enter 3 (or 4) to see the first file as name.001.tif
(9)Enter the camera name
(10)Rendering Size

Click the Maya Software tab.

(1)Setting of Anti-aliasing
Select Preview Quality in test rendering.
Select Prodaction Quarity in final rendering.
You should carefully set this quality because this influences the total time of rendering.
(2)Use the Raytracing or not
(3)Use the Motion Blur or not
3D motion blur takes time, 2D is recommended.

Rendering time is in proportion to the size of the image.
You can expect the time with test rendering. If you render 320x240 in test, and render 640x480 at final, The proportion of the time is four times, as the area of image is four times.

Start the Batch rendering
In the Rendering Menu Set
Render > Batch render

Maya tutorials:the camera work with the motion path

2008-08-03T12:39:35Z

If you use the Motion Path with camera, you can set the camera target by the path
and you can make smooth rotation of camara view.
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Basic of the motion path.

Select a object and a path(NURBS Curve)
Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path
The keyframes are set by the start frame and the end frame value of Time Slider.

Go to a frame you want to add a keyframe.
Select the motion path, reverse U Value of motionPath1 in the Channel Box
with Key Selected
A keyframe added.

Click the number of the keyframe,
select Show Manipurator Tool, yellow appears.
You can move this with
You can edit the keyframes with the Graph Editor by selecting this curve.

the camera and the motion path

The plan of camera work is this:
View A,C,G,I of the box(1 - 30 frame),
fix view at E and the camera rotates around the box (31 - 60 frame).

Make a camera Create > Cameras > Camera,Aim,and Up

In the Outliner camera1_aim and camera1_up are made.

Make a NURBS curve. The camera view moves according to the curve.

Select the curve and camera1_aim
Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path
In the option window set Start/End value.
(In this case 1 30)

If you attach the camera_aim to a path, you will see the camera view is rolling.
To avoid this, adjust camera_up and set keyframes.

Make keyframes of camera position as usual.
（In the Perspective Window panels > perspective > camera1
view > select camara, animate > set key)

In frame 31 - 60, the camera1_aim is fixed to the end of curve,
rotate the camera around the box, set keyframes, adjust camera1_up to move the camera smoothly.

The camera work of this method.

Camera work made by a camera (no aim, no up)
(Create > Camreras > Camera)
You see that it is difficult to fix the view when camera rotates around the box.

Maya tutorials:cluster animation

2008-07-27T12:42:26Z

Keyframes can be set directly to CV and Vertices,
but the setting becomes complex because there are a lot of numbers,
or you would forget which group you have set keyframe.

You can make groups with Cluster Deformer.
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This example is NURBS modeling.

Select CVs.
In Animation Menu Set
Deform > Create Cluster

The cluster is displayed as
C

The groups are made by considering how to make animation.
In this example, 3 groups are made.

If necessary, move the pivot point of the Cluster.

Set keyframes to each Clusters.

In this example, the cluster Z scales are animated.

Maya tutorials：attribute animation

2008-07-17T09:01:55Z

How to set up the keyframes to the attributes of the material and how to edit them in the spread sheet and the Graph Editor.]]>

Go to the frame where you want to set a keyframe.
On a attribute in the Attribute Editor
Set Key

Go to another frame, change the attribute value, and Set Key

If keyframes are set to attribute, the checker icon turns to connection.
and attribute tabs appear.

Keyframe time and keyframe value are displayed in spread sheet.
You can edit them.

If you want to edit values in the Graph Editor,(or want to delete keyframe or add keyframe)
click Select button in the Attribute Editor,
and open the Graph Editor.

If you change the material transparent, you should change the Transparency value,
and also change Specular Color, Reflectivity.
because Specular Color value and Reflectivity value are added to brightness of the surface.