5DM034: (week 4 & 5) more insight into maya controls and modelling

25th feb: learning timing & spacing; block passing from maya 

Through this area we covered the main basis of timing and block passing.
This included getting the spacing right in terms of how an object like a ball should move from shortening the length on movement at the start and end to show its slowing down or stretching the length to describe the speed in velocity . This technique help make it feel real and more believable especially when its adapted to the 3d development of characters and other more complex objects that might show movement.

This video created in maya shows the differences with one ball using this method and the other ball that doesn't use the method. The easiest approach I came across that helped with the timing was motion path where it showed all my key frames on the screen where I moved the ball too and from. This became easy to help with changing the frames over to direct them another way if the movement doesn't look realistic enough.

For the block passing, the basis of this is to show the main movements within the animation before filling in the blanks. To do I basically go onto the script editor, highlight all the parts of the rig with shift button which is shown on my script's listing of controls I've used then press 'S' to result the highlights. After, I save the highlighted parts and the result into the shelf editor as a MEL file. So when I key frame movements, it won't flow the rig from one shape to the next but flip straight to the next one.

This video shows a quick test on how block passing works and what it shows in terms of the main poses and movements needed for the scenario before filling in the blanks. But as I use this method in my future work I need to make sure I do some research and find useful information and instructions on how to use this method probably from files to videos aswell as learning the other fundamental tools on Maya I'm going to use.

4th March: modelling in maya
Personally, I thought this task was quite challenging and sometimes difficult to do as this technique in maya is completely new to me but it also gave me a deeper insight into how modelling is done 3d rather than just moving a rig around the screen.
This would be a hard method to learn but with the help of what I've gathered from my lecturer and the informative videos from YouTube, I think I'll be able to fully acknowledge another process of maya.

This screenshot shows my first attempt in maya modelling.