Figure Twenty-Three

The specific methodology used to create the low-res version of Lanker was to use EditSurfaces/Rebuild Surfaces. This allowed me a quick way to select Lanker's different components and turn the third degree surfaces into one degree surfaces with total control over the number of spans generated in the u and v directions (figure 23). Once the low res geometry has been generated, it is bound to the same skeleton as the high-res geometry and placed on its own layer.

Section Four: Conclusion

While this three part series has been able to introduce the core functionality of Maya's character toolset, there are several techniques which could not be addressed due to space (they didn't want a six part series). Three of the main areas not discussed in detail are keyframing, the use of constraints and the use of dynamics.


Figure Twenty-Four

Once comfortable with the custom scripts, hotkeys, marking menus and layers for the character, the animation process is impressively streamlined and intuitive. A highlight of this workflow is the timeline. When an animated object is selected, it's keyframes appear on the timeline as red 'ticks' or lines. Aside from the visual aid, these ticks can be selected, moved, scaled, cut, copied, pasted and have their tangents modified... all within the timeslider. Ticks are selected for editing by Shift-clicking over the desired region. Furthermore, Maya allows for sound files to be imported into the timeslider. Audio waveforms appear behind the ticks and can be 'scrubbed' using the middle mouse button. Figure 24 shows the timeslider with audio, ticks and a region highlighted for editing.

Constraint animation can be used to improve workflow and precision when animating the interaction between a character and scene elements. This would include anything from picking an object up, where the object is constrained to the hand, or mounting a horse, where the character becomes constrained to the animal. The main concept to use as a starting point are Locators as constraint objects and Scripts to automate the turning on and off of multiple constraints.

Dynamic based animation would be implemented in two main scenarios. One would be having a character pick up an object and then throw it, where at the point which the object is to leave the hand, dynamics take over and the object is controlled by gravity and wind forces, for example. The second use would be softbody dynamics which are used to simultate anything from cloth to inertia driven flesh movement. Thus when a character hits the ground after a two story jump, the rippling movement of flesh can be realistically calculated based on elasticity and gravity. Maya provides full control over this elasticity as a greyscale image can control the rigidity of different regions of the geometry.