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Table Of Contents

3D Computer Graphics 7
3D Computer Animation 8
Technical Creativity 10
The Animation Pipeline 12

Time and Space 15

3D Space 16
Time 18
Bitmap Space 20

Exploring Maya 23
The Workspace 24
Objects and Components 28
Dependency Graph 30
Transformations 32

Animation 35
Animation Techniques 36
Setting Keys 38

Modeling 41
Geometry 42
Modeling Techniques 44
NURBS Surfaces 46
Polygon Modeling 48

Deformations 51
Deforming Objects 52
Deformers 54
Table Of Contents

Character Animation 57
3D Characters 58
Animating Characters 60

Materials and Textures 63

Shading Your Models 64
Surface Materials 66

Digital Cinematography 69
How Light Works 70
Casting Shadows 72

Rendering 75
Rendering Scenes 76
Render Output 78

Interactive 3D 81
Interactive 3D 82
Game Creation 84
 Maya
A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O 3 D C O M P U T E R G R A P H I C S
3D Computer Graphics
Animation is an art form created and cultivated over the last century.

While drawing, painting, sculpting and photography allow artists to represent

shape and form at a single point in time, animation lets artists explore a world

in motion. Through animation, new worlds can be imagined. This modern

art form evokes emotion through the movement of a sequence of drawings,

paintings, photographs or rendered images.

The introduction of 3D computer graphics over the last couple of

decades has had a big impact on the world of animation. Digital characters

and sets can now be built and animated, then presented in different media

formats such as film, video and interactive games. Characters and visual

effects can even be seamlessly integrated into live-action footage.

Autodesk® Maya® is a 3D animation system that lets artists play the roles

of director, actor, set designer and cinematographer.

 3D Computer Animation
T he world of 3D computer graphics has grown
from experimental short films to full integration
into the creative process for many types of media.
From flying logos to digital actors, the field of 3D
computer graphics has evolved rapidly over the last
two decades. The use of 3D graphic tools is now an
important part of many television, film and multi-
media projects.
What makes 3D such a useful tool is the way
it simulates real objects. The way objects appear in
perspective, the way a surface bends and twists,
or the way a light illuminates a space—all of these
complex 3D effects can now be recreated on the

Bingo © 2000 Autodesk, Inc.

computer. The resulting digital images can then be
integrated into other media types using familiar
compositing and editing techniques.
Autodesk® Maya® is a 3D animation system
that addresses the needs of a wide variety of digital
content creators. The Maya software tools and tech- Animated Short Films
niques have been developed with the artist in mind, For many years 3D computer graphics were used
while command-based scripting offers ways to primarily in animated short films. The experimental
build customized tools that suit more integrated nature of these films was a good match for this new
production workflows. computer graphics technology. Smaller teams of
artists, or even individual artists, could explore the
use of computers to generate animation without the
pressures of a larger feature production schedule.
In fact, Chris Landreth’s Bingo, an animated
3D Computer Animation

CNN Headline News,© 2000 CNN, Image courtesy of David Price

short film, was created while Maya was still in devel-

opment. Using Maya, Chris and his team were able
to tell a compelling story about the influences of our
society on the average person.
Short films provide a fertile ground for
experimentation that help drive innovation in the
computer graphics industry. It is also a great way for
young animators and students to begin using their
animation skills as a vehicle for storytelling.

Broadcast
There is a good chance that anyone involved in the
early years of 3D computer graphics has had to
animate a flying logo. This use of 3D offered a new
and dynamic way of getting the message across –
always important in the world of advertising.
Since then, the use of 3D in broadcast has evolved
and more sophisticated artwork is being produced.
3d computer graphics

Flying logos are now integrated into more

complete 3D environments where a product is adver-
tised or a corporate message introduced. Character
animation is also used more to bring objects to life
and help sell the message.
© Blockbuster Entertainment 2002

Maya has helped open the door to a more

complex use of 3D in the broadcast world. With inte-
grated modeling, animation, characters, visual effects
and rendering, a smaller video production house can
now easily add 3D into their existing 2D workflow.


 THE ART OF MAYA

Feature Films
The last few years have seen a sharp rise in the use of 3D in feature
films. While many films have integrated 3D into existing live-action
scenes, Pixar’s Toy Story® became the first feature-length animation
that used 3D exclusively for characters and sets. Sony Pictures
Imageworks’ Stuart Little® took this one step further and made a digital
mouse the star of a live-action movie. Digital creatures, characters and

© 2000 Nihilistic Software, Image courtesy of Activision.

sets continue to show up in the movies and even traditional filmmakers
are starting to consider 3D a standard part of the production process.
Feature films tend to use many computer programs to complete a
project, including in-house software and off-the-shelf software such
as Maya. Maya is most often used for modeling, animation, character
animation and dynamics simulations such as cloth. The Maya software
open architecture makes it easy for computer graphics (CG) supervisors
to build custom tools to help streamline production.

Interactive Video Games

Over the years, video games have developed from
black and white pixels to real-time virtual environ-
ments built with 3D characters and sets. The graphics
used in these games have always conformed to the
capabilities of the game console on which they are
delivered. Next-generation game consoles are contin-
ually increasing their computing power to be compa-
rable to the workstations used to run Maya. This is
breaking down limitations of the past.
Game artwork is becoming more sophisticated
with complex 3D models, texture maps, lighting and
© 2002 Autodesk, Inc.

even dynamics. Maya is an ideal tool for generating

this kind of 3D artwork and includes tools to address
the special needs required to build content for
real time.
Visual Effects
While CG actors star in movies of their own, 3D computer graphics Visualization and Web
is changing how visual effects are used for both film and television. Digital content creation tools are used in a number
Smaller productions can now afford to integrate 3D graphics into their of fields including fine arts, architecture, design,
work, while large film productions can now achieve effects only dreamed education and scientific research.
of in the past. Some of these fields require 3D computer
Film sets can be partially built and then extended with detailed 3D graphics to produce highly realistic images for the
digital sets. Also, animated stunt people can be thrown off buildings in evaluation of projects or prototypes. With advances in
ways not recommended for real people. And smoke, fire and exploding the web’s ability to present graphic and 3D informa-
objects can now be simu- tion, visualization on the internet is emerging as an
lated within the safety of important tool for many companies.
a computer screen.
The Maya software
tools, especially Maya
dynamics, are ideal for
generating visual effects
that can be fully inte-
grated into live-action
shots. The best effects
Wing Commander © 2000 Digital Anvil­

make it impossible to find

the line between reality
and where computer
graphics are used.
Lee Irvine


 Technical Creativity
A s an artist working in a new medium, you must
first understand the technical aspects of your
new tools before you can reach your full creative
potential. Just as a painter must learn how a particular
paint mixes and dries on canvas, and a photographer
must learn what film speed works best with a partic-
ular lens, a 3D artist must learn the basics of setting
keyframes, working with 3D geometry and setting
up materials and lights for photorealistic rendering.
To fully master computer animation, you must
have a balance of artistic and technical skills. Not
only must you learn how to work with shape, form,
motion, color and texture, but also you must learn
how the computer interprets all of these elements.
While Maya will allow you to go far without under-
standing all the technical details, you will have
greater creative freedom with more knowledge.

Getting to Know Your Computer Transferring Traditional Skills

If you are sitting down at the computer for the first Artists with skills in traditional media will find the transition to
time, you may be intimidated by the many computer- 3D computer graphics easier once they get used to working on a
based tasks you must learn such as opening appli- computer. In fact, new 3D artists should take the time to learn one
or more of the following traditional art forms because they can help
cations, moving and saving files, and how to work enhance 3D skills:
over a network. If you work in a larger production
Drawing and Sketching
house, you probably have technical assistance on-
Drawing is a technique of representing the real world by means of
site to help you get through this part of the learning lines and shapes. This skill requires the ability to observe and record
process. In a smaller production house, you likely the three-dimensional world. This skill can also be used to create
have less assistance and must learn more on your storyboards and character sketches—great tools for developing an
idea before proceeding to computer graphics.
own. Luckily, these skills come quickly with experi-
Technical Creativity

ence. The best way to learn is to dive in and start Cel Animation
working. Cel animators create 2D art through motion. Cel animation includes
traditional techniques such as squash and stretch, anticipation,
overlapping action and follow through. Many of these 2D techniques
Getting Started with Maya translate very well into 3D environments.
There are several steps to getting started with Painting
Maya. This book is designed to give you a concep- Painters learn to work with color, light, shape, form and composition.
tual understanding of how Maya works, while the On the computer, these skills help create texture maps, position lights
Learning Maya | Foundation book gives you project- and compose scenes.

based experience. You can also use the reference Cinematography

manuals and web tutorials offered at the Autodesk Knowledge of traditional cinematography will help artists use real-
web site. world techniques when setting up CG lights and cameras. This skill
is very important when working with 3D graphics that are integrated
While these academic tools are important, they into live-action plates.
can’t replace true production hands-on experience.
Photography
One good way to begin using the software is to
Still photography requires an understanding of lighting and
model, render and animate a real object—an object camera effects such as key lights, focal length and depth of field.
you can study, document and accurately turn into a Photography also teaches good composition techniques that are
3d computer graphics

digital scene. Try to build and animate your favorite useful for framing scenes.

old toy, a household appliance or even your Sculpture

own face. Sculpturing with clay, stone and metal requires an intimate under-
By using a real object, you will be able to evaluate standing of shape and form. Hands-on experience in shaping complex
surfaces is a great asset when working with digital surfaces in Maya.
your success against the real object. By focusing on
creating something, you will be able to apply the Architecture
knowledge you have gained from this process. Architects often make good 3D artists because they are trained to
think in plane, section, elevation and perspective. Building models by
hand is another skill they develop that makes it much easier to work in
a digital environment.

10
 THE ART OF MAYA

Right and Left Brain Thinking with Maya Switching Sides

Maya has a creative and a technical side. The creative side of Maya offers you tools that While working as a 3D artist, you will be
required to be both technical and creative
make it easy to work in a 3D world with shape and form. These tools free you up to make at the same time. One strength of Maya
creative decisions on your project. The technical side of Maya offers you access to the is that you can start off with a technical
inside workings of both your scenes and Maya itself. This access makes it possible to approach as you rig up your characters
and models with controls. Once this work
build your own custom tools and to speed up production where repetitive tasks appear. is complete, you can focus on the creative
By having this dual nature, Maya is able to contribute to different stages of a production process using a few higher level controls
and to different ways of working. that let you put aside the technical issues
for a while.

Left Brain Thinking Right Brain Thinking

The Technical Edge Maya Embedded Language (MEL) and Python® The Creative Edge Maya includes fully shaded
Maya has many editors that give you access to all are powerful scripting languages used to execute Many tools in Maya use Manipulator Handles and textured views so
parts of a scene. For example, the Attribute Editor commands and build custom user interface ele- to offer visual clues as you edit an object. By that what you see in your
can access the mathematical values assigned to ments. This is the ideal tool for technical leads using the manipulator, you are able to make interactive scene resembles
all objects, shaders and animated sequences in who need to create tools that support production your decisions visually without relying on the what your final rendering
your scene. workflows used by their teams. actual numbers stored in Maya. will look like.

Materials and textures are presented visually Animation information is pre-

Maya is built on a complex interconnection of using icons and swatches that help you make sented in visual graphs that
Maya lets you group objects together to build objects known as the Dependency Graph. This decisions. This is one step in the creation help you visualize motion.
complex hierarchies. These groups help you organize establishes the connections between objects of rendered scenes. Material changes can This makes all the numbers
your models while offering methods of animating and can be viewed and manipulated for incred- also be explored using Maya IPR (Interactive easier to understand. You
complex objects. ible control. Understand the Dependency Graph Photorealistic Rendering). can then easily edit this
and you understand the technical side of Maya. graph in the same way you
would edit a curve in 3D.

Mathematics, Scripting and Programming Creative Awareness

Mathematics is used by Maya in a number of ways: objects One of the goals of creating artwork in a 3D graphics
in Maya exist in a 3D coordinate system, colors are stored application such as Maya is to mimic the real world.
as RGB values, and animation is created as values that are This means that the more you are aware of the world
mapped against time. A Maya scene is basically a data- around you, the easier it will be to recreate it on
base of numbers that is interpreted by the software into geom- the computer.
etry, color and texture. In some cases, you may need to do As you come into contact with people, places and
some math outside of Maya to make sure the right numbers objects, take a closer look and imagine that you have
are plugged in. Also you may want to set up a mathematical to model, animate and render all of the details that you
equation or expression to create more complex motion in see. Details such as how a person swings his or her arms
your scene. while walking, or how light enters a room, offer great
Maya is built on MEL (Maya Embedded Language), reference for the 3D artist to incorporate into their work.
a scripting language that you can use to build custom tools Any seasoned animator will tell you the importance of
and workflows. This language is fairly easy to learn and observing the world around you.
more technically minded artists might want to explore its use You should continue this kind of awareness when
in their work. Maya also offers the opportunity to use the you go to the movies. In many ways, your animations
Python scripting language as an alternative to MEL. If you will have roots more in movies than in real life. While
want the tool integrated into Maya, you can also program watching movies, observe camera angles, set lighting, the
plugins using the Maya API. To develop these skills, a founda- staging and framing of actors, and performances.
tion in C++ programming is an asset. However, you can get An understanding of how people, places, color, shape
quite far by using existing scripts and source code as inspira- and form are captured on film can help you become a
tion. better animator.

11
 The Animation Pipeline

A number of different stages lead up to a final

animated 3D sequence. When computers were
first used for 3D graphics, these stages were broken
down into modeling, animating and rendering.
These stages have since been expanded with the
introduction of character animation, effects and
more sophisticated camera and lighting tools.
Each stage of 3D animation is a full area of
study on its own. It is useful to be familiar with all
the stages, even if you find yourself focusing on
only one later on. Knowing how the stages in the
animation pipeline work together will help you make
decisions that benefit everyone down the line.

Modeling, Animating and Rendering

The animation pipeline can be summarized in seven
stages: modeling; characters; animation; materials and
textures; lights and cameras; effects; and rendering
and compositing. These general stages describe the
main tasks required to create an animation.
On a project, you will often work on different parts
of the pipeline at the same time. It is a good idea to
have the teams work closely, using storyboards and
sketches to tie elements together. If you work in a 1. Modeling
This is the stage where you build geometry to represent objects
larger office, you may focus on one of these areas, and characters. This geometry describes the position and shape of
although having an understanding of several areas your models and can be manipulated in the 3D workspace of Maya.
is beneficial.
The Animation Pipeline

2. Characters 3. Animation 4. Materials and Textures

Characters are models that use special controls such as Once a model has been setup for animation, you can begin In order for geometry to be rendered, it must be given
skeleton joints and inverse kinematics for animation. These to animate it. By changing its position or shape over time, material attributes that define how it will be shaded by
controls make it possible to create the complex mechanics you bring it to life. The timing can then be tweaked to light. Texture can also be added to bring detail and visual
required by characters. create very specific motion. richness to the surfaces.
3d computer graphics

5. Lights and Cameras 6. Effects 7. Rendering and Compositing

As you would on a movie set, you must set up lights There are many effects such as fire, fields of grass and Once all the scene’s parts are ready, you can render a single
and cameras to illuminate and frame objects. You can glowing lights that can’t be easily represented using image or a sequence of images. You can also render objects
then animate both the lights and the camera to models and textures. Tools such as particles and Maya separately, then bring them back together in 2D using a
further mimic Hollywood effects. Paint Effects can be used to add effects. compositing system.

12
 THE ART OF MAYA

Animating in Maya
Looking at the animation pipeline
from the perspective of a Maya
user, several stages use animation as
their foundation—such as modeling, Modeling Materials Characters Lights Effects
and Textures and Cameras
characters and effects.
Since almost any attribute in Maya
can be animated, you can begin
Animation
preparing for the animation process
at any time.
After setting up and animating
a scene, you can render and
composite the 3D objects and bring Rendering

them into a 2D bitmap world. The

rendering and compositing stages
seem to stand on their own at the
end of the pipeline. However, you
Compositing
can apply test renderings throughout
the animation process and under- Technical Leads
take compositing earlier on. In production houses, technical directors (TDs) and computer graphics
(CG) supervisors offer their teams support with scripts, expressions,
Production Pipelines plugins, and character rigging. Technical leads set up controls that allow
The way in which you approach the animation animators to focus on creating motion.
pipeline will depend on the environment you create In building up a character, the technical
in. From a single artist on his or her own to an lead might also build high-level controls
artist in a large corporation, the approach to using that create a particular kind of motion for
3D graphics may differ. Here are some general use by the animators. For example, if many
descriptions of the production pipelines you can different animators are working on a bird
expect to encounter. character, the technical lead might want to
make sure the wing beat is always animated
Single Artist the same way. Therefore, a single control can
As a lone artist, you will be in charge of all aspects of the
production process. You will, therefore, work in a more linear
be created that drives all the components of
fashion. As technical lead for yourself, you may want to set up a the wing beat. The high-level control makes­
consistent control strategy for your characters and scenes so that sure all of the wings beat the same way.
when you are animating you can think more creatively.
Management of the production workflow
Small Production House may also involve creating custom tools.
In a smaller production house, the focus is on cutting production time Since many production houses use in-house High-level Controls
and making the most of limited resources. You will be called upon For example, custom attributes make
to play a few roles, although some specialization will occur. Custom
software, MEL scripts might also be used to
it easier for an animator to control a
tools may be put into place to streamline production. pipe Maya scenes out to a custom file format. character’s hand.

Large Production House

Animators
In a large production house, specialization is more likely. You will
focus on either modeling, texturing, lighting, animating, effects While the setup of scenes and
or rendering. Technical leads will take care of custom tools and characters is an important part of
character rigging. Maya will also be part of a larger production tool
kit and MEL scripts and plugins will be required for data transfer
the process, the animation of these
to proprietary tools. elements is where the art is created.
Animators must tell a story using
Gaming Company
A game company can work like either a small or large production
motion as the main tool.
house. Here the focus is on modeling with polygons, setting up A well set up scene gives an
texture UVs, painting textures and animating. The exact workflow for animator space to focus on setting
your models and scenes will depend on the game engine and which
custom tools are available for exporting.
keys on the various high-level
controls built by the technical lead.
School/Student
With non-linear animation, a whole
If you are at school and working on a production, you can either
work alone, which may limit the complexity of your animation, or you
library of motion can be saved and
can work with your fellow students to create a production house used in different parts of a project.
scenario. Here you would choose an area of expertise and specialize Such a library provides an animator
in that area with your classmates’ support. The first approach offers Trax Editor and Visor
a more general view of the pipeline while the second approach gives
with a sort of animation palette. The non-linear workflow of Maya is an ideal tool for
animating a scene. High-level clips and poses can be mixed
you production-level experience in a particular area. Well built controls and skilled
and blended in the Trax Editor. Motion can be quickly laid
animators are the ideal combination out, then edited with simple click+drag actions.
for creating art through animation.

13
Time and Space
With 3D computer animation, artists work in a digital world where space,

color, texture, time, shape and form are tools for creating images and

sequences of images.

All of these physical realities must be translated into a computer

language based on numbers. In fact, Maya scenes and images are really

just databases of numbers that are interpreted by Maya software and

presented on the computer screen in a more visual and artist-friendly manner.

While artists do not have to know how the numbers are interpreted by

the computer, they do need to understand some of the ways in which space,

color and time are quantified and recorded. Learning how the computer

interprets digital information—such as 3D coordinates, frames per second

or the RGB information stored in a bitmap image—can help artists under-

stand how this information relates to their own perception of time and space.
 3D Space
E very day, you come into contact with three-dimensional objects
and spaces. You have learned how to recognize and work with
three dimensions in your daily routine and have an intuitive feel
for how it works. If you have ever drawn a sketch, built a model or
sculpted a model, you also have a creative feel for how shape and
form can be described in 3D.
Three-dimensional objects can be measured and quantified. If Two Dimensions
you have ever measured the length, width and height of an object, When you measure the width and height of an
object, you are analyzing two of its dimensions.
you have analyzed its three dimensions. You can also determine an The X and Y axes can be used to find points on
object’s position by measuring it in relation to another object or to a an object, such as the center of the wheel or
point in space. In Maya, you can explore three-dimensional objects the position of the headlight in this two-
dimensional space.
and recreate them on screen as rendered images complete with lights
and shadows.

XYZ Coordinate Space

In Maya, 3D space is measured using three axes that are defined as
the X-axis, the Y-axis and the Z-axis. If you imagine looking into a
movie screen, the width would be the X-axis, the height would be
the Y-axis and the depth would be the Z-axis. In Maya, these axes are
presented with X and Z on the ground and Y as the height.
You can find any point in this 3D world by defining a coordinate
for each of the axes. To help you visualize these coordinates, a grid Three Dimensions
with axis indicators shows you their orientation. When you measure the length, width and height of
an object, you must consider a third dimension as
defined by the Z-axis when defining points in space.

Origin Transformations
Points in a 3D coordinate system are measured against When an object is moved, rotated or scaled, the X,
an origin point. This point is assigned a value of 0, 0, 0. Y and Z axes are used for reference. An object is
moved along, rotated around, or scaled along the
Axis indicator chosen axis line. Values for these transformations
To help you visualize the three axes, are stored for each of the three axes.
each is given a corresponding RGB color.
X – red
Y – green
3D Space

Z – blue

The axes indicators point

in the positive direction
for X, Y and Z.
time and space

The Ground Grid Y-up and Z-up Worlds

To create a ground surface to reference your work in By default, Maya is Y-up where the Y-axis
XYZ, Maya includes a grid that maps out an area 24 represents the height. Some 3D packages,
x 24 units. The X and Z axes are on the ground and especially CAD applications, might use Z as
form the lines of the grid. The Y-axis is the height. the height. If you import a model from one of
these packages, you have to either re-orient
the model or set up Maya as a Z-up world.

16
 THE ART OF MAYA

Perspective Space
When you visualize objects in the real world, you do
not usually think about axis lines and 3D coordinates.
Instead, you see the world in perspective where lines
vanish to the horizon and objects get smaller as they
get further away. A Perspective view allows you to
visualize a 3D space in a way similar to how you
view the world through either your eyes or the lens Top view Perspective view
of a camera.
Most artists have learned to sketch a 3D scene
in perspective or use drafting techniques to create
more accurate perspective drawings. With Maya,
the 3D Perspective view is automatically calculated
for you, based on a camera position and a view
angle that you set.

Orthographic Projections Front view Side view

While a Perspective view can help you compose a
shot, it is not always the ideal method for modeling
and animating objects. Therefore, an Orthographic The Complete Picture
view lets you analyze your scene using parallel The different points of view afforded
projections of only two axes at a time. Using these by Orthographic and Perspective views
views, you can more accurately determine how an let you build and evaluate your models.
object is positioned.
Most 3D animators find themselves using The Camera
perspective views to compose a shot while Ortho­graphic Perspective Camera Perspective views are generated by
views offer a place to view the scene in a more cameras that simulate real-world
analytical manner. Both views are crucial to working camera attributes. It is possible to
properly in 3D. UV Coordinate Space
One of the object types you will build in Maya is surfaces. While
World Space and Local Space surfaces are positioned in 3D space using X, Y, Z coordinates, they also
When you build objects in 3D, it is possible have their own coordinate system that is specific to the topology of
to parent one object to another. This creates a the surface. Instead of using X, Y, Z axes, this system uses U, V and N,
hierarchy where the parent object determines the where U and V represent the two axes that lie on the surface and N is
position of the group in world space. The child the “surface normal” axis that points out from the front of the surface.
objects inherit this positioning and combine this When you create a curve, it has a U direction that lets you measure
with their own local space position. This parent-child points along the curve. When a surface is created, it has a U and a V
relationship is used during the animation of an direction that define the surface parameterization. You can draw and
object where keyframes can be set on both the manipulate curves in this 2D surface space. The placement of textures
child and the parent. can also take place in UV space.

Local Space UV Coordinates Curve-on-Surface

The handle bar and the front The origin of the UV system lies at one of Curves can be drawn in UV
wheel use an angled axis line the surface corners. U runs along one axis space. Later edits will be in 2D
to set up the local rotations. and V along the other. along U and V axes.

World Space Local Space Normal Moving Curves

When the whole object moves in world The wheel rotates around its cen- The surface Normal always points out from the When you select and move a curve in UV space,
ter using a local rotation axis.
space, child objects such as the handle front of the surface. You can see the Normal lines you can only move along the two axes of the
bar and the wheels move with it. pointing out from each intersection on the UV grid. surface grid. Curve control points can also be
edited in UV space.
17
 Time
I n the world of 3D animation, time is the fourth
dimension. An object will appear animated if it either
moves, rotates or changes shape from one point in
time to another. Therefore, learning how time works
is crucial to the animation process.
Both live-action and animation use either film
or video to capture motion. Both media formats use
a series of still images that appear animated when
played back as a sequence.
Film and video images are often referred to as
frames and most animation is measured using frames
as the main unit of time. The relationship between
these frames and real time differs depending on
whether you are working with video, film or other Time Code
digital media. Time code is a frame numbering system that assigns
a number to each frame of video that indicates
Frames per Second hours, minutes, seconds and frames. This is what
Frames can be played back at different speeds that gets burned onto video tape. This gives you an
are measured in frames per second (fps). This is accurate representation of time for synchronization.
known as the frame rate and it is used to set the You can set up time code display in Maya from the
timing of an animation. The frame rate is required to Preferences window.
output animation to film or video and to synchronize
that animation with sound and live-action footage.
In Maya, you can set your frame rate by
selecting Window > Settings/Preferences >
Preferences and selecting the Settings category.
By default, the Maya software
frame rate is 24 fps. If you have Fields
a background in animation, The concept of Fields is important if you output your
confirm your time units to animation to video. To make video play back smoothly,
ensure you set keys properly. Fields are used in place of frames. Each Field uses
Because seconds are the alternating rows of pixels—called scanlines—that are
base unit of time, it is possible interlaced during playback. Fields are timed at 60 fps
to set keys at 24 fps, then for NTSC, with each Field containing only half the
change your frame rate to 30 number of scanlines as a typical frame.
fps. This will scale the timing In Maya, you can render directly to Fields that
Time

of your animation to match the have the 60 fps (50 fps PAL) timing or you can
timing as measured in seconds. output a 30 fps (25 fps PAL) sequence and use a
compositing system to convert it to Fields. For fast-
Playback moving objects,rendering directly to Fields offers
When you preview your animations, you will often smoother playback since each Field displays half-frame
use interactive playback. You can set the Playback intervals.
Speed by selecting Window > Settings/Preferences
> Preferences and selecting the Timeline category. Frame 1 Frame 2
The default Playback Speed is Play Every Frame.
At this speed, Maya will play every frame in your
scene one after another. The actual playback speed
will depend on your workstation’s ability to process
the animated elements in your scene. Setting your
time and space

Playback Speed to Real-time asks Maya to maintain

your chosen frame rate as accurately as possible.
This means that Maya may skip frames in order to
maintain the frame rate. Note that if you are synchro-
nizing to sound, your Playback Speed should be Field 1 Odd Field 1 Even Field 2 Odd Field 2 Even
set to Real-time, but if you are previewing dynamic
simulations, it should be set to Play Every Frame.

18
 THE ART OF MAYA

Double Time
At a frame rate of 24 fps, a 6 minute animation would require 8640 Frame 1 Frame 3 Frame 5
frames (24 fps x 360 sec). Animators working with either cel animation A B C
or stop-motion sometimes use double time, where only every second
frame is created, then repeated twice. Double animations don’t play
back as smoothly as the full frame rate, but they save you in rendering
A A B B C
time. Students, especially, might consider this option when confronted
with a tight deadline. You can set up double time by setting By Frame
to 2 in Maya Render Settings window, under the Common Settings tab. Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4 Frame 5

3:2 Pulldown Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4

When an animation created for film at 24 fps is transferred to NTSC A B C D
video, a 3:2 pulldown can be used in place of re-rendering at 30 fps.
This technique spreads every four frames into five frames by remixing
the fields of the first, second and third frames to match the film’s frame
A|A A|B B|C C|C D|D
rate. A 3:2 pullup takes NTSC back to film. Both these techniques can be
accomplished in a compositing package such as Autodesk® Combustion®
Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4 Frame 5
or Autodesk® Toxik® software. PAL video does not generally require a pull-
down because PAL’s frame rate (25 fps) matches film more closely.

One Frame at a Time

How Objects Are Animated Using Keyframes When you render an animation, images are
created for every frame. The accurate playback
Keyframe animation is created by capturing values for attributes such of these frames will be based on the Time
as translation or rotation at key points in time. An animation curve is Units you choose in the Preferences.
then drawn between the keys that defines or interpolates where the
object attribute would be at all the in-between frames.
Animation curves can be viewed as a graph where time is mapped
to one axis and the animated attribute is mapped to the other. In Maya,
virtually every attribute can be animated in this manner. The way in
which you set keys and control the in-between motion determines the
quality of an animation. As scenes become more complex, you will
learn to create control attributes that can drive the motion of different
parts of your scene to help simplify the process of setting keys.

Setting Keys In-between

When you know that your object or character The position of objects in-between the two
keyframes is determined by the shape of
needs to be at a certain place at a certain the animation curve.
time, you set a key. With characters, you can
create poses out of a number of keys set for
different parts of the character.

Mapping Against Time

Two keyframes are mapped against time,
then an animation curve interpolates
the motion between the keys. The shape
of the curve determines the quality of
the motion.

Pivot Points
tion
n mo You animate objects in Maya based on a single
Position in X

t wee
In-be point called the pivot point. The pivot for the whole
Key scooter would lie on the ground, while the pivot
for a wheel would be at its center. The position of
Key the pivot sets the center of the axes for rotating or
scaling objects in your scene.
Time in Frames

19
 Bitmap Space
A bitmap is a representation of an image, consisting of rows and
columns of pixels, that is stored color information. Each pixel
(picture element) contains a color value for a number of channels –
red, green and blue. When you view these channels together at a high
enough resolution, all of the different colors form a complete image.
These images can then be output to video, film or printed on paper.
Bitmap images play a number of roles in an animation system
such as Maya. When Maya renders a scene, the geometry, lights and
materials are calculated from the camera’s point of view and a bitmap
image or a series of images results. Further manipulation of the
image in two dimensions is then possible using compositing or paint
packages. Bitmap images are also used as texture maps to help add
color and detail to the surfaces in scenes.

Pixels
Up close, you can clearly see Bitmap Sources
the grid of pixels that make up Bitmap images are common in
the bitmap image. computer graphics and can be created
and manipulated in paint, compositing
and 3D rendering packages.

Full Resolution
As pixels are presented at a higher
resolution, the grid is no longer
Bitmap Channels visible and you get a clearer view of
Each pixel is made up of at least three the final image.
color values – red, green and blue.
These channels combine to create
the visible color.

Image and Display Resolution

Bitmap Space

Maya uses the term Image resolution to refer to the total pixel size of the bitmap image. Display resolution
refers to how many pixels you will find in one inch on the screen. This resolution is measured in pixels per inch
(ppi) or dots per inch (dpi). Monitors have a display resolution of about 72 dpi, although your graphics card
may offer several settings which will alter this value.
As an animator, you will focus on producing images with a particular Image resolution such as 640 x 480
pixels for video or one of a variety of resolutions for film. The default Display resolution for these images is 72
dpi. If you are taking an image to print, you will need to consider a Display resolution of around 300 dpi. This
value may be higher or lower depending on your printing needs. Below, you can see how different resolutions
look when printed. You can see how the 300 dpi image provides a higher quality image on the printed page.
time and space

2” x 2” @ 72 dpi (144 x 144 pixels) 2” x 2” @ 150 dpi (300 x 300 pixels) 2” x 2” @ 300 dpi (600 x 600 pixels)

20
 THE ART OF MAYA

Aliasing and Anti-aliasing

The bitmap image grid can create a staircase-like or jagged effect within Image Formats
an image where lines run diagonally against the pixel grid. To create Over the years, many different
realistic bitmap images, you must soften these jagged edges using an image formats have been
effect called anti-aliasing. created. You can choose one of
Anti-aliasing modifies the color of pixels at the edges between these in Maya Render Settings
objects to blur the line between the object and its background. This window. The Maya Software
results in a softer look. Anti-aliasing is most important when you are default format is called IFF and
working with lower display resolutions (72 dpi). Higher display it handles RGB, mask, and depth
resolutions (300 dpi) used for printing, hide jagged edges better. channels. Maya also has several
Anti-aliasing is important when you render your scenes. You can movie formats that contain
set an anti-aliasing value in the Render Settings window. An accurate sequences of bitmap frames.
calculation of anti-aliasing increases rendering time, but yields better In the Rendering chapter
results. Later, when you learn more about rendering, the issue of anti- of this book, image formats are
aliasing will be explored in more detail, including the issue of anti- discussed in more detail.
aliasing an animated sequence.
Non-square Pixels
No Anti-aliasing While most bitmap images use square pixels, digital
Without anti-aliasing, a bitmap video uses pixels that are slightly taller than they
image will display jagged edges
where one object meets another are wide. Therefore, an image that uses non-square
and on the interior of a surface pixels will appear squashed on a computer monitor
where a texture map can appear that uses square pixels.
jagged without proper anti-alias-
ing settings. On a video monitor, the image would appear
with its pixels stretched to their proper aspect ratio.
With Anti-aliasing If you are rendering to digital video, you must take
An anti-aliased image removes the pixel aspect ratio into account.
the staircase-like effect by
creating in-between pixels
that soften the edge. This
gives results that more closely
resemble a real photograph
that has been scanned into the
computer as a bitmap.

Other Channels
In a typical bitmap, the first three channels Computer Monitor Display Video Monitor Display
contain color information. You can also create
other channels that offer useful information about Bitmap File Textures
the image. Maya is able to render images with Bitmaps can be used to texture objects in Maya. They can be used to
mask and depth channels for use in compositing add color, bump, transparency and other effects on a surface. The RGB
packages. These channels can be used when you and the alpha (mask) channels can all be used to texture the object.
want to layer several images together seamlessly, Bitmaps used as textures can add detail to geometry without
including live-action plates created outside Maya. requiring any extra modeling. These bitmaps are ideally saved as Maya
IFF files and work best with image resolutions that use base-2 such as
256 x 256, 512 x 512, or 1024 x 1024. This is because these sizes fit best
with Maya bitmapping algorithm used to filter textures.
When objects are rendered, textures are affected by the lighting and
shading on the object, then output as another composed bitmap image.
In an animation, each frame would be rendered as a different bitmap
that creates motion when played back at the right frame rate. These
images can also be output to video or to film.

Mask Channel Depth Channel

A mask (or alpha) channel, defines A depth channel can provide actual
where an image needs to be solid or 3D information about an image. Depth
transparent. This channel can be used channels are very useful in a composit-
to layer images for compositing or to ing package where you can combine
texture map attributes such as trans- layers or add effects such as fog or
parency or bump. White is opaque and depth of field. White is close to
black is empty. camera and black is far.

Bitmap Textures Geometry Final Bitmap Image

21
Exploring Maya
Before exploring modeling and animation concepts, it is a good idea to become

familiar with the Autodesk Maya user interface. The user interface is where 3D

artists display and organize scenes, save and open files, and transform and

animate objects. While developing these skills, 3D artists learn just how they can

make Maya do what they want it to.

Maya has a very clean user interface where many of the elements

share generic editor windows. At first, this may make it difficult to distinguish

different parts of a scene but with experience, 3D artists learn the power of this

paradigm. The generic way in which Maya presents information makes it very

easy to transfer skills from one area of Maya to another. This lets 3D artists focus

on learning the underlying concepts of Maya software instead of always re-

learning how the user interface works.

 The Workspace
C reating an animation in Maya involves the manipulation of many
graphic elements such as curves, surfaces, colors and textures.
Information about these elements is stored in Maya as numeric values
that can be viewed in a number of different ways. In the workspace
of Maya, you can choose how you want to view a scene and access
different tools to alter its 3D information. Maya offers several ways of
accessing and altering your scene, giving you the flexibility to build
workflows that best suit the way you work.

User Interface Elements

When you first launch Maya, the workspace is presented to you
with a number of user interface (UI) elements. Each is designed to help
you work with your models, access tools and edit object attributes. Many UI panels can be set up as floating
Initially, you should learn the locations of the UI elements so you can windows in case you just need them
temporarily. Menus can also be broken off
easily find them while you work. from menu bars in case you need to focus
on the menu’s contents.

Menu Sets Menus Status Bar Shelf View Compass

The first six menus are Menus contain tools and The Status Bar contains The Shelf is available for you The View Compass is
always available in actions for creating and shortcuts for a number of to set up customized tool sets a navigation tool that
Maya; the remaining editing objects and setting menu items, as well as that can be quickly accessed allows you to quickly
menus change depend- up scenes. There is a main tools for setting up object with a single click. You can switch between the
ing on which menu set menu at the top of the selection and snapping. set up shelves to support perspective and
you choose. This helps Maya window and indi- A Quick Selection field is different workflows. Press orthographic views.
focus your work on vidual menus for the panels also available that can be Shift+Ctrl+Alt when selecting
related tools. and option windows. set up for numeric input. a menu item to add it to the
Shelf. Channel Box
Tool Box The Channel Box lets
The Tool Box is where you edit and key values
you find some of Maya’s for selected objects.
most common tools.
From top to bottom, Layers
The Workspace

they are: Select, Lasso, Maya has two types of

Paint Selection, Move, layers. Display Layers are
Rotate, Scale, Universal Panels used to manage a scene,
Manipulator, Soft The workspace can be while Render Layers are
Modification, Show divided into used to set up render
Manipulators and the last multiple panels that offer dif- passes for compositing.
tool you used. ferent ways of creating and In each case, there is
evaluating your scenes. a default layer where
objects are initially
placed upon creation.
Quick Layout Buttons
The Quick Layout Buttons
offer you quick access to
Maya’s predefined panel Playback Controls
layouts. The Playback controls
let you move around
time and preview your
Time Slider animations as defined
The Time Slider shows by the Time Slider range.
you the time range as
defined by the range
slider, the current time Characters
and the keys on selected The Character Menu
objects or characters. lets you define one
exploring maya

You can also use it or more characters,

to “scrub” through then prepare them for
an animation. being animated.
Range Slider Help Line Command Line
This bar lets you set up the start The Help Line gives a short description of tools This bar has an area to the left for inputting
and end time of the scene’s animation and and menu items as you scroll over them in the simple MEL commands and an area to the right for
a playback range, if you want to focus on a UI. This bar also prompts you with the steps feedback. You will use these areas if you choose to
smaller portion of the Time Line. required to complete a certain tool workflow. become familiar with the MEL scripting language.

24
 THE ART OF MAYA

Simplifying the User Interface The Hotbox

All of the UI tools that are available when Maya is The hotbox gives you access to all of the menu items and tools right
first launched can be turned off or on as needed. at your cursor position. When you press and hold down the space bar
In fact, you can turn them all off and focus on one on your keyboard, after a short delay, the hotbox appears. The hotbox
single view panel if this is how you like to work. In is fully customizable and lets you focus on the tools you feel are most
this case, you would use interface techniques such important to your workflow. The Hotbox controls let you turn off the
as the hotbox, hotkeys or the right mouse button to main menus and the panel menus in the workspace. When the menus
access tools and options. and panels are off, you can focus entirely on using the hotbox.

Common Menus Marking Menus

These are the menus that In the four quadrants
are always available on and in the center of the
the main menu bar. hotbox, you can access
marking menus that are
designed to help you set
Panel Menus up your workspace.
These are the menus
that are associated
with the active panel.

Recent Commands
Recent Commands Menu Sets Hotbox Controls
display a list of the last These are the menus associated With the Hotbox Controls you can turn
few tools and actions with the various menu sets. on all menus or pick and choose the
used. This is useful when menus you want in the hotbox. You can
commands are repeated also turn off the workspace menus.
several times.

This is a single shaded view panel with the hotbox being used to
access tools. Most likely, you will configure the workspace some-
Marking Menus
where between this minimal setup and the default setup. Marking menus are accessed by selecting a hotkey and clicking with
your left mouse button. The menu appears in a radial form so that all
Hotkeys your options are simply a stroke away. Once you learn the location of
Hotkeys will give you quick access to many of the menu options, you can quickly stroke in the direction of an option
the tools found in Maya. To set up hotkeys, select without having to see the menu itself. Because the menu is radial, it is
Window > Settings/Preferences > Hotkey Editor. very easy to remember the location of each menu option. It will only
The Hotkey Editor lets you set up either a single key take a short time for you to master this way of accessing tools.
or a key and a modifier key such as Ctrl, Shift or Alt, You can set up your own marking menus by building them in
to access any tool in Window > Settings/Preferences > Marking Menu Editor, then assigning
Maya that is listed the new marking menu to a hotkey.
in the Editor.
It is also possible
to build custom
commands using a
MEL (Maya Embedded
Language) script.
This feature allows First Use Expert Use
you to set up the UI to When you first use a marking menu, press the As you become an expert, you can quickly press the
hotkey, click and hold it with the mouse while you hotkey and click+drag to the desired location in the
The Hotkey Editor gives you access to completely reflect your view the options, then drag to the desired location menu. The menu doesn’t appear and your selection
all of the tools in Maya. own workflow. in the menu. quickly flashes by.

Left Mouse Button

Mouse Buttons
This button is used to select tools and objects and
Each of the three buttons on your mouse plays a access visible manipulators.
slightly different role when manipulating objects in the
Middle Mouse Button
workspace. Listed here are some of the generic uses
This button is used to edit objects without the
of the mouse buttons. When used with modifiers such manipulator. This button is also used to click+drag.
as the Alt key, they also aid in viewing your scene. If your mouse has a wheel, it can be used to scroll
into windows.

Right Mouse Button

This button is used to invoke context-sensitive
menus and marking menus such as the one
shown here.

25
 Viewing 3D Scenes
Extra Views
W hen building a scene in Maya, you work in
three-dimensional space. Orthographic and
Perspective view cameras offer several ways of
In addition to the default views,
you can create your own
looking at the objects in your scene as you work. cameras. To add a new 2D view,
There are also different display options that change select Panels > Orthographic >
the way objects in your scene are shaded. New > and select Front, Side or
Top. To add a new 3D view, select
Default Views Panels > Perspective > New.
In Maya, the default views are set as Perspective,
top, front and side.
The Perspective view is a representation of your Orthographic views Camera views
object in 3D space, allowing you to move along the To create new orthographic views, To create a new camera, select
select Panels > Orthographic > Panels > Perspective > New. You
X, Y and Z axes. The top, front and side views are New. Make a back view panel by can also select Create > Camera
referred to as Orthographic views and allow you to creating a new front view and change from the menu which offers some
move in two dimensions at a time. Translate Z to -100 and Rotate Y to unique camera options.
180 in the Channel Box.

Default Top View Default Perspective View New Back View

Viewing 3D Scenes

Default Front View Default Side View New Perspective View

View Tools Tumble

Press the Alt key plus the left mouse
By pressing the Alt key along button to rotate the camera around a 3D
with different mouse button Perspective view.
combinations, you can navigate
Track
around the objects in your scene.
Press the Alt key plus the middle mouse
While the Tumble Tool is only button to pan from left to right and up
used to rotate a 3D Perspective and down.
view, you can track and dolly
exploring maya

Dolly
in many other views
Press the Alt key plus the right mouse
including the button to dolly in and out of your
Orthographic, scene. Using the mouse wheel also has
Hypergraph, the same effect. Note that a dolly is
different from a zoom. Dollying moves
Hypershade, your camera closer to or farther from
Visor and your subject. Zoom is accomplished by
Render View. changing the focal length of a lens.

26
 THE ART OF MAYA

Shading
The Shading menu in Maya offers several options for displaying
objects in a scene. Shading can be different for each view panel,
allowing geometry to be shown at different levels of complexity.
The more detailed a scene becomes, the greater the need to
simplify the objects in it. Although Maya is very good at processing Bounding Box Points Wireframe
complex levels of geometry, it is a good idea to view your objects in Bounding Box displays Points shading displays Wireframe shading is
objects as boxes. This objects as a group of the default shading
a less complex shading mode until you are ready to render or make is useful when working points that represent the quality in Maya.
adjustments to those objects. with complex scenes. shape of the object.
There are several shading display options to choose from. The
default shading in Maya is Wireframe. Other display options include:
Bounding Box, Points, Flat Shade, Smooth Shade, Hardware Lighting,
Wireframe on Shaded and X-Ray.

Show Menu
The Show Menu allows you to show and hide different elements of
a scene. You can show all or none or specific items such as NURBS Flat Shade Smooth Shade Hardware Texturing
curves, lights or cameras. Flat Shade displays all or Smooth Shade displays Hardware Texturing
only the selected objects all or only the selected displays smooth-shaded
The Show Menu is accessible from all views and can hide items with lower resolution, objects, as smooth sur- surfaces with textures.
in one view while displaying them in another. faceted display. faces with surface color
and shading properties.

Hardware Lighting Hardware Fog High Quality

Hardware Lighting Hardware Fog displays Rendering
displays smooth-shaded surfaces with a user- High Quality Rendering
surfaces with textures defined fog. This is displays surfaces with
The Show Menu allows you to edit a NURBS curve in the Side view with NURBS surfaces and lighting. useful to simulate a more accurate texturing,
turned off while viewing the Perspective view panel with NURBS surfaces visible. scene fog. bump mapping, transpar-
ency and lighting.
Isolate Select Shade Options
The Isolate Select option allows you to hide surfaces at both the object In addition to the default shading mode, there are
and component level, on a per-panel basis. To hide the Control Vertices two shading options for viewing your models:
(CVs) of an object, choose the CVs you want to modify and select Wireframe on Shaded and X-Ray modes. Both of
Show > Isolate Select > View Selected. This will hide all unselected CVs. these options can be used at the same time.
Another advantage of using Isolate Select is that it affects hardware Viewing your model in Wireframe on Shaded
rendering only, allowing hidden objects to be viewed during mode will allow you to easily view surface isoparms
software rendering. for all objects in your view panel without viewing
through the object.
Viewing your model in X-Ray mode will allow
you to view through your model using a semi-trans-
parent shading. This is useful when you want to
see a surface that is behind other surfaces or inside
objects such as skeletons within a character.

Using Isolate Select allows you to hide CVs X-Ray

on a NURBS surface. X-Ray shading displays Wireframe on Shaded
objects with a semi- Wireframe on Shaded
transparent surface. displays a wireframe on a

27
 Objects and Components
Y ou can transform objects in Maya by selecting objects and their
components. Selection masks allow you the flexibility to select
only the items you want in a scene. These masks are grouped into three
A simple hierarchy where
middleFingerGroup is the parent of
categories: Hierarchy, Object type, and Component type selections. middleFinger and middleFingerNail.

Object Types Hierarchies

Scene objects are items such as cameras, curves, surfaces, dynamics, A hierarchy consists of at
joints, handles and deformers. Objects created in Maya are made up least two nodes arranged in
of two parts: a Transform node and a Shape node. The Transform node a parent-child relationship.
contains basic information about an object’s position, orientation and Working with hierarchies can
scale in space. The Shape node defines what the object looks like. help keep your modeling
and animations organized.
You can use the Outliner or
Hypergraph windows to see
Rendering your hierarchies.
Scene objects such as
lights, cameras and
texture placement nodes
are rendering object types.

Skeleton Joints
Curves Skeleton joints are used
Turning off the curve to help control characters.
selection means you can
not select the curves in
the scene.
Objects and Components

Handles
IK handles are applied
Surfaces to joint chains for ani-
Selecting by surfaces mation control.
allows you to select the
surface geometry of
an object.

Deformations
Deformers such as cluster
flexors and lattices modify
Dynamics the shape of an object.
Dynamic objects such as
particles can be separately
selected by toggling the
Dynamics button on.

Points Faces
Component Types Points such as CVs Faces are patches
and polygonal vertices created by inter-
In order to change the shape of an are used to modify the secting lines.
object in Maya, you need to modify shape of an object.
component type information.
There are a variety of Hulls
component types such as points, Param Points Hulls are guides that
Param points are points connect CVs. They can
isoparms, faces, hulls, pivot points be used to select and
that lie directly on a curve
and handles. These components or surface. transform rows of CVs
can be used to interactively modify at once.
exploring maya

and reshape the appearance of

an object. Lines Pivot Points
Lines such as isoparms Pivot points determine
and trim edges define the location around which
the shape of an object. transformations occur.

28
 THE ART OF MAYA

Hierarchy Object Component Hierarchy

Selecting by hierarchy allows you to select objects at either the Root,
Leaf or Template node level. Unlike Object and Component selection
Selection Masks masks, you are not able to turn on more than one mask at a time.
Selection masks allow you to select
the specific items you want to work
on. There are three main groups of
selection masks: Hierarchy, Object
and Component.
Hierarchy mode allows you to Object
select nodes at different levels. In Object selection masks allow you to make selections based on the
object types you specify. Left-clicking on the arrow to the left of the
this mode, you can select the Root, pick masks displays a menu allowing you to turn all objects on or off.
Leaf and Template nodes.
Object mode allows you to select
scene elements at the Transform
node level. These include objects
such as surfaces, curves and joints.
Component
Component type selections are
Component selection masks offer a variety of pick masks to choose
selections made to objects at the from. Right-clicking on a mask displays more selection options.
Shape node level, such as isoparms
and CVs.

Selection Priority Right Mouse Button Selections

Objects and Components are Clicking the right mouse button over an object will
selected in order of priority based bring up a marking menu that allows you to choose
on an assumed production work- from both Object and Component selection types,
flow. For example, if you want to while remaining in Component mode. The menu
select both joints and surfaces, Maya choices are specific to
Preferences
anticipates that you want to select You can change the order in which Objects and
the object selected or
joints first. To select more than one Components are selected by choosing Window > the object beneath the
object with different priorities, select Settings/Preferences > Preferences and marking menu.
choosing the Selection category .
the first object and Shift+click on the
object of different priority.
Root node selection
Hierarchies viewed in Hypergraph.

When working with a group of Quick Select

objects that are arranged in a hier- Using Quick Select, you can type in the name of an
archy, you may want to specifically object in the text field and it will become selected
work at the Root node or Leaf in your scene.
node level. When there are several objects in a scene
If you choose to work at the Root with a common name, you can type in the name
node level of a group (also known as preceeded and/or followed by an asterisk (*) and
the top node in a hierarchy) you can all objects containing that name will be selected.
toggle on the Select by Hierarchy:
Root mask. In this selection mode,
you can click on
any object in the hierarchy and
only the top node of the object
picked will be selected.
If you want to work at the Leaf Toggling on the Select by Hierarchy: Root mask
node level, toggle on the Select by allows you to select any Leaf node in a hierarchy to
Hierarchy: Leaf mask. In this mode, automatically select the Root node.
only the leaf nodes or children of a
hierarchy will be selected.

29
 Dependency Graph
E verything in Maya is represented by a node with attributes that can be
connected to other node attributes. This node-based architecture allows
connections to be made between virtually everything in Maya. Node attri-
butes determine such things as the shape, position, construction history
and shading of an object. With this architecture, you can create inter-object
dependencies, shading group dependencies, and make your own node
connections.

Nodes with Attributes that are Connected

The Dependency Graph is a collection of nodes which are connected.
These connections allow information to move from one node to another Right Mouse Button
and can be viewed in a diagrammatic fashion through the Hypergraph and Clicking the right mouse button over a
selected object will give you access to an
Hypershade windows. object’s input and output connections.

Shading Group Dependencies

When a material is created in Maya, a network of
node dependencies is built. This network is referred
to as a Shading Network.
The Hypershade window allows you to make
and break connections between shading group
Animation Curve nodes. The Hypershade displays thumbnail images
When an animation is produced in Maya, node dependencies are representing each node. The diagrams below both
created between the animation curves and the object being animated. show the same shading group dependency in the
Hypershade and Hypergraph windows.

Node Dependencies
In the diagram below you can see the nodes that are
dependent on each other to make up a chess piece.
Dependency Graph

Each node plays a part in creating the final rendered

object. Here you see that: the Shader node is depen-
dent on the Shape node to render the material, the
Shape node is dependent on the Revolve node for
the chess piece surface and the Revolve node is
dependent on the Curve node to make the revolve.

Hypershade
Using the Hypershade, you can make materials and textures and
view the node dependencies used to create them.
exploring maya

Hypergraph
The Hypergraph window can also be used to view and create
shading group dependencies. However, it does not have swatches as
the Hypershade does.

30
 THE ART OF MAYA

Viewing Dependencies Making Connections

Dependencies are relationships created between nodes that are Connections made in Maya represent the flow of
connected. There are many ways to view and edit dependencies in information from one node to another. You can
Maya including the Hypergraph, Attribute Editor and Channel Box. make your own connections between nodes as well
By selecting a node and clicking the Up and Downstream as break connections using the Connection Editor.
Connections button in the Hypergraph window, you can view node The Connection Editor offers a list of node
dependencies on a selected node. This window visually displays the attributes that can be connected to other node
connection between nodes, with arrows showing the direction of their attributes. For example, you can map the scale
dependency to one another. of one object to influence the rotation of another.
The Attribute Editor is made up of several tabs allowing you to This creates a connection between the two nodes
view related nodes of a dependency group. In the Attribute Editor, where every time you scale one, the other
you can edit the attributes that affect these nodes. automatically rotates.
In the Channel Box, the selected node is shown with a listing of any The Connection Editor can extend the
keyable attributes that belong to it. Depending on the node selected, possibilities of your production by automating
it will also show input, output or shape nodes. If you select more than tasks done through the connection of nodes.
one node with the same keyable attributes, you can modify them at the
same time using the Channel Box.

Channel Box
Attribute Editor In the Channel Box, you can edit any keyable
In the Attribute Editor, attributes on the selected node.
you can adjust the
attributes on the input
and output connections
of a selected node.

Hypergraph
In the Hypergraph window,
you can see the input and
output connections of a Connection Editor
selected node. The Connection Editor allows you to make connections
between nodes attributes.

Hypergraph
In the Hypergraph, you can view the result of connections
made in the Connection Editor.

Construction History
When an object is built in Maya, Input nodes can be viewed in the
Dependency Graph containing information on how the object was
created. These Input nodes allow you to edit an object based on the Construction History On
geometry used to build it. For example, if you were to create a curve
and use the Revolve Tool to make a surface from it, the curve used to
create the surface would hold information as to how the surface was
created. Using construction history, you can go back to the original
curve and alter the shape of the object. Construction History Deleted

31
 Transformations
T ransformations are changes made to an object’s position,
orientation and scale in space. The Transform node holds all of this
information and the Transformation Tools such as the Move, Scale and
Rotate Tools are used to transform an object along the X, Y and Z axes.

Manipulators
Manipulators are used to move, scale and rotate objects in ortho-
graphic and 3D space. Each of the manipulators use red, green and Move/Rotate/Scale Tool
blue colored handles. These match the colors of the X, Y, Z locator at This tool incorporates the Move, Rotate, and
the bottom left corner of the view, making it easier to distinguish the Scale manipulators into one tool. Select Modify >
Transformation Tools > Move/Rotate/Scale
direction of the transformation. These handles are designed to constrain tool to use this tool.
the transformation to one, two or three axes at a time, allowing for
complete control.
QWERTY Hotkeys
To work quickly and
q
efficiently in Maya, the
QWERTY hotkeys offer
a fast way to access the
transformation tools.
To select the tool you w
want, simply press its
e
corresponding key on
Move Tool Rotate Tool Scale Tool the keyboard: Select r
The Move Tool has a handle The Rotate Tool has a ring for the With the Scale Tool, you can scale (q), Move (w), Rotate
for each X, Y and Z axis and X, Y and Z axes. One ring moves non-proportionally in X, Y or Z. You (e), Scale (r), Show
a center handle to move relative to the view, and a virtual can also scale proportionally by
relative to the view. sphere rotates in all directions. selecting the center handle. Manipulators (t). In
addition to these tools,
t
Maya offers access to
Setting Pivot Points for Transformations the last tool you used by y
Objects are transformed around their pivot point location. This is impor- pressing the y key.
tant to be aware of because the position of your pivot point affects the
Transformations

outcome of your transformation. To change the location of your pivot Use the QWERTY shortcut keys on your
point, select a Transform manipulator and press the Insert key on a PC or keyboard to select and transform the
objects in your scene.
the Home key on a Mac. Move your pivot point to the desired location
and press the Insert or Home key again to set the pivot point.

Reset Transformations
Once you have manipulated an
object, you may not be satisfied
with its new transformation. To
reset your object to its original
position, select Modify >
Reset Transformations.

Pivot point is in the wrong location.

Freeze Transformations
Select Modify > Freeze
Transformations to keep your
object’s current position, rotation
exploring maya

and scale as its default position. This

means that your object will now
have values of 0 for its Translate and
Rotate attributes and a value of 1 for
its Scale attributes.
Object is rotating around a properly positioned pivot point.

32
 THE ART OF MAYA

Scale Tool Rotate Options

The Scale Tool allows you to change the size of an Use the Rotate Tool to rotate an object around any
object both proportionally and non-proportionally. of the three axes. The Rotate Tool Settings window
The default coordinate system for scaling is local. offers three rotate modes: Local, Global and Gimbal.
Double-clicking on the Scale Tool icon will open the
Scale Tool Settings window, where you can
modify the tool’s default behavior.

Move Tool Local

The Move Tool enables you to move objects through 3D space using Local is the default
setting. It allows
one of four coordinate systems: Object, Local, World and Normal. you to rotate an
The default system is World, but you can change this in the Move Tool object in Object
Settings window by double-clicking the Move Tool icon. space. Note that
in this mode, the
Each object has its own coordinate space with the origin located axes rotate with
at the object’s pivot point. When the object is rotated, the object’s axes the object.
are also rotated.
Local space uses the pivot point of the parent or root node in a
hierarchy as the location for its axes. Thus, all objects are moved in
relation to their parent. Global
World space is the coordinate system for the scene. When objects Selecting Global
are moved, they are moved relative to the origin of the scene. mode means the
Normal space exists at the component level and all coordinates object will rotate
within world
are relative to the surface you are working on. The axes are U, V and N, space. In this
where U and V represent the axes that lie on the surface and N the axis mode, the manipu-
that points out from the surface, known as the surface normal. lator rings never
change direction.

Gimbal
In Gimbal mode
you can rotate your
object in only one
axis at a time.

Local Normal

Universal Manipulator
The Universal Manipulator is similar to the Move/
Rotate/Scale Tool, but it lets you transform objects
with greater
precision. When
you click on its
manipulator
Object World
handles, a
num­erical input
field appears
2D Transformations for you to enter
When transforming an object using the Move Tool in the top, front a precise value
and side views, you are constrained to move only in two dimensions. by which you
When using the Rotate and Scale Tools in an Orthographic view, you can transform
can transform an object in both two and three dimensions. an object.

33
Animation
When 3D artists animate, they paint with motion instead of color. As an object

moves, rotates or changes shape over time, it is being animated. This motion

can be at a constant speed or it can accelerate or decelerate. At times, this

motion will attempt to mimic real-world events such as an object falling off

a table, while at other times, it will take the form of an actor telling an

audience a story.

Models that are animated must be set up with mechanical properties that

define how they work. To have a door open and close or a drawer slide in

and out, 3D artists must understand the mechanics of their models so they

can animate them.

There are a number of tools for creating motion in Maya software. In some

cases, 3D artists will animate all the parts of an object separately. In others cases,

they use higher level controls to help streamline their workflow. Situations can

even be set up where the animation of one object controls that of another.
 Animation Techniques
W hen you animate, you bring to life otherwise static and motion-
less objects. You take aspects of the object such as its position,
size, shape and color and change these over time. If these changes are
set up properly, you create motion that instills character and life in
the object.
In Maya, there are a number of ways to animate an object.
Path Pivot
Using a bouncing ball as a common example, it is possible to explore
the different animation techniques available in Maya. In a real project,
you will most often combine several of these techniques to achieve the
best results. Translate Pivot

Setting Keys
Setting keys or keyframing, is the most fundamental technique for Scale Pivot
animating in 3D on a computer. This technique involves recording
attribute values as keys for one or more objects at particular points in Rotate Pivot
time. As you set multiple keys, you can play back the scene to see your
object animated.
Setting keys gives you a great deal of control over timing. When Hierarchical Animation
you animate using keys, you generate animation curves that plot the You set many of your keys on the Transform
key values against time. These curves are great tools for analyzing and nodes of your object. By grouping an object to
editing the motion of an object. Other animation techniques are usually itself, you can set up different nodes with their
own pivot points and orientation, then key them
combined with some keyframing. Most animation you do in Maya will on their own. This added complexity isn’t really
involve some form of setting keys. required for a bouncing ball, but can be very
useful for more complex objects where you
want different levels of animation.

Keying Attributes
By setting keys on attributes at
different times, you define the
Animation Techniques

motion of an object.

For example, Translate X is

keyed at the beginning and end
of the bounce. Animation Curves
By setting keys, you map the attribute’s
Translate Y is keyed with an up Secondary Motion value to time. The keyframes are then
and down motion that is fast Rotate Z defines the rolling of the connected by an animation curve that helps
near the ground and slow near ball; scaling of the ball is used to define the attribute inbetween the keys. The
the peak of the bounce. indicate its impact with the ground. Maya Graph Editor shows you the speed of
the motion and lets you reshape the curve.

Path Animation
Path animation involves attaching the object to a curve where points
on the path are used to determine where the object will be at
particular points in time. It is easy to understand the way an object When building a hierarchy for motion
path animations, it is always helpful to
moves around in 3D space through a path, since its curve clearly reserve a node for the motion path.
depicts where the object is going.

Method 1 Method 2
A curve is used to represent Here, a curve is used to replace
the path of the bouncing ball. the X and Z translation of the ball
This method lets you describe while the Y translation, rotation
Path Pivot
the path of the bounce by and scaling are keyed normally.
shaping the curve, but timing This method is ideal if you want
the bounce requires the set- to animate the ball bouncing
animation

ting of several motion path along a curved path, which might

keys to lock down the motion. suit a cartoon-style bounce.
The bouncing of the ball
is keyed on a lower node
Path Pivot in the hierarchy.

36
 THE ART OF MAYA

Set Driven Key Non-linear Animation

Set Driven Key allows you to control or "drive," Non-linear animation uses animation clips that contain keyframed
the value of one attribute with another attribute. The motion. These clips can be cycled and blended with other clips in the
relationship between the two attributes is defined by Maya Trax Editor. For a bouncing ball, a single bounce clip could be
an animation curve. The driving attribute can be used cycled, then blended with a clip of the ball rolling. These clips can be
to drive multiple attributes. For example, the rotation moved, scaled, cycled and blended. You can also add and subtract clips
of an elbow joint could drive a bulging bicep muscle from the Trax Editor to quickly explore different animation options.
and the wrinkling of a sleeve.
Custom attributes can be added to a control node, Bounce Clip
then connected to other attributes in the scene using Keys are set for the up,
down and forward motion
Set Driven Key. This creates centralized controls. of a single bounce. This
one bounce can be cycled
to create a number of
cycles.

Roll Clip
Here, a clip is created for
the rolling of the ball. This
clip contains keys for the
Rotate Z, Translate X and
Translate Y of the ball.

Drivers
Set Driven Key lets you use one attribute to drive other attributes. Blended Clips
Here, the Translate X of the ball drives the Translate Y and roll of the The blending of the two
ball. As the ball moves forward, the bouncing action takes place. The clips has the ball bounce
resulting animation curves map the keyed attributes to Translate X several times while getting
instead of time. closer to the ground and
rolling forward.
Expressions
Another way of animating object attributes
is through expressions. Expressions can be Dynamic Simulation
mathematical equations, conditional statements To animate a ball that is bouncing off a series of objects or against
or MEL commands that define the value of a given a non-flat terrain, a dynamics simulation is required for the most
attribute. Expressions are evaluated on every frame. realistic results. The ball can be turned into a rigid body that is
You can animate using an expression when you propelled forward using dynamic attributes. Forces such as gravity
have a mathematical relationship that you want to or wind can then be applied to the ball to bring it to the ground.
achieve. In the case below, the absolute value of a Objects in the scene can also be turned into rigid bodies so the ball
sine wave creates the bounce of the ball. will collide with them. If they are passive, they will not be affected by
the collision. If they are Active Rigid Bodies, they will move as the ball
hits them. In the end, the simulation can be baked to turn the motion
into keys.

Active Rigid Bodies

sine Initial Velocity An active object is affected by
When an object is set up for dynamics, it can forces and by collisions with other
have attributes such as initial velocity and Active Rigid Bodies. Active objects
initial spin that give it a starting motion. will animate during a simulation.

abs (sine)

Bounce Expression
A sine wave placed on time creates the bouncing
motion. An absolute value function keeps the motion
in positive Y and the forward motion is driven directly Fields Passive Rigid Bodies
by time. Other multipliers are used to control the size Objects can be subjected to fields Passive objects are used as collision
such as gravity, wind or turbulence. objects by active objects, but
of the bounce and the phase of the motion. Expressions they do not react to either forces
are evaluated at every frame of the animation. or collisions.

37
 Setting Keys
F or an object to be animated, it must change over time. For example,
a car might move forward or a light might blink on and off. To
animate these changes in Maya, you need to set keys for the car’s
Translate X attribute or for the light’s intensity. Keys are used to mark
attribute values at specific times. Then, animation curves are used to
determine the value in-between the keys.
As a 3D artist, setting keys is one of your most important tech-
niques. This animation technique can be easily applied to your objects
and the results can be easily edited. Once you are familiar with this
technique, you will soon find that you spend less time setting keys and
more time editing the motion.
Keying Attributes
Keying Attributes In Maya, virtually every attribute is keyable.
When you set keys, you key values for one or more of an object’s As you learn more about the different nodes
attributes at specific frames in time. These keyframes set the values, available in Maya, you will begin to discover
unique possibilities for animating your
while tangents set at each key determine the interpolation in-between models. For example, if you keep an object’s
the keys. This interpolation results in an animation curve that can be Construction History, you can set keys on
edited in the Graph Editor. This editing feature helps you control the the Input node’s history. You can also set
keys on attributes belonging to lights,
quality of your motion. materials, cameras and other node types.

Step 1: Keyframes Step 2: Animation Curve Shape Step 3: Playback

Keys are set for at least two points in time. You In the Graph Editor, you can view and edit the When you play back an animation, the object uses
can set keys for one or more attributes at the same animation curves. At each key, there are tangents the keys and the values defined by the animation
time. The keys are then stored as animation curves. set that define the shape of the curve. curve to create the resulting motion.
Setting Keys

The Time Slider

Last Frame
Next Frame
Timing is one of the most important components when creating an Next Key
animation. You must ensure your key poses are timed properly and that Play
the in-between motion achieves the desired results. The Time Slider lets
you play back or “scrub” your animation to evaluate this timing. You
can also edit the timing of the keys.
< Backward | Forward >

Selecting and Modifying Keys Right Mouse Button

Object or Character Keys You can click+drag over several keys using the Shift With selected keys, you can then click on the right
Keys show up as red lines in the Time Slider, key. This creates an editing bar. You can use this to mouse button over the Time Slider to access a pop-
depending on which object or character you move keys by dragging on the center arrows and up menu allowing you to cut, copy and paste keys.
have selected. scaling keys by dragging on the end arrows. You can also change tangents on the selected keys.
animation

Scrubbing Sound Time Range

Click+drag in the Time Slider to quickly preview the You can import a sound file into Maya, then load it The animation’s Range and the Playback Range can
motion. You can drag with your middle mouse but- into the Time Slider using the right mouse button. be set separately. This makes it possible to preview
ton to change time without updating object values. The audio waves will be visible to help you subsections of a larger animation by updating the
synchronize your keys. Range Slider.

38
 THE ART OF MAYA

How To Set Keys Hotkeys

There are a number of ways to set keys in Maya. A fast and easy method for setting keys is through
hotkeys. Hitting the S key will set a keyframe for all
Each one offers a different way of recording time keyable attributes on the selected object or character
and value information. In some cases, you may want set. Pressing Shift w, Shift e or Shift r, will set keys
Selected Keys for just the translation, rotation or scale of an object.
to set keys for a number of objects and in others,
you may want to set keys for a single attribute. The
results are always the same, as animation curves
Selected Character
are created for any attribute for which you set a
keyframe. The only difference lies in choosing Set Key
a workflow that meets your needs. The Animate > Set Key tool is designed to create
keys for all the keyable attributes that exist on
selected objects or characters. If a character is
selected from the character pop-up then it is keyed. Prompt
Otherwise the selected object is keyed. One of the Set Key options is to use a prompt
window to let you set the keys for multiple points in
time. For example, you could set a key for frames 5,
10 and 15 all at once using this window. The same
attribute value would be keyed for each of these
times.

Auto Key Off Auto Key On

Attribute Editor Auto Key

When viewing attributes in the Attribute Editor, Auto Key lets you key automatically as you edit
Channel Box you can click the right mouse button over individual objects in your 3D views. Auto Key will set keys
The Channel Box always displays the keyable attributes of a selected attributes and choose Set Key. Since this window whenever the value of an animated attribute is
object. The Channel Box also lets you highlight one or more channels and shows both keyable and non-keyable attributes, changed. Make sure to turn this option off when you
then select Channels > Key Selected to set keys for the highlighted you can use this method if you need to key an have finished using it.
attributes on all the selected objects. attribute that does not appear in the Channel Box.

What is Keyed? Viewing and Editing Keys

Generally, you set keys on attributes belonging To view and edit keys, you can focus on the animation curve’s shape
to selected objects. You can further control which or its timing. Select Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor to
attributes are keyed using the Set Key options access the animation curves and define their shape and timing. Select
where you can work based on keyable attributes, the Window > Animation Editors > Dope Sheet to focus on timing. In both
manipulator handles or the pop-up Character Menu windows, you can set the attribute value, edit tangents and cut, copy
(where you only key character-specific attributes). and paste keys.
In the Graph Editor, you can edit the weighting of the tangents.
Keyable Attributes This feature provides you more control over in-between motion. This is
By default, the Set Key command sets keys for all keyable attributes
of a given object or character set. Attributes can be set as either in addition to the various in and out tangents that you can set in both
keyable or non-keyable from Window > General Editors > Channel windows using the menus. As you become more proficient with the
control. The keyable attributes are visible in the Channel Box and Graph Editor curves, you will begin to appreciate the Dope Sheet where
can be keyed with the Animate > Set Key command. Animated
attributes that are non-keyable retain the keys set while keyable. you can easily make more general edits.

Manipulator
Keys can also be set using your manipulator as a reference. In the
Set Key options, you can choose to either use the manipulator or
the manipulator handles as the keyable attribute. Therefore, keys
would be set depending on which manipulator you are working with.
This allows you to focus your keyframing on the attributes you are
currently editing.

Character Menu
If a character has been selected from the Character menu found
under the playback controls, only that node will be keyed with
Set Key. The use of this menu assumes you have chosen a character-
focused workflow when setting keys. You can set the character to Graph Editor Dope Sheet
None to set keys on other objects in the scene. This window offers a view of the animation curves The Dope Sheet focuses on keys. You can select
themselves. This makes it possible to view the keys hierarchically and edit them using this window.
in-between motion and edit curve tangents. You can For example, you can use the Dope Sheet Summary
also move keys around and edit their values. to edit keys for all the selected objects.

39
Modeling
Modeling is the process of creating shape and form on screen. Models

in

Maya can be hard objects with sharp edges or organic objects with a

softer look. Using one of several geometry types, 3D artists can build

surfaces,

then push and pull points to change their shape.

Modeling on the computer can be a challenge at first because the

goal is to mimic 3D objects on a 2D screen. In this chapter, 3D artists

will learn how to use manipulators and different view panels to navi-

gate this virtual world so they can focus on sculpting and building their

models.

While building good looking models is important, 3D artists must

also be aware of how the model will be used down the line. Models

might need to bend or twist or simply move around your scene. Also,

the way surfaces are texture mapped will depend on how they were
 Geometry
T he mathematics of geometry is used by the
computer to determine what you see on the
screen. The Maya user interface gives you tools to
edit geometry without having to understand the
math behind it.
In order to build complex scenes, you need
to understand how to manipulate geometry and
how the geometry will be animated and texture
mapped down the line. A good looking model is only
complete when it satisfies the needs of all aspects of
the animation process.

Points, Curves and Surfaces

Points, curves and surfaces are the basic geometric elements that Building a Scene
you will use to create and manipulate 3D objects on the computer. Above is a wireframe view of a street scene.
Complex scenes can be redrawn more quickly when
The creation of surfaces from points and curves is the essence of viewed without hardware shading or texturing.
modeling in Maya. Sometimes, you start with an existing surface and
manipulate its points to define shape and form. Other times, you start
with carefully constructed lines or curves that are then used to build a
surface. Either way, you will work to give a physical presence to these
basic geometric elements.

Curves
When two or more points are Points
connected, you have a curve. Curves Points are defined in three dimensions
are useful for defining the shape of an using X,Y and Z coordinates. In Maya,
object. They can also be used as paths control points are used to help define
for animating objects. Since curves the shape of object types such as curves
only have one dimension, they cannot (CVs), surfaces (vertices, edit points)
be rendered. Instead, they can play a and lattice deformers (lattice points).
key role in defining how surfaces work
Geometry

Points are also very useful as references

in 3D space. for snapping.

Objects
One surface is often not enough to fully
define an object in 3D. When a series of
surfaces is positioned in relation to each
other, you begin to get more complex
Surfaces models. These models require grouping to
When a series of lines is connected in two bring together the parts into a selectable
directions, you have a surface. Surfaces can hierarchy that can work as a single object,
be textured and rendered to create 3D images. while not denying you access to the
When you shine light onto a surface, you can individual parts.
modeling

see the shape of the surface as gradations of

tone and highlight.

42
 THE ART OF MAYA

Geometry Types
One of the first decisions you have to make when you start a project is how you are going to build your models. There are
four types of geometry: polygons, NURBS, Subdivision and Bezier surfaces.
You can use any geometry type to create either simple or complex models. You can use one geometry type as a starting
point for another or you can build models that combine geometry types. In general, if you are building organic shapes, you will
probably use NURBS or Subdivision Surfaces. They will give you smooth surfaces and have the fewest control points, making
edits to the surface easier. Since NURBS are limited to a four-sided patch, there are limitations to the types of organic shapes
you can make from a single surface. This is where it is beneficial to use Subdivision Surfaces because they can represent many
more types of shapes with a single surface. If you are building non-organic shapes, such as a desk or wall, it is easier to use
polygons because they easily make shapes like corners or edges. If you are building a surface that combines hard edges with
an organic shape, Subdivision Surfaces work well. In this chapter, you will learn more about your options so you can decide on
the geometry that best suits the way you want to work.

NURBS Polygons Subdivision Surfaces

NURBS geometry is spline-based. The geometry is derived from Polygons are shapes defined by vertices that To create objects with Subdivision Surfaces, you need
curves and surfaces approximated from the surface’s control create three, four or n-sided shapes. Polygonal some understanding of both NURBS and polygonal modeling.
vertices (points) locations. NURBS allow you to start with curves objects are made up of many polygons. Subdivision Surfaces are mostly built using a polygon mesh as a base
that are then used to generate surfaces. This workflow offers Polygons can appear flat when rendered or the and then refined. The advantage of using this geometry type is that
precise results that can be easily controlled. All NURBS surfaces Normals across adjacent faces can be interpo- detail is added only where needed. It creates smooth surfaces like
are four-sided patches, although this shape can be altered using lated to appear smooth. NURBS but does not have the limitations of being four-sided patches.
the Trim Tool.

Scene Hierarchy View Tessellation

Within the Hypergraph window, you can view The Maya renderer requires polygonal objects in order to be able to
the objects in the scene and any relationships execute rendering calculations. Therefore, NURBS and Subdivision
between them. An object will have a Transform and Surfaces are broken down into triangles or tessellated, during the
a Shape node. The Transform node contains infor- rendering process. The advantage of letting the renderer tessellate a
mation such as translation, rotation and scale. The spline-based model is that you can set the quality of your tessellation
Shape node contains information such as History, to match the size and scale of your object in a scene.
Tessellation, Render Stats and Object Display. When
you select an object, the Channel Box will display
information for both the Transform and Shape
nodes. If you are using the Attribute Editor, the
Transform and Shape nodes will be represented by
different tabs.

Even though the boot is a NURBS surface, it will be

Transform node
tessellated into triangles when it is rendered. This is true
Shape node for all surface types that are rendered in Maya.

43
 Modeling Techniques
C hoosing the geometry type that best suits your model will depend
on several factors, such as: how the model is going to be used,
how complex the model has to be, whether the model will be animated
and deformed and what kind of texture maps will be used. If you are
unsure of what type of geometry to work with, it is possible to begin
with NURBS because it can be converted to polygons or Subdivision
Surfaces later. Polygons, however, cannot be converted to NURBS, but
can be converted to Subdivision Surfaces.

Starting with Primitives

One of the most common ways to create a model is to begin
with a primitive shape. This simple shape is then molded or expanded
to add more detail. This technique using polygons is frequently used
for developing environments and characters for interactive games.
NURBS primitives, such as spheres and cylinders, are commonly used Primitives
to begin organic modeling of objects such as body parts. A polygon Primitives can be made of NURBS or polygons.
All primitives have the option of having
cube is a good place to start a Subdivision model by simply converting different spans and sections.
it to a Subdivision Surface and then beginning to extrude.
Modeling Techniques

The model on the left was created from a NURBS primitive sphere that had several
spans and sections in both directions to have sufficient detail. The Artisan Sculpt
Surfaces Tool was used to create the main shape, which was then tweaked with
CV manipulation. The model above began as a polygon cube. It was then scaled,
had faces extruded and was finally converted to a Subdivision Surface.

Network of Curves
For more precise surfaces, a
network of curves can be used to
control the shape and parameter-
ization of the surface. Surfaces can
be created from curves, trim edges
or isoparms. For industrial types
of modeling, creating a network of
curves is essential for smooth and
precise surfaces. There are several
tools within Maya to create a
network, such as: Snap to curves
and Point Snapping, intersecting
and projecting curves, Animated
Snapshots, curve rebuilding and
surface curve duplication.
The thumb was created using a profile curve for the base of the thumb and
modeling

attached to a motion path. The curve was scaled and deformed at the end of
the path to the shape of a thumbnail. Finally, an Animated Snapshot was per-
formed to create the curves to use for a Loft.

44
 THE ART OF MAYA

Symmetry Organic Modeling

Most objects in life, whether they are organic or When the surfacing tools are not sufficient to create the shape you are
industrial, have symmetry. Modeling only half the looking for, direct control point manipulation sometimes is the only
object and mirroring it offers an efficient method solution. Artisan is an excellent tool for creating broad shapes but it
for completing the entire object. This technique is can be difficult to use in tight areas where you may need to manipulate
widely used for industrial design, but can also be only a few CVs or vertices at a time. Manipulating on such a fine level is
used for organic shapes such as heads and bodies. an art in itself that demands patience and skill.
A helpful tip for viewing a mirrored copy update Selecting the points for manipulation can be the first challenge
interactively while you work on one half, is to use because it is easy to accidentally select points on the back of the model.
an Instance duplication with a negative scaling Artisan Paint Selection Tool can be handy for selecting or deselecting
instead of a regular copy. points since it works on the surface under the brush and does not affect
points on the back surface. Also, being able to hide unselected CVs lets
you focus on the surface without the clutter, making it easier to change
your selection. On NURBS models, when hulls are on they offer good
Artisan Paint visual clues as to where the CVs are in space. After the selected CVs
using reflection have been modified, use the keyboard arrows to pick-walk to the next
row.

Mirroring half
of head

The human head is one surface and not mirrored. Instead, it was created using The left model displays only those CVs that are being modified. By pressing F, the view is focused to
the Artisan Paint Tool with the Reflection feature that sculpts on both halves center on whatever is selected, making tumbling the camera easier for evaluation of the affected surfaces.
at the same time. The alien head was modeled as one half and mirrored as a -1 The model on the right uses the Paint Selection Tool to select front surface vertices, avoiding wrong
scale in the X-axis. selections on the opposite side of the model.

Patch Surface Modeling Rotoscoping

This method of modeling requires more planning If the model needs to have exact
than the others. This method creates a surface out proportions or is being developed
of many smaller NURBS surfaces that have surface from a sketch, you can import refer-
continuity and, typically, the same number and posi- ence images as backdrops and roto-
tioning of isoparms. scope (or trace) them. Maya Image
The planning stage of Planes are objects in the scene that
patch modeling involves can display images or textures. Each
deciding where the cutlines Image Plane is attached to a specific
are to be positioned and what camera and provides a background
the parameterization of the or environment for scenes seen
surfaces will be. The Stitch through that camera.
and Rebuild Surface Tools are
used extensively to create An Image Plane is used as a guide to model a hand.
surfaces with this method. Image Planes can use single image files, a numbered
sequence of image files or a movie.

45
 NURBS Surfaces
T he foundation of a NURBS surface is the NURBS curve. To create NURBS 
surfaces efficiently, you must be proficient in creating good curves. The same
principles behind NURBS curves are applied to NURBS surfaces since the
two are related. There is an obvious difference: a NURBS curve has only
one direction, while the NURBS surface has two directions. The two direc-
tions on a NURBS surface have an origin and together they define the
Normals of the surface, which determine the front and back of the
surface. Being aware of these surface properties will help when using
certain modeling and rendering operations, such as attaching surfaces
or texture placement.

Anatomy of a NURBS Surface
The components of the NURBS surface are very similar to those
of the NURBS curve, except the edit points are not moveable.
NURBS surfaces have CVs, hulls and spans which define the shape
of a four-sided surface. NURBS models, whether they are organic or
industrial in nature, are generally made up of several adjoining four-
sided patches. As with the NURBS curve, it is desirable to define surfaces
with the fewest evenly spaced isoparms or CVs. As earlier stated, the
quality and type of curve will affect the characteristics of the surface.
However, the surface parameterization can be modified after creation by
duplicating the surface curves at the desired locations and re-lofting.

Hulls
The hull comprises straight lines that
connect CVs. When you select a hull, you
are actually selecting all of its associated Isoparms
CVs. The hull offers a better visual cue for Isoparms are lines that represent cross-sections in the U and
the distribution of CVs in a crowded area. V directions. Isoparms can be inserted, removed, used to make
curves and snapped to. If you select an isoparm that's not a span
or section, it displays as yellow dots. If you select an isoparm
that is a span or section, it displays as a solid, yellow line.
This distinction is important for some modeling actions.
NURBS Surfaces

Control Vertices
They do not exist on the actual
surface but are used to manipulate
the shape of the surface.

Surface Point Surface Origin

You can select a Surface Turning on this display option highlights
point that represents a measure- the first U and V isoparms (red and green)
ment of U and V. The values at this point Surface Patch and labels them U and V. It also draws
are dependent on the parameterization A NURBS surface patch is defined a line indicating the surface Normal
of the surface. by an enclosed span square. direction (blue).
Several patches can be selected
and duplicated to create individual
NURBS surfaces.

Spans
modeling

A span or segment is the space between isoparms

at edit points. When creating surfaces using
Revolve, Primitives, Loft or rebuilding, you can
NURBS Marking Menu specify the number of segments or spans.

46
 THE ART OF MAYA

Building Surfaces
The majority of the surfacing tools begin with creating curves defining the surface.
In some cases, the curves are used to create simple surfaces that are then rebuilt and
modified by CV manipulation. Other times, the curves are used to create much more Fillet Blend Surface
complex surfaces that would be difficult to attain otherwise. To help you understand The Fillet Tool creates a seamless blend between
two surfaces. The three types are: Circular Fillet,
the operation of the tools, view the Help Freeform Fillet and Fillet Blend. These terms are
Line as you scroll through the menus. discussed later in this chapter.

Profile Curve 1
Profile Curve 2
Rail 2
Birail Surface
The Birail Tool creates a surface by using two or Profile Curve 3
more profile curves that sweep along two rails.
The profile curves must intersect the rail curves
to create a surface. Profile and rail curves can be
isoparms, Curves-on-Surface, trim boundaries, Freeform Fillet
or boundary curves of an existing surface.
The advantage of this tool over the Loft is Rail 1
greater control with the addition of rails.
Loft Surface
A Loft Surface is created when a surface is applied
to a series of profile curves that define a frame.
There must be at least two curves or surface
isoparms and ideally the same parameterization for
each curve, to achieve a clean surface. If the curves
have the same curve degree and parameterization,
Primitives the Loft Surface will have the same number of spans
NURBS primitives are common geometric in the U direction.
objects such as spheres, cubes and
cylinders. Primitives are often used as
the foundation for other shapes.

Deformed
Half Sphere
Curve 1 Curve 2

Revolve Surface
The Revolve Tool creates a surface defined by a
profile curve that revolves around a defined axis.
Trim Surface Extrude Surface The use of construction history is very useful to
To create a trimmed surface, a closed Curve-on- The Extrude Tool creates a surface by sweeping a cross-sectional profile curve tweak the shape after the revolve operation. The
Surface is required. There are various ways of along a path curve. The profile curve can be an open or closed curve, a surface front fender began as a revolved surface that was
creating these curves which will be discussed later isoparm, a Curve-on-Surface or a trim boundary. The extruded surface on this then scaled, deformed and finally trimmed. The
in this chapter. model creates a lip for the scooter surfaces and gives the illusion of depth. tire and rims are simple revolves.

Path Curve

Curve-on-Surface Profile Curve Profile Curve

47
 Polygon Modeling
P olygons can be defined as a number of connected points that
create a shape or face. Points are connected by edges that surround
the resulting face. A face can exist as triangles, quadrangles (quads) or
Polygon Creation
To create a polygon shape, select Mesh > 
Create Polygon Tool. After placing a point, use
n-gons. Joined together, they create a polygon mesh. A polygon mesh the middle mouse button to alter its position.
can be created using the Primitives that come with Maya, but a more
complex shape results from using the Maya polygon editing 2 nd Click 3 rd Click
operations. A polygon mesh can also be created by a conversion from
NURBS, Subdivision Surfaces, Paint FX, Displacement or Fluids. 1st Click

Polygon Components
Each polygon mesh consists of components that are modifiable to help
create and edit the mesh. These main components are vertices, edges,
faces and UVs. There are polygon editing operations in Maya that allow After the 3rd click, the polygon can be completed
by pressing Enter. The dashed line represents the
you to edit these components. You will need to select the individual
final edge.
components that you wish to modify, by toggling on Convert compo-
nent selection (Preferences > Modeling > Polygons). Maya will
automatically switch to the right component type for any given edit
operation and perform the operation as instructed.
5 th Click
Vertices Selected Vertices Edges
A vertex is a point in 3D space. Edges connect vertices by drawing 4 th Click
Three or more connected vertices a straight line between them.
make a face. Press F9 for A single edge can be moved,
Vertex Selection mode. scaled or rotated. Press F10 You can continue to place points until the desired
for Edge Selection mode. shape is achieved. Press Enter to finish.

Selected UVs Non-planar Polygons

When working with quads and n-gons, you should
be aware that if a vertex lies off the plane from
Selected Edges Quad
the other vertices, it creates a non-planar face. To
avoid this when creating or appending polygons,
Selected Faces you can toggle on Mesh > Create Polygon Tool
Polygon Modeling

> Options > Keep new faces planar. If this situ-

ation occurs as a result of a modeling operation,
Triangle then either triangulate the non-planar faces or
use the cleanup operation to tessellate faces with
four or more sides. While non-planar faces can
Faces UVs be rendered in Maya, they may cause problems
A face is made up of three or UVs are the two-dimensional if you are creating a polygon mesh for export to a
more connected edges. A face coordinates that are required game engine.
with three sides is a triangle, to display or render a texture
with four sides is a quad and with on a mesh. A UV directly
more than four sides is a n-gon. A corresponds to a vertex on the
face can be moved, scaled or rotated. mesh. Press F12 for UV selec-
Press F11 for Face selection mode. tion mode.

Use the right mouse button over the model to access a marking menu that will
allow you to change selection modes interactively. This method allows you to
select multiple component types.

The first shape has only three sides and by nature

is planar. The second and third shapes have four
Polygon Objects
sides each, but appear to be planar.
All of these objects were created from
polygons. Some models (like the scooter
and the gallery) were created with a
specific polygon count target in mind.
This means that these models do not
exceed a certain number of polygon faces.
While these restrictions apply to game
content, models created for software-
modeling

rendered output often do not fall under

these restrictions.
The third shape has the fourth vertex on a different
plane than the other vertices of its face. The third
face is considered non-planar.

48
 THE ART OF MAYA

Polygon Primitives
Maya includes several polygon primitives that can give
you a starting point for your model. The majority of these
primitives are closed shapes and all primitives are created
with a default set of UV information. These primitives have Sphere Cube Cylinder Cone Plane Torus Prism Pyramid Pipe Helix Soccer Ball Platonic Solid

construction history which can be modified at any time.

Modeling a Head Extruding Faces

Using some of the more common You can further refine your shape by extruding the face
polygon modeling tools, the steps of a polygon. This extrusion operation inserts faces at the
for creating a polygonal head are edges of the face to be extruded and allows the selected
illustrated below. face or faces to be moved, scaled or rotated from their
original position. If you are extruding multiple faces and
want them to maintain a cohesive shape, toggle on Edit
Mesh > Keep Faces Together. This only inserts faces at
the edges on the border of the selected faces. Otherwise,
faces will be inserted at every edge. This tool can be found Face four is selected. This is the After the extrude is complete, new
under Edit Mesh > Extrude. face that will be extruded. faces were added at the edges of
the extruded face.

A default cube was created and Splitting Polygons

then smoothed by selecting Mesh The Split Polygon Tool allows you to divide a polygonal
> Smooth. The two rear bottom face. You can also use the tool to insert vertices on an
faces were then extruded to cre- edge. To assist you, the tool has options that allow you
ate the neck and the front lower to set how many Snapping Magnets you want and the
edges were moved down to create Snapping Tolerance for the magnets. By setting Snapping
the chin. Magnets to 3, the edge being split will have three equally
spaced division points. Increasing the Snapping Tolerance
increases the influence of the magnets. With a Snapping
Tolerance of 0, the vertex can be added anywhere on the
edge. A tolerance of 100 will force the vertex to snap A common use of the Split Polygon Tool However, the face can be split any
directly to the division points. is to divide a face in half. This is done way you want as long as the last
with a tolerance of 100. vertex ends up on an edge.

Joining Objects
Sometimes you will create the individual parts of a model
The lower faces of the front were and then want to join them together. For objects to be
split for the nose and the middle joined, they must match certain criteria. The objects
edges were moved up to create must be combined to create a single object and must have
the eyebrow area. The nose and their Normals pointing in the same direction. Combining
eyes were created by splitting objects will create a single object with construction history
faces in the appropriate areas and relating back to the original objects. The separate pieces
then moving vertices to get the of the new object are called shells. Shells are pieces of an
desired shape. object that are not connected to the rest of the object by
shared edges. Objects that are combined with opposing
Normals will give an unexpected result when their edges
are merged. This is because their edges run in different The torso and arms are selected The three objects have been
directions. This is true for appending polygons between and ready to be combined. Mesh > combined into one object.
shells as well. Combine to do this. However, there are three sepa-
rate shells.

The mouth was created by splitting

the faces in the mouth area and
then moving vertices.

The border edges of the left arm and left torso The same steps as before are applied. But, Here you can see the problem. The left arm and
opening are selected and the Edit Mesh > the result is different because the edge torso have their Normals pointing out, while the
Merge operation is applied. The arm and torso direction of the two shells are opposite each right arm’s Normals are pointing in. You could
now share common edges and the holes in the other. Maya was able to merge the front solve this by selecting a face on the right arm,
left side of the torso and left arm are closed. edge of the right arm and the rear edge of select Normals > Reverse > Options. Toggle
the torso, but could not continue and stopped on All faces in the shell and Reserve user
The eyes and neck were further merging edges. normals and then press Reverse Normals. The
refined and then the edges of right arm's Normals now follow the rest of the
the model were smoothed in object and the edges can be merged properly.
the proper areas.

49
Deformations
In the real world, some objects are hard and some are soft. The surfaces

on the soft objects can be bent and folded into different shapes. This

kind of surface deformation can be set up and animated in Autodesk®

Maya®.

Pushing and pulling the control points on a surface deforms its

shape.

Yet to sculpt every surface point-by-point can be time consuming. Maya

offers deformation tools that give 3D artists a higher level of control.

A deformer applied to one or more objects can be used to achieve

bending and twisting

by editing a few control points or attributes.

Deformers can also be used as modeling tools because they are

great
 Deforming Objects
M any objects in our 3D world are able to change their shape —
a soft chair gives as someone sits in it, a rubber ball squashes
and stretches as it hits the ground, and human skin bends as the elbow
rotates. To achieve these kinds of effects in Maya, surfaces have to
be able to have their shape animated. This means animating the
positions of control points instead of simply translating and rotating
the whole object. A face with no
deformations.
Types of Deformation
In Maya, there are a number of ways to change or deform the shape
of an object. These deformers can be used to help you model surfaces
or animate organic forms. While there are a set of tools in Maya called
deformers, there are other tools that change the shape of objects. By
becoming familiar with all of these techniques, you can best decide
which one can be used in your work.
The same face after using
surface deformation to
reshape the nose, add
smile, round out the cheeks,
widen the chin, and make
folds for eyelids.
Deformers
Maya has a category of tools called deformers that either
perform a specific type of surface deformation such as
twist or bend or make the process of deforming a surface CV and Vertex Edits
easier in some way. For example, a lattice is a cage-like The most rudimentary method of deforming a curve
manipulator made of a small number of lattice points. or geometry is to select component level control
Each lattice point controls several control points in a points and translate, rotate or scale them. This is
specified region of the surface. Moving one lattice point useful when you need to move a surface point to a
can affect many control points on the surface that would specific location.
be difficult to select and move individually.
Deforming Objects

Simulated Deformations Skeleton Chains

Maya has features for simulating properties of cloth- A skeleton chain consists of joint nodes that are
ing and soft, dynamic moving materials like curtains, connected visually by bone icons. Skeleton chains
flames and flags. A soft body is a geometry object are a continuous hierarchy of joint nodes that are
whose control points are controlled by particles and parented to each other. You can group or bind
dynamic fields such as turbulence and gravity. geometry (skin) to these joint hierarchies. You
can then animate the joints (usually by rotating
them) and the geometry will be animated. Binding
geometry to a skeleton causes the geometry to be
deformations

deformed as the skeleton is animated. For example,

you could rotate a neck joint and the geometry
around the neck joint would rotate as well.

52
 THE ART OF MAYA

Deformer Sets
When a deformer is created, certain control points of
the surface will be affected by it. The control points
that are affected by a given deformer are said to be
part of that deformer’s membership. Maya keeps
track of which control points are members of which
deformers by using sets. It is possible to add or
remove control points from a deformer’s set member-
ship by selecting Edit Deformers > Edit Membership A non-deformed sphere with its CVs displayed. The same sphere with a lattice deformer applied.
Tool. The top rows of lattice points have been moved up
to deform the sphere.

Alternatively, an explicit list of the

CVs belonging to this set member-
ship can be viewed and edited by
selecting Window > Relationship
Editors > Deformer Sets.

To select the lattice, click on Edit Deformers > A row of CVs is removed from the lattice’s mem-
Edit Membership Tool. This highlights the CVs on bership with the Edit Membership Tool. Now the
the sphere that are affected by the lattice. The yel- deformer has no effect on those CVs.
low CVs are part of the lattice’s membership.
Deformer Order
One of the many powerful and flexible features of deformers is the ability to layer
multiple deformers together. For example, you could apply Bend, Lattice, Blend Shape, Click+drag
to reorder
Skeleton and Cluster deformers on the same object and all will interact to produce the
final deformation. However, the order in which Maya evaluates these deformers does
affect the final shape. Fortunately, you have control over the order in which the deformers
are evaluated.

To access the List of History Operations

window, place the cursor over the object and
use the right mouse button and select Inputs >
All Inputs. This window displays a list of Input
nodes connected to the text object. Click+drag
the middle mouse button on the list of items to
Here, a Squash deformer is added first, then a When the order of deformation is reversed so
the left to change the order Maya evaluates these
Bend deformer. Notice that the how the deforma- that the Bend deformer is evaluated before the
Input nodes.
tion looks. Squash deformer, the result is a different look to
the deformation.

Artisan Sculpt Surfaces Tool

Maya Artisan provides you with a set of brushes to
sculpt detailed organic models, for simple NURBS
surfaces, subdivision surfaces and polygon meshes.
You can push, pull, smooth or erase deformations on
your model and even add a texture map to further
displace it. Select Edit NURBS/Subdiv Surfaces > Sculpt The model after the Sculpt Geometry Tool has
Geometry Tool to use the Artisan Sculpt Surfaces been applied. This second image uses a more
Tool. This is an easy way to paint deformation onto a detailed surface, allowing subtle definition and
surface interactively. wrinkles to be added.

53
 Deformers
L attices, clusters, wires, sculpts and wraps are deformers that can
manipulate a large number of points using simpler objects and,
therefore, offer a mechanism to animate points in a more controlled
and predictable manner. Lattice, cluster, wire, sculpt and wrap
deformers are used in both the modeling and animation process,
with the focus being more heavily on animation. These deformers are
located under the Deform menu and each offers a unique solution for
deforming surfaces.
When any deformer is used as a modeling tool, you can use a
Delete History operation to bake in the deformations. If you are not
satisfied with the resulting deformation, you can simply delete the

T Divisions
deformer and the surface will snap back to its original shape.

Lattice Deformer
A lattice deformer surrounds a deformable object with a cage-like box
that you can manipulate to change the object's shape. Operations such
as translation, rotation or scaling can be applied to the lattice object
or to the components to deform the underlying surface. The lattice can

UD
encompass the entire object or any number of control points. Even a

ivis
lattice can be deformed since it is also a deformable object.

ion
When a lattice is created, there are actually two lattices created:

s
an influence lattice and a base lattice, the latter of which is invisible S Divisions
by default. When the influence lattice is edited, the resulting deformed
surface is generated by calculating differences between the lattice
points of the influence lattice and the base lattice.

Lattice Deformer
You can specify the lattice's structure in terms of
S, T and U divisions. The greater the number of
divisions, the greater the lattice point resolution.

Soft Modification Tool
The Soft Modification Tool lets you push and pull
Deformers

geometry as a sculptor would pull and push on a

Pushing Through a Lattice sculpture. The amount of deformation is greatest at
If you push an object through a lattice, the center of the push/pull, and gradually falls off
you get the cartoon effect of an object
being pushed through a keyhole. farther away from the center.
The Soft Modification Tool is located in the
Toolbox. The corresponding action is Create
Wire Deformer Deformers > Soft Modification.
Wire deformers are like the armatures used by
sculptors to shape objects. With a wire deformer,
you use one or more NURBS curves to change the
shape of objects.
In character setup, wire deformers can be useful
for setting up lip and eyebrow deformations. Wire
deformers can also be useful for shaping objects
during modeling. To create further wrinkling effects,
you can also use the Wrinkle deformer.
deformations

History
Every time you use the Soft Modification Tool, a softMod node is cre-
ated, allowing you to go back to previous nodes and make changes.
These nodes can also be animated just like any other deformers.

54
 THE ART OF MAYA

Flexors Clusters
Flexors are special deformers designed for use with Using clusters solves some fundamental problems for keyframing
rigid skinning. They provide various types of defor- control points. These points can only have their position in space
mation effects that improve and enhance the effects animated because they don’t have a Transform node. Clusters are
provided by rigid skinning. There are three types of deformers that create a set out of any number of control points from
flexors that can be attached to a skeleton: lattice, one or more multiple surfaces and provide them with a Transform node.
sculpt and joint flexors. Once they are applied, the Once a cluster has been created, you have the ability to keyframe its
joint is usually rotated to see the effect of the flexor scale and rotation based on the cluster’s Transform node’s pivot point.
and further adjustments can be made. Set Driven You can also group clusters into a skeleton hierarchy.
Key is an ideal tool to set up a relationship between
the flexor and its affecting joint. Weight of 0.5
Cluster icon

Weight of 1.0

Six CVs around the top eyelid are clustered and

weighted. The pivot point for the cluster is then placed
at the center of the eye so the surface deforms around
Cluster rotation pivot the eyeball. Without a cluster and pivot point, the
eyelid would move straight through the eyeball.
Wrap Deformer
The function of a Wrap deformer is similar to that of After creating a cluster, you can assign a percentage to the CVs to
a lattice deformer, with some slight differences. The control the amount the points will move via the Edit Deformers > Paint
most obvious being that a Wrap deformer can be Cluster Weights Tool. For example, if a control point is weighted 1.0, it
made from a NURBS or polygon mesh and be any will move 100 percent of the transformation. A value of 0.5 will only
shape. Just like the lattice, the wrap also creates a transform 50 percent. The top row of CVs for the eyelid are weighted
base shape and any difference in position, orienta- 0.5 and the bottom 1.0. This allows for nicer tucking when the eye is
tion or shape between the base shape and the wrap open. Otherwise, the top of the eyelid would recess too far into the
influence object results in a deformation of the head with a value of 1.0.
surface. This technique uses an influence object with
fewer points than the object you are deforming. The
primary visibility is turned off for the wrap deformer,
so it does not render.

Polygon mesh used as Wrap

deformer
The above left image shows how a cluster was
created with the weighting at the default value of
1.0. The adjacent image shows the same cluster,
but with the CVs weighted in a tapering effect.
The selected CVs are shown in the Component
Editor with their assigned weight.

Flow Path Object Sculpt Deformer

The Flow Path Object function creates a lattice around Sculpt deformers are useful for creating any kind of rounded deforma-
the object that has been animated on a motion path. tion effect. For example, in setting a character for animation, you could
This technique allows the object to deform to the use sculpt deformers to control a character's cheeks or to bulge a bicep.
shape of the curve. There are two options: around the When you create a Sculpt deformer, select components to only affect
object or around the path curve. They both achieve the that region of the model.
same look unless you decide to add deformations to
the lattice.

The Sculpt Tool can be very useful for simple

bulging effects, but it also allows for much more
complex deformations. For example, you can use
a NURBS surface that deforms to create a more
organic feel, or you could use a texture map where
you can paint the deformer influence.

55
Character Animation
One of the most challenging and rewarding forms of computer graphics is

character animation. Here, 3D artists combine the transformation of a digital skeleton

with the deformation of a skinned surface to set up a character that walks, talks and

moves around in 3D space.

Of course, a character doesn’t have to be a human or an animal. Any object that

is animated with expression and tries to speak to the audience through its actions is

considered a character. In fact, the same techniques used to animate a dog might be

used to animate a dancing bottle, a tiger or a tree.

Autodesk Maya allows you to combine all the controls found on different parts

of a character into one or more character sets. This makes it easier to pose characters

and work with them in the Maya non-linear Trax animation system. These techniques
 3D Characters
A 3D character is a digital actor. Whether your character is a tin can that bounces with
personality, or a photorealistic human being, the animator will need to control it
easily and interactively. The specific requirements of the character's motion will dictate the
complexity of the character's controls. Maya offers many tools for the creation of these
digital performers.

A Typical Character
The character’s mechanics must be convincing to an audience and the skin and clothing
must also move and bend properly. Maya includes a number of tools that help you
manage the parts that make up a typical character. This process of preparing character
controls is called rigging and is used to let the animator focus on the process of animating.
A fully rigged character can be quite complex as it brings together skeleton joints, surfaces,
deformers, expressions, Set Driven Key, constraints, IK, BlendShapes, etc.

Skeleton Joints Facial Animation

Joints are used to create a framework for a To animate facial features, you can use deformers
character’s hierarchy. The rotation of the skeleton such as BlendShape to create facial poses that can
joints defines the motion of the character. You can be used for talking and for showing emotion.
use inverse kinematics for even more control.

Character Controls Kinematics

Using animation techniques such as Set Driven To control your skeleton joints, you can choose
Key and expressions, you can set up attributes from forward or inverse kinematics. Forward
for controlling different parts of a character. kinematics allows you to set the joint rotations
For example, a hand joint could have attributes directly. IK allows you to position IK handles,
used to control the different finger joints. which rotates the joints.

Constraints Bound Surfaces

It is possible to constrain the kinematic controls of Surfaces of a character’s skin and clothing can
a skeleton to objects in your scene or even simple be either parented or bound to the skeleton
3D Characters

locators. You can then animate the constraint joints to make them move together. Binding
weights to make a character pick something up or places points from a surface into clusters that
grab hold of a fixed object. are then associated with particular joints.

Selection Handles Deformers

Selection handles give you quick access to parts To help the surfaces bend realistically at joints,
of a character’s hierarchy that are to be animated. deformers such as flexors and influence objects
This makes it easier to work with a character after can be used.
it has been rigged up for animation.

Character Resolution
A fully rigged 3D character includes many bound
surfaces and deformers that can slow down the
character animation

interactive manipulation and playback of the scene.

Therefore, a low resolution character that has
surfaces parented to the skeleton makes it possible
to work interactively while animating. You can then
switch to the fully rigged character for rendering. A
low resolution version of a character also makes it
possible to begin animating before the entire
character is fully developed. As you animate, you can use low resolution surfaces parented to your
skeleton to achieve more interactivity while animating.

58
 THE ART OF MAYA

A Typical Character Animation Workflow Motion Capture

The development and animation of a 3D character involves a As an alternative to setting keys, you can use motion
number of steps. Once you have a design, you must begin to build capture to simulate real-life motion on a character.
the character’s model, lay down skeleton joints and rig the skeleton Generally, motion capture involves recording joint
so that it is capable of an appropriate range of motion. Character positions and rotations from an actor that are then
controls can also be set up to assist the animation process. applied to a skeleton. Motion capture works well with
While it is possible to work in a linear fashion, starting with non-linear animation where motion capture clips can
modeling and ending with rendering, most productions require be blended together.
some form of concurrent work to be done. An animator might need Note that you can import mocap data from
to begin laying down motion while the model is still being finished. Autodesk® MotionBuilderTM software via the
At the same time, character deformations and texture maps may FBX® file format.
each be assigned to different parts of a team. For this reason, you
may use your low resolution character to begin animating and

© 2000, Image courtesy of Ascension Technology Corp.

blocking out scenes while the higher resolution character is refined
and set up for deformations and rendering.

Motion capture offers realistic motion performances that can be

imported as animation curves and applied to digital characters.
Binding Skeleton
Modeling The surfaces are bound to the
Using the sketches, a detailed skeleton and joint rotations
Character Design model is built with an awareness of tested. Deformers are used
In support of the story, the how it will be bound to the skeleton to enhance the final look.
character is designed using later.
sketches, storyboards and Rendering
in some cases, clay models. The character is rendered in its final
These visual aids give the 3D setting. You might also render the
artist a clear understanding character on its own, then use a
of the character and the compositing package to integrate
character’s range of motion it with
and emotion. Integration
the background.
The animation from the low
resolution character is applied
Animation to a fully rigged skeleton with
Skeleton Rigging A fully rigged model that uses bound surfaces and deformers.
Using sketches or the model low resolution surfaces parented
as a guide, joints are drawn to the skeleton can be used for
and kinematics and character initial animation studies.
controls are set up.

Character Sets Character Sets

On a typical character, you will have This set is the root of a character
setup. You can have attributes
many attributes on many different assigned to the character or you can
nodes that need to be keyed. A assign sub-characters to it. If you
character set allows you to collect select this set and set keys, you also
key the sub-characters.
those attributes in one place and build
up a character definition. When this Sub-Character Sets
character is highlighted in the These sets help break down a
character into smaller parts in case
pop-up Character menu, that character set is active whether or not it is you want to focus on one area. These
selected. This feature makes it possible to easily set and edit keys for sets can be set up to control specific
that character since it is always active. Character sets are also necessary body parts such as arms, legs and
facial features.
to animate using non-linear animation through the Trax Editor since Trax
clips can only be created for a character set. Keyable Attributes
Select Character > Create Character Set to start a character, then For each character and sub-charac-
ter set, you can choose which key-
select Character > Set Current Character Set > Character Set Editor to able attributes need to be brought
add and subtract attributes from the set. The Character menu found near together to effectively animate the
the Time Slider can also be used to highlight a character. different parts of the character.

59
 Animating Characters
T o animate a character, you must deal with a large number of attri-
butes that are scattered around the many joints, IK handles and
Transform nodes that make up the character. A number of tools can
help you consolidate these attributes and make it easier to set keys on
your character.

Character Sets
Character Sets offer you high-level control over your character. These
sets let you collect attributes from different parts of a Character and
edit and set keys on them in a single place. Keys set on Character Sets
are transferred to the associated attributes.
Character Sets are given special treatment when they are high-
lighted on the Character menu. A highlighted character is keyed by Sub-characters
the Set Key Tool (S key), even if its parts are not selected in the work- Sub-characters can be created for different parts
of a character to give you more control. These
space. Highlighted characters also show up in the Graph Editor without breakdowns should mimic areas that you want to
having to be selected. animate as a group.

Character Set
This is essentially the root set of a character. It
may not contain any attributes if you are using
it with Sub-character sets. Select Character >
Create Character to create one of these sets.

Sub-Character Set
A Sub-character set is a
typical character set that has
been assigned to a character.
Select Character > Create
Sub-character to create one
Animating Characters

of these sets. It will be assigned

to the highlighted character.

Attributes
Some attributes will be part of a character or Relationship Editor
sub-character when they are created. To add more If you select Character > Set Current Character
attributes, you can highlight them in the Channel Character Pop-up Menu Set > Character Set Editor or Character Set
Box, then select Character > Add to Character This pop-up menu found next to the timeline in the Editor from the Range Slider toolbar, you open the
Set. You can also use the Relationship Editor to lower right of the workspace lets you quickly select Relationship Editor. Highlight a Character Set on the
add attributes to characters. and edit characters and sub-characters. The char- left, then click on attributes on the right to add them
acter set highlighted here is the active character. to the Character Sets.
character animation

Non-linear Animation Character Mapper

To animate using non-linear animation, you must have character sets set up. Use the Character Mapper to establish a relationship
Only character and sub-character sets will be recognized when you create clips between a source character's nodes or attributes and
and poses and place them into the Trax Editor. its target. Then you can import and export or copy
and paste, animation clips between the mapped
characters in the Trax Editor.

60
 THE ART OF MAYA

Constraints
Constraints allow you to control a
character using other objects (such
as locators). Constraints let you
control parts of a character like the
position of IK handles with a point
constraint or the rotation of joints
with an orient constraint.
The advantage of constraints
is that they are flexible. If an arm
or leg cannot reach its constraint,
it pulls away from the constraint
gently, rather than being abruptly Arm Eyes Elbows and Knees
stopped. When you see this A character’s hands can be constrained Aim constraints can be used to control a A pole vector constraint can be used to
using point and orient constraints. You character’s eyes. These would be parented control the positioning of elbows and knees.
pulling, you can quickly adjust may want to parent these to the shoulders to the head but could still be moved on These locators help orient the IK handle’s
other constraints to minimize the so they move with the body. If you have their own to offset the gaze. It is a good pole vector, which helps prevent the IK solu-
pulling of the first constraint. any finger attributes, you may want to idea to use a different locator for each eye tion from flipping. Pole vector constraints can
use the locator as a Control node. to avoid having a cross-eyed look. also be parented to parts of the body.

Animated Constraint Weights Control Nodes

It is possible to add more than one constraint to an object. Each of In some cases, you will not want to add every
these constraints is given a weight, and the object will be constrained attribute to a character. Instead, you will want
based on the average of the constraints’ weights. Therefore, you can specific Control nodes that have custom attributes
animate an object that switches from one constraint to another by linked using reactive animation techniques (such as
keying the weights from 0 to 1. If you are animating the weights, make Set Driven Key or direct connections),
sure you don’t set all the weights to 0. This would create a confusing to other attributes in the scene. This creates an
situation for your object when working interactively. intermediate level of control that lets you focus on
handlebar fewer attributes, while maintaining control over
seat constraint constraints many attributes.
hand constraints

pelvis constraint
feet constraints
running board constraints

Step 1: Character Constraints Step 2: Scooter Constraints

The character’s pelvis, arms and legs are constrained The arm locators are parented to the handle-bars
to locators. The arm locators are parented to the so they rotate with the steering mechanism. The
shoulder so they move with the body, while the leg and leg locators are parented to the running board and
pelvis locators are in world space. This lets you move the pelvis locator to the seat. When the scooter
the character freely without it being locked down. moves, the character constraints will also move.

Step 3: Key Initial Weighting Step 4: Key Final Weighting Control Nodes and Manipulators
While the character walks freely, the character con- As the character sits on the scooter, the character’s Dynamic or custom attributes can be added to specific nodes to
straints are keyed at 1 and the scooter constraints constraint weights are keyed at 0 and the scooter let you animate several other joints or attributes using one control.
are keyed at 0. This puts the character constraints constraint weights are keyed at 1. Now you can Some custom attributes could roll a finger while others could control
in control until the character sits down. You will animate the scooter and the character will follow. an eye’s pupil dilation. These attributes would later be included in a
want to add the Constraint node’s weight attributes You might want to animate the scooter constraint character set for automatic keyframing.
to a Character node to make sure they are keyed weight for the pelvis to move up and down as the
with the character. scooter goes over bumps.

61
Materials and Textures
While geometry describes the shape of an object, its material describes

how its surface will appear when rendered. In the real world, when light

hits a surface, it reacts to the surface qualities. Some of the light is absorbed

and some is reflected. A shiny object reflects light directly, while a matte

object diffuses the light. While reflected light does not actually illuminate

surfaces in Autodesk Maya, materials and textures can be set up to simulate

the real-world reaction of surfaces to light.

To create realistic images, material qualities such as color, specularity,

reflectivity, transparency and surface detail must all be set. Maya uses

special connected nodes called Shading Networks to set up the material

qualities of your surfaces.

Textures let 3D artists create more complex looks for their surfaces.

A texture can be a set of procedures set up in Maya or a bitmap image

 Shading Your Models
W hile geometry defines the shape of a model, shading defines how
the model’s surfaces react to light and details such as color, trans-
parency and texture.
Maya uses Shading group nodes to tell the renderer which mate-
rials, textures and lights will affect the final look of a surface. Shading
networks are made up of nodes that define the final look of a rendered
surface. Learning the proper role of each of these nodes will ensure
that you build shading networks that render successfully.

Material Qualities
Before actually looking at a more complex shading network, it is
useful to consider the various material qualities that you will be trying
to achieve. A basic understanding of how an object is shaded can be The geometry shown as a wireframe becomes more
translated into attributes on shading network nodes in Maya. realistic with the addition of shading networks that
add color and texture.

Basic Shading Highlights and Reflections

Shading shows you how the surface appears As a surface becomes shinier, it begins to show highlights and reflections.
when illuminated. As light hits a surface, it defines Specular highlights show the hotspots where the light sources are reflected,
a gradation from light to dark that makes the while reflections simulate light bounced from surrounding objects.
surface’s 3D qualities apparent.
Specular
highlights

Reflections
Shading Your Models

Surface Relief
Surface relief, such as bumps and scratches, helps
add a realistic look to a surface. This effect can be
achieved with special textures called bump and
Displacement Maps.

Transparency
It is possible to see through transparent areas, such as
the glass on this jar, while opaque areas, such as the
label, cap and paint, remain solid. Transparent surfaces,
such as glass, can also bend light. This is called refraction
and can be achieved in Maya using Raytracing.

Evaluating Shading Networks

materials and textures

To preview shading networks and texture maps,

set up a camera, then illuminate your objects with
lights and render. Hardware rendering can be used
to quickly preview textures and some lights, while
software rendering is required to explore all
shading situations. More in-depth discussion of
rendering types is found in the Rendering chapter.
Lighting and camera information is found in the Hardware Rendering Software Rendering
Digital Cinematography chapter. It offers a preview of the color of It is capable of rendering all shading
textures and up to eight lights. effects such as bump, specular, shadows
and all lights.

64
 THE ART OF MAYA

The Anatomy of a Shading Network

Shading networks are built as nodes that control specific aspects of the shading
effect. These networks define how various color and texture nodes work with associated
lights and surfaces. The placement of textures on surfaces is also controlled by nodes
within the network.
There are several ways to view shading networks in Maya. The Hypershade
window lets you easily connect nodes and view the connected attributes. You can
also double-click on any node to open the Attribute Editor. Along the way, you
can zoom in and out in the Hypershade window to get the complete picture.
You can also view shading networks in the Hypergraph window but this
view does not give you swatch images.

2D Texture Placement Node File Texture Node

A texture is mapped in 2D space when it is File textures are bitmap Shading Group
mapped to the UV space of the geometry. This images imported into Maya This node is the root of the shading network. It sends information
node is used to define the texture’s positioning that can be used for texture about materials and textures, lighting and geometry to the renderer.
and orientation within the UV space. mapping attributes such as In most cases, you will not have to work directly with the Shading
color, bump or transparency. group node because the Material node is where you will make most
of your texture connections.

3D Texture Placement Node

This node lets you define a position in 3D space
for your texture and makes it easier to texture
multiple surfaces as if they were one. The icon in
the modeling views can be used to interactively Material Node
establish the texture’s position in world space. Material nodes define
how the surfaces will
react to light. The term
shader is often used to
describe the role played
by the Material node.
Environment Texture Node In general, this node
An environment texture is used to simulate will be the focus of
reflections on the surface. This node might be your work as you build
shared among several shaders and have an up all of your shading
effect on many surfaces. networks.

Shading Network Connections

Shading network nodes have input and output attributes. Texture mapping involves making
connections between these Input and Output attributes. One way to connect them is to
drag one node onto another in the Hypershade window. You are then offered a list of
input attributes to map to. In this case, the Output attribute is a default attribute, such as
outColor. For more complex mapping, the Connection Editor allows you to select input and
output attributes directly.

When a texture node is dragged onto

a Material node, you are given a pop- Placing the cursor over the line that connects two nodes
up menu of possible input attributes. gives you information about the connected input and
This makes it easy to connect two nodes together. output attributes. You can use this information for The Connection Editor can be used when the desired
You can also drag nodes directly onto attribute names in future reference. To break the connection, select this line attribute is not available in the pop-up menu, or when
the Attribute Editor to connect them. and delete it. you want to make a special connection, such as the
Out Color R of the one node to the Diffuse of another.

65
 Surface Materials
M aterials in the real world react to light by absorbing or reflecting it.
Polished surfaces are shiny because they reflect light with strong highlights,
while rough surfaces have a softer look because they disperse light. A Material
node is a mathematical shading model that simulates a natural reaction to light.
The Material node contains a number of attributes that let you control how
surfaces are shaded. Maya includes several material types, such as Phong, Blinn
and Lambert, that each define a different shading model. The Material node acts
as a focal point for shading and texturing information. It is then fed into the
Shading group node where it is combined with information about lights and the
geometry to be rendered.

Material Qualities
The behavior of light when it strikes a surface in real life is quite complex.
Surface imperfections can distort the angle at which light rays are reflected,
causing them to scatter, become trapped, or be absorbed. This type of scattered
reflected light appears soft and even and is known as diffuse light. Very smooth The Material nodes have attributes in
surfaces have little or no surface imperfections, so light is not absorbed and two main sections. Common Material
reflected light is more coherent or focused. When this light reaches our eyes, we Attributes are found on most Material
nodes, while the Specular Shading
see bright specular highlights. These real world behaviors are simulated in Maya Attributes change, depending on the
with the Diffuse and Specular attributes. chosen material type.

Ambient Color Specular Highlights

This attribute creates the effect of Specular shading attributes determine the amount
even illumination, without requiring of light that is reflected at a consistent angle,
a light source. In this image, the resulting in an intensely bright region called a
Ambient color has RGB values of specular highlight. Perfectly smooth surfaces will
0.25, 0.25, 0.25 on all objects. have very bright, tiny highlights because there are
no surface imperfections to distort the reflection
angle. Rougher surfaces like brushed metals will
Diffuse have a softer highlight.
Diffuse determines how much
light is absorbed and how much
Surface Materials

is scattered in all directions by Combined Effect

surface imperfections. Rougher In real life, the proportions of the specular and diffuse
surfaces tend to have higher components of the total reflected light will vary,
Diffuse values while smooth or depending on the characteristics of the surface.
mirror-like surfaces have Diffuse
values that approach 0. Bump
This attribute lets you add
surface relief by using a texture
Color map to alter the direction of the
Color is made up of red, green surface Normals.
and blue attributes. The color of
light and reflections will influence
this base color.
Reflectivity
This attribute controls the amount a surface
Transparency reflects its environment. This environment could
White is transparent, black is be a 3D texture map connected to the material’s
opaque and other values are semi- Reflected Color, or actual Raytraced reflections of
transparent. You can also use a objects in the scene.
texture map to create the
materials and textures

appearance of holes in a surface.

Reflected Color
Incandescence This attribute can be texture mapped to
This attribute can be used to make a surface appear to emit light. define a reflected environment without
The Incandescence attribute is not actually emitting light and has relying on Raytraced reflections. These
no effect on other surfaces. texture maps are positioned in world
space and can be assigned to various
materials to make sure the scene’s
Glow reflections are consistent.
This attribute, found in the Special Effects section of the Material
node, can be used to add the appearance of atmospheric noise
to a surface.

66
 THE ART OF MAYA

Material and Shader types

Several different material and shader types offer you distinct shading
characteristics. The main difference between materials is how they
handle specular highlights when rendered. Shaders are specialized
materials that render differently and specifically for some objects.
Below are six of the most commonly used material types and
five specialized shaders. Various attributes such as color, bump and Materials and shaders can After creating a Material node, you
specularity can be mapped with textures and will affect the appearance be dragged from the Create can change the material type quickly
section of the Hypershade, where using the pop-up menu in the Attribute
of the final render. you can assign them and make Editor. This will change the types of
texture connections. attributes available for shading.

Lambert Material Phong Material PhongE Material

This material type is the most basic This material adds a sharp specular This material type adds a
and does not include any attributes for highlight to the Lambert material. different kind of specular high-
specularity. This makes it perfect for The size and intensity of the high- light to the Lambert. The PhongE
matte surfaces that do not reflect the lights are controlled by the Cosine material includes attributes such
surrounding environment. The Lambert Power attribute. This material can as Roughness that controls
material type can be transparent and will also have reflections from either the softness of the highlight,
refract in a Raytrace rendering, but with- an environment map or Raytraced Whiteness that controls its
out any specularity, it won’t reflect. reflections. The Phong material is intensity and Highlight Size.
good for plastics.
Blinn Material
Many artists use this material type Anisotropic Material Shading Map Material
exclusively because it offers high-quality This material type simulates This material type allows you
specular highlights using attributes such surfaces which have micro-facet to create custom shading on
as Eccentricity and Specular Roll Off. grooves and the specular highlight surfaces. A ramp texture controls
This material type can be edited to look tends to be perpendicular to the the positioning and color of the
like a Phong material, which has sharper direction of the grooves. Materials shading and highlights on the
highlights, in cases where you need such as hair, satin and CDs all have surface. If you want to emphasize
better anti-aliasing of highlights during anisotropic highlights. the dark areas, simply darken the Ramp
an animation. This material is good for lower end of the ramp. texture
glass and metals.

Ramp Shader Ocean Shader Hair Tube Shader

This shader gives you extra control The Ocean shader is a specialized Hair tube shader simulates a thin
over the way color changes with light shader with attributes defining tube, where the width of the tube
and the view angle. You can simulate realistic waves on large bodies of is small enough that local shading
a variety of exotic materials and water. It is usually used through the effects can be ignored. All shading
tweak traditional shading in subtle Fluid Effects > Ocean > Create derives from the view and the tube
ways. All the color-related attributes Ocean command, which auto- direction. Because the highlights
in the Ramp Shader are controlled matically creates nodes required to are spread across the entire tube
by ramps. render an ocean. width, rendering fine hairs does not
require as high anti-aliasing levels.
Layered Shader
A Layered shader allows you to combine two or more Material nodes Use Background Shader
that each have their own qualities. Each material can be designed The Use Background material is primarily meant
separately, then connected to the Layered shader. The top layer’s for combining CG and live-action components. The
transparency can be adjusted or mapped to reveal parts of the material is assigned to stand-in geometry that repre-
layer below. sents surfaces and objects in the live-action plate.
Layered shaders render more slowly than other materials. Instead The material then catches shadows and reflections
of using a Layered shader, it may be better to set up a regular Material from objects in the scene. Many of the diagrams in
node that uses a Layered Texture node mapped to Color. Specular and this book have been rendered with a white back-
Diffuse maps can create the appearance of variations in the material ground and a Use Background material assigned to a
qualities of the surface. plane to catch shadows.

Tin material
(top layer) Transparency map
( top layer ) Reflection catchers Shadow catchers
Rust material Layered shader To create convincing results, you must set up your lighting and position your
(bottom layer) camera to match the background image to your model. While compositing, you
White areas of the map are completely transparent, while black areas are opaque. Shown above are would remove the image plane and render with a black background. The Use
the two materials and a map that would result in the layered shader. Background shadows are available in the rendered mask channel.

67
Digital Cinematography
When preparing a digital scene, lights and cameras play a very important

role. Both lights and cameras make it possible to view objects in a realistic

context. Artistically, they both allow 3D artists to control the look of their

animation with the same creative control as a live-action cinematographer.

In some ways, the most difficult aspect of using lights and cameras

in Maya is that the possibilities are endless. It is very easy to fly a

camera around without a clear sense of purpose or add too many lights

to a scene. The question is whether or not the creative decisions support

the story being told. Therefore, it is a good idea to consider how live-

action movies make use of camera moves and lighting.

 How Light Works
L ight affects the way in which we see the world around us. Light
defines the shape and form of objects and spaces, while at the same
time, it works on an emotional level by setting mood and atmosphere.
Learning to control light is an important 3D skill.
Cinematographers use light to illuminate the objects in the scene,
in order to support the scene’s emotional context. The quality of light in
a digital shot is equally important, although the rules are different.

Real World vs. Digital Cinematography

In the real world, light bounces. Light starts from a light source, such as
the sun or a lamp, and is either bounced or absorbed by all surfaces.
An object appears red because the green and blue light is absorbed
while the red light is reflected. A cinematographer sets up lights, then
measures the light levels, which include both direct and indirect light.
This information is used to adjust the exposure settings of the camera.
In Maya, surfaces are illuminated directly by lights. There is no Creating Lights
bounced light coming from other surfaces. This is because CG lighting Lights can be created using either the
Create > Lights menu or using the
doesn’t bounce. Here, film isn’t exposed to light and camera controls swatches in the Hypershade. Light
don’t need to be adjusted. Instead, light levels are controlled using the attributes can be edited using the
intensity settings of the lights themselves. light’s shape node.

In the Real World On the Computer

The film’s exposure to light is The scene’s lighting is directly
controlled by the camera. C C
controlled by the lights.

1 Light is emitted from a source 1 A The renderer samples a point on

with a controllable intensity. a surface from the camera’s point
Direct light is hard, while light of view.
bounced from other surfaces B
is softer. B A list of associated lights is taken
2 from the surface’s shading group
2 Light levels are measured using and used to determine which lights
How Light Works

a light meter to determine the should be used in the shot.

proper exposure settings for
the camera. C The light’s attributes, such as
intensity, color and decay, are used
3 Camera controls such as F- 3 to calculate the illumination on the
Stop, shutter angle, exposure surface.
time and film speed are set
to control how much light is
exposed to the film. To simulate a bounced light in Maya, you
would need to use a secondary light such
as an area light or an ambient light.
Eye Point

Positioning Lights Look at

Cycle Index
Point
Lights can be positioned using the Show Manipulator Tool. Each light
is displayed with an eye point that defines the position of the light
digital cinematography

source and a look at point that defines where the camera is pointing.
Adjusting these points sets the translation and rotation values on the
light’s Transform node.
The line between the eye and look at points defines the light’s
direction. Spot, Area and Directional lights must have their directions
set to work properly, while Ambient and point lights only require an eye
point position.
You can also position a light by selecting the light, then choosing
Panels > Look Through Selected. This lets you use the Alt key to dolly and
pan the view as if it were a camera. This method often makes it
more intuitive to position the light and its look at point.
Looking through a spot light.

70
 THE ART OF MAYA

Light Types Light Nodes

Maya has several light types, each of which When a light is created, it is built
illuminates a scene differently. A typical scene with two nodes. The Transform
combines a number of different light types. You can node holds all the information
switch between light types in the Attribute Editor. about the light’s position and
orientation. For most light types, scaling a light will not change its
shape, or the effect of its illumination, but it will allow you to change
the size of the light icon to make it more visible in the workspace.
Spot The one exception is with area lights, as their intensity is affected by
Spot lights emit light that radiates scaling. The Shape node holds all the information about the light’s illu-
from a point within a limited cone mination. Some of the spot light attributes can be edited when using
angle. You can use this cone angle
to limit the area receiving light. the Show Manipulator Tool by clicking on the Cycle Index icon. Each
click allows access to different manipulators that control attributes such
as Cone Angle or Penumbra Angle.

Spot Light Attributes

Directional The spot light’s Shape node
Directional lights use parallel rays of contains attributes that control how
light to illuminate a scene. Shading is the light will illuminate the scene.
very uniform without any hotspots.
These rays are similar to the light of Since the spot light contains the
the sun, which hits the earth with most attributes, it is used as the
parallel rays. example here. The other light types
contain a subset of the Spot
Light Attributes.
Point
Point lights emit light in all
directions, radiating from a single Intensity Decay Cone Angle
point. This creates an effect similar This attribute determines how much This attribute determines how This attribute determines
to a light bulb. This light creates light is emitted from the light source. much the light intensity diminishes the width of the spot
subtle shading effects with definite As you increase the Decay and as the light gets further from its light’s cone of influence.
hot spots. Dropoff values, you need a more source. Therefore, if you choose to The areas outside the cone
intense light. use Decay, you need to increase are not illuminated.
the Intensity.

Area Color Penumbra Angle

Area lights emit light using a two- You can set RGB values for the light This attribute creates an
dimensional area. The area light’s being emitted. This will have an area at the edge of the spot
icon can be used to help define the influence on the color of your scene. light where the light fades.
light’s direction and intensity. A larger A larger value here creates
area light has a stronger intensity. a soft look for the light.
Hotspot
The point where the light is most intense is
referred to as the hotspot. You also know
it as a specular highlight. The look of the
highlight is a result of the intensity of the
light and the shading qualities of the
Ambient surface’s Material node.
Ambient lights emit light
uniformly in all directions. The Dropoff
Ambient Shade attribute adds This attribute determines how
positional behavior. Bump maps much the light intensity dimin-
are not visible with ambient ishes as it gets to the outer
light alone. edge of the light. This puts
more emphasis on the
light’s hotspot.

Volume
Volume lights emit light in all
directions for a finite distance
based on a 3D geometric shape.
The light shape can be a box, a
sphere, a cylinder or a cone.

71
 Casting Shadows
O ne of the most dramatic aspects of lighting occurs in areas of no
light. Shadows add drama to your scene while helping to anchor
characters and props to the ground. If your character leaps into the air,
you know what is happening because the shadow and character no
longer touch each other.
In Maya, there are many factors that affect the look and quality of
your shadows. You can choose from Depth Map and Raytraced shadows
which offer different levels of quality and rendering speed. Sometimes
light attributes, such as Cone Angle, will affect your shadows and must
be taken into account. The more you know about how shadows are cast,
the easier it will be to adjust the appropriate attributes.

Depth Map Shadows

Depth Map shadows are the more efficient of the two shadow types. A
Depth Map shadow can be created by setting Use Depth Map Shadows
to On in the light’s Attribute Editor.
Depth Map shadows work by recording the Z-depth information With and Without Shadows
from the light’s point of view, then using this information to evaluate Here are two shots of a scene. The first does not
use shadows and the second one does. You can see
whether or not a point in your scene is in shadow. The diagram below how the scooter in the second image is much more
shows how a spot light evaluates Depth Map information to generate grounded, and it is easier to read the scene’s depth.
shadows. You can see that the Depth Map is generated from the light’s While shadows do require extra work when you set
up a scene, they are well worth the effort.
point of view.

Step 1 Step 3
When rendering starts, a Depth Map is created that This measurement is then compared to the depth
measures how far the various objects are from the information stored in the Depth Map. If the point’s
light. White is used to show surface points closest distance is greater than the distance stored in the
to the light, while the various shades of gray show Depth Map, the point is in shadow.
a greater distance from the light.
Step 4
Casting Shadows

If the point is in shadow, the light’s illumination

does not contribute to the shading.

Note: Another light, such as an ambient light, may

illuminate parts of the scene where the spot light
does not. That is why you can see the wood texture
underneath the chair in this image.

Stored Depth Map Value

digital cinematography

Step 2
When a point on a surface is being
shaded during the rendering process,
the distance is measured between the
point and the light source.

72
 THE ART OF MAYA

Raytraced Shadows Depth Map Default Depth Map Soft

732 x 450 pixels 732 x 450 pixels
To calculate Raytraced shadows, Maya sends a ray Render Time - 1x Render Time - 1.05x

from the camera and when this ray hits a surface, it

spawns another ray toward the light. This shadow
ray reports whether or not it hits any shadow-
casting objects on its way to the light. If it does hit a
shadow-casting object, then the original surface is
in shadow.
Raytraced shadows have the disadvantage of
Raytrace Soft
Raytrace Default
being slower to render than Depth Map shadows. 732 x 450 pixels
732 x 450 pixels
Render Time - 11.87x
However, depending on the look you are interested Render Time - 1.38x

in, there are several reasons why you would use

Raytraced shadows in your scene. These include
transparent shadows, colored transparent shadows
and shadow attenuation.
If you want Raytraced shadows, but not
reflections and refractions, then set Reflections and
Refractions to 0 in the Render Quality section of the Default Renderings Soft Shadows
Render Settings. Using the default settings built into a spot light, By tweaking the Depth Map shadows attributes
the Raytrace rendering offers a sharper shadow you can see much better results. Using Light
than the Depth Map shadows. Rendering time is Radius and Shadow Rays to soften the Raytraced
longer for the Raytraced scooter. shadows, you can see how the rendering took even
Transparent Shadows longer.
When casting shadows from transparent objects,
Depth Map shadows do not take into account the Shadow Attenuation
transparent qualities of a surface, while Raytraced By default, Raytraced shadows look more accurate and crisp than Depth
shadows do. This may be a deciding factor when it Map shadows. This can result in an undesirable computer-generated
comes to choosing which technique you will use to look in most cases. To avoid this, the shadows can be softened using a
cast shadows. combination of a non-zero Light Radius and Shadow Rays greater than
1. These controls are found in the Raytrace Shadow Attributes section
of the light's Attribute Editor.
The biggest difference between a Raytraced soft shadow and a
Depth Map shadow is that a Depth Map shadow is evenly soft around
its edges. By contrast, a Raytraced shadow will dissipate or attenuate
with distance from the shadow-casting object. This can be slow to
Depth Map Shadows Raytraced Shadows render but is often used to create beautiful looking shadows in
When a Depth Map is generated at Raytraced shadows are computed still renderings.
the start of a render, it does not take during the rendering process.
transparency into account. For this Therefore, the transparency of the
reason, the shadow generated by a object is taken into account. As a
Depth Map will appear solid. result, Raytraced shadows clearly
represent the details of a transparent
or transparency mapped object.

Colored Transparent Shadows

Another feature of Raytraced shadows is that you can
create colored transparent shadows. For example, in Depth Map Soft Shadows Raytraced Soft Shadows
the real world, when light passes through a stained The light’s Dmap Filter value affects the softness Light Radius and Shadow Rays define the
of a Depth Map shadow. softness of a Raytraced shadow.
glass window, you see the colors transmitted by the
light passing through the window onto the floor. In
Maya, Raytraced shadows will automatically create Shadow Limit
colored shadows when the transparency channel on When working with Raytraced shadows, you should also set the
a material is colored or when it is mapped with a Shadow limit attribute. For example, if you have a shadow-casting
colored texture. object with several transparent surfaces behind it followed by an
opaque surface, you would expect to see a shadow on the opaque
Raytraced Shadows surface. In order to see this shadow, set the Ray Depth Limit on the
The color of the transparency auto- light to a value that is the number of transparent surfaces + 1. Be
matically casts a colored shadow.
sure that the Shadow limit in the Raytracing Quality section of the
Render Settings is not set lower than this value, or you will not see
your shadow.

73
Rendering
A 3D artist’s ultimate goal is to create a sequence of images that can be

synchronized with sound and played back as a movie. The creation of

these images occurs in the renderer where surfaces, materials, lights

and motion

are all taken into account and turned into bitmap images.

The art of rendering involves finding a balance between the visual

complexity needed to tell a story and the rendering speed that deter-

mines

how many frames can be rendered in a given time. Simple models

render quickly and complex models take longer.

 Rendering Scenes
R endering is where all of the work in setting up models, textures, lights, cameras
and effects comes together into a final sequence of images. In very simple terms,
rendering is the creation of pixels that are given different colors in order to form a
complete image. A render involves a large number of complex calculations that can keep
your computer busy for quite a while. The key at this stage in the animation process is to
find a way of getting the best image quality and the fastest render times so that you can
meet your deadlines.
Before exploring the specific details of rendering animation sequences, it is important
to realize that there are two different methods to render images: software and hardware
rendering. More specifically, there are three different software renderers shipping with
Maya. They are Maya software, mental ray and vector.
The software renderers are considerably more complex than hardware rendering
and require a great deal more knowledge and understanding to get the best results. The
renderer is where all of your scene data and settings are handed off to the software and
render calculations are performed that result in final bitmap images. To give you some
insight into what Maya actually does with your scene data during the software render
process, an overview is shown throughout this chapter.

Hardware Rendering
Hardware shading, texturing and lighting use the
computer’s graphics hardware to display objects on
the screen. The Maya hardware renderer presents
a seamlessly integrated rendering solution that
leverages the ever increasing power of next-genera-
tion graphics cards to render frames. It is currently
used primarily to render hardware-type particle
effects and previews, which are later enhanced in a
compositing application. However, this is changing
as the future of rendering lies in this type of Hardware Shading Hardware Renderer
Rendering Scenes

renderer, especially due to the performance advan- You can display hardware shading, The Hardware renderer can produce
texturing and lighting in any view panel broadcast-resolution images in less
tage over the other renderers. using the panel’s Shading menu. time than with software rendering.
Maya also supports CgFX and ASHLI hardware
shaders. To view these shaders, you must have
a qualified graphics card. They also can only be
rendered with the hardware renderer.

Software Rendering
All three software renderers use complex algorithms
to combine elements, such as geometry, cameras
and textures, with the physics of light to create final
bitmap images. Because some aspects of light’s true
behavior would be prohibitively slow to calculate,
most renderers let you employ shortcuts, such as
ambient lights, in place of Global Illumination to
make sure that rendering times support the
production cycle.
Software rendering has the advantage of being
more flexible than hardware rendering. Software
companies can add functionality by changing
algorithms in the code without being restricted by
rendering

the computer’s hardware. Therefore, while software Software Rendering

rendering is not as fast as hardware rendering, You can create a software rendering in the Render view window or by using
Render > Batch Render. The Batch Renderer is always used to render anima-
the added functionality lets you achieve more tion and can also be launched from a Command Line.
sophisticated results.

76
 THE ART OF MAYA

Software Render Process

LEGEND
1. Geometry Filtering
To start the rendering process, Maya determines Main render flow
which objects in the Maya scene file will be
rendered. Any objects that are hidden, templated,
or do not belong to a shading group, will not When Raytracing is on
be rendered.
Triggered when needed

2. Light Depth Maps When in IPR mode

From the point of view of each shadow-casting light,
Maya renders Z-depth files called Depth Maps to
be used later to compute the shadows in the scene.
Two Depth Maps are created because the Use Mid
Dist is turned on by default in the light’s Attribute Tessellation
Editor. Maya uses triangles at render time
to approximate NURBS surfaces,
Subdivision surfaces and displacement
mapped or quadrilateral polygonal
3. Tiling/Primary Visibility objects. This process is called tessella-
By looking at the bounding boxes of the geometry, tion. Tessellation is time-con-
Maya can determine which objects are visible to suming, so the artist sets
the camera and approximately how much memory attributes on a per-object
will be required to render them. Based on these basis to manage the
estimates, the image is divided into rectangular number of triangles
regions called tiles. Each tile is a manageable the renderer will use.
amount of data for the renderer to process at one During the render
time. It is possible to explicitly set the maximum process, tessellation
tile size (in pixels) from a Command Line. is triggered only
when needed.

4. Shading
Maya computes all of the texturing, lighting,
shading Anti-aliasing, 3D motion blur, etc. for the
visible surfaces in each tile.

Deep Raster Generation

When an IPR render is launched, a
temporary file is created and written
to disk in the iprImages directory.
This deep raster file stores the image
itself and all the data required to
allow interactive tuning of shading
and lighting attributes during an
IPR render.
Raytracing
If Raytracing is enabled in the
Render Settings window, any
secondary rays needed for reflec-
5. Post Processing tions, refractions or raytraced shadows
After the frame is rendered, Maya completes the will be computed and will contribute to
final image by creating and automatically compos- the shading process. The hybrid nature
iting any of the post process effects that you have of the rendering architecture ensures
specified. These effects include Depth of Field, 2D that primary rays are not raytraced and
motion blur, Glow, Paint Effects, Fur, etc. only specified objects participate in
Raytracing. This allows for a highly
efficient approach to achieving added
realism in a render.

77
 Render Output
B ased on your post-production requirements, your final rendered
image or sequence of images will need to suit the medium you are
outputting it to. These image properties, such as size, format and frame
padding, are set from the Render Settings Window.

Renderable Camera
The pop-up camera list allows you to
choose which camera will be used
Image Formats in the Batch render. It is possible to
The Image Formats pop-up list allows render from more than one camera in
you to specify the format you need your a Batch render. This Render Settings
rendered frames to be in. The online attribute does not affect which camera
documentation of Maya has a detailed is used while rendering in the Render
description of how each of these for- View window within Maya.
mats handles image, mask and depth
information. The Maya IFF file format
is also documented. Some formats are Render Resolution
only available on certain platforms. The Render Resolution refers to the
dimensions of a rendered frame in
pixels. The list of presets in Maya
allows you to quickly select a resolu-
tion from a list of those commonly
used in the industry.
Render Output

Rendering Animation
An image file name consists of three components when rendering an
animation: file name, frame number extension and file format exten-
sion. A combination of these three components is referred to as the
file name syntax.
The file name is the base name for all images in the animation
sequence. The frame number extension represents the frame in the
Time Slider in which the image is rendered. The file format extension
indicates your chosen file format. You can see these combined as a
preview at the top of the Render Settings window.
You need to tell Maya what frames to render when rendering an
animation. After a Start Frame and an End Frame are specified, Maya
renders all the frames in between by default. However, if you want to
rendering

render every 10th frame for test purposes, you can set the By Frame
attribute to 10. In this case, Maya only renders every 10th frame,
beginning with the Start Frame number.

78
 THE ART OF MAYA

Channels Image Formats

The color channels of a rendered image are made The Maya Render Settings lets you render your
up of red, green and blue (RGB). A mask channel, images in the specific format that you need for your
or alpha channel, stores information about the production pipeline. The default image format is the
coverage and opacity of the objects in your Maya IFF, but you can choose from a list of many
scene. This channel allows you to work with standards used in computer graphics such as
your rendered images in a compositing software color (RGB) TIFF, GIF, JPEG, PSD, etc. Most of the formats
application like Autodesk Combustion or are 8 bits per channel, but Maya also renders
Autodesk Toxik software. 10 bit Cineon and several 16 bit formats which are
A depth channel records the distance from commonly used for film. Human eyes can perceive
the camera to the objects in the scene. This is more colors than 8 bits can represent, so high-
often called Z-depth and you can look at it using resolution formats, such as film, sometimes require
the Z-key in FCheck. mask better color definition to look realistic.
Maya can render an image file that contains Maya also lets you render directly to AVI or
RGB color information, a mask channel, a depth QuickTime movies. While this may be convenient,
channel or any combination of the three. The flags you might also consider rendering in one of the other
in the Render Settings window let you choose formats that creates separate images, so that you
what channels will be rendered. Some image have more flexibility. An application such as Autodesk
formats do not support embedded mask or depth Combustion allows you to create a movie from the
channels; in these cases, Maya generates a sepa- depth images after any adjustments have been made.
rate mask or depth file and puts it in the mask or
depth sub directory of your current project. AVI (.avi)
AVI is the Microsoft Audio Video Interleaved movie
file format. Maya only renders uncompressed AVI
Rendering Fields files as these are the most common for reading into
When an NTSC television displays images, it uses a technique other applications.
called interlace, where electron beams horizontally scan all of the odd-
numbered lines first and then fill in all of the even numbered lines (for QuickTime (.mov)
PAL, even lines are scanned first). Each of these scans is called a field This is the file extension for Apple QuickTime
and they are half a frame apart in time. This means that instead of 30 movie files. Maya only renders out uncompressed
frames per second, you actually see 60 fields per second (50 fields per QuickTime files as these are the most general for
second for PAL) when you watch television. reading into other applications.
Rendering fields in Maya takes advantage of this interlace
technique to achieve smoother motion on video. Instead of rendering
whole frames, Maya renders each frame in two fields where
the odd scan lines are rendered separately from the even
scan lines at half-frame time intervals. The two fields
are automatically put back together to form a whole
image at the end of the frame render. The result
is that the motion of an object in-between
frames is captured in the render. In the final
interlaced image, moving objects will look
ghosted when viewed on your computer
monitor because the monitor shows
you both sets of scan lines at the same
time. However, when the same image
is viewed on a television screen, the
objects will look correct.

Animated scooter rendered as

interlaced fields.

79
Interactive 3D
Through video games, visualization and the world wide web, 3D

computer graphics have moved beyond the movie screen and into our

everyday lives. Today, computer games consist of complex 3D charac-

ters and environments produced under aggressive production sched-

ules. As such, game production has shifted away from the traditional

animation pipeline, adapting new ideas such as game engines and blind

data.

While many of the concepts covered in this book can be used by

game developers to help them in their work, gaming environments

have rules that are required to get graphics to play in the most efficient

manner possible. Therefore, the kinds of models and textures that game

developers can

create are limited.

 Interactive 3D
A Different Workflow
T he rendering of 3D scenes into animated movies
supports a narrative tradition where a story is
told to an audience. The audience plays a passive
Interactive 3D has different rules compared
to film and video. Understanding these rules will
role in relation to the content. In our digital world, help you make the best choices when deciding on
this relationship is changing as audiences begin to such issues as geometry type, texture mapping and
demand more interaction with the content they the animation.
are viewing.
Animation Interactive
The Video Game Generation
Interaction with content is most evident in video
games where the main character is the viewer or
“player” who makes key decisions that shape the
resulting action. Players want to be immersed in
new worlds where they can become the actors and
the decision makers.
The ability to interact in 3D environments Modeling
similar to our own, serves to further enhance Models built for interactive 3D are primarily polygonal models that use
controlled polygon counts to suit the gaming system. Some next-generation
the experience. For this reason, Maya includes a game systems already have support for Bezier geometry, and NURBS and
number of tools designed to help game developers Subdivision surfaces may soon follow.
create these 3D environments and the actors who
inhabit them.

Animation
When playing a game, the player drives the motion of the scene. Therefore,
animation is stored in small sequences that are controlled using the joystick
(the player's control). For character animation, some systems support inverse
kinematics (IK) and some do not.
Interactive 3D

3D on the Web
While interactive 3D is most prevalent in video
games, similar content is beginning to appear
on the web for more mass-market consumption.
E-commerce sites are beginning to use technologies
such as VRML (virtual reality modeling language)
to let customers preview their products in 3D. Effects
Generally, effects are added to video games using 2D sprites that are composited
on the fly. With next-generation systems, there will be support for more complex
dynamics and particle effects. The limits are set by the system itself.
interactive 3d

Rendering
Whereas an animation is rendered to a series of still frames, games use
hardware rendering to present content to the player. Models and textures
must be designed for real-time playback. Lighting and texturing tricks help
attain faster playback.

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 THE ART OF MAYA

A Short History of Gaming

Sprite-based Games Real-Time 3D
Bitmap graphics have been the driving force for video games from Once graphics engines began supporting
the beginning. These bitmaps were created as “sprites” that would the display of polygons to the screen, 3D
be overlayed during game play in reaction to the player’s moves. To became interactive. With the creation of true 3D envi-
preserve playability, the number of colors was limited to suit the power ronments, players could now roam around a game
of the game system. To this day, games are being produced using 24 and discover its secrets. Every year, the systems
bit sprites rendered in programs such as Maya. Sprites are sometimes become stronger and there are fewer restrictions on
used in real-time games to add effects. the games.

1 bit B&W Pixels 8 bit Color Pixels 24 bit Color Pixels Low Polygon 3D Next Generation
~ 1980 – 1990 ~ 1985 – 1994 ~ 1993 – Present ~ 1995 – 2000 ~ 2000 – Future
These games used simple bit- Adding more colors offered richer With a more complex color These games offer the freedom The polygon counts are now
maps to generate the game play. environments, but the limited space, 3D programs could now of motion within a 3D environ- becoming high enough for much
Graphics could be easily created palette meant that the sprites had be used to generate sprites. ment, but models maintained smoother artwork and more
using simple pixel based to be painted by hand. This created richer game- a jagged look because of low stunning visual effects.
paint systems. play environments. polygon counts.

The Rules Are Changing

Setting the Limits In the world of interactive 3D, the term
To make a game truly interactive, the game next-generation is a bit of a moving target.
art must not interfere with the game play. Systems are becoming more powerful, game
Therefore, the speed at which a game can get engines more open and game developers more
polygons and other sprite based graphics to the inventive. Also, systems are beginning to accept
screen is crucial to this interactivity. different geometry types, and hardware rendering
techniques are becoming more realistic.
Hardware As mass market uses of interactive 3D rise,
Games are run on both these techniques will begin to be incorporated into
computers and game more open standards, such as Web3D, which will
consoles. The ability of the help make interactive 3D a more integrated part
hardware to process graphic of how we work and live.
information has a strong impact on the
look of the final game. Hardware rendering
is measured in Polygons Per Second (PPS) and the higher the PPS,
the more complex an interactive 3D scene can be. This PPS rate is
affected by textures, animations and in-game effects, and can lower the
hardware’s total PPS.

Game Engine
The game engine is the software that handles the user’s input,
calculates animation and dynamics, and renders the graphics to the
screen. The game engine is built by the game developer to create
the most sophisticated game experience possible for players. When
designing a game engine, a developer must decide on a production
pipeline that matches the intended hardware platform.

83
 Game Creation
T o create a game environment, a game developer must put together
a wide range of digital content such as 3D characters, levels, motion,
behavior, textures, shaders and lighting. This information is then given
to game programmers, who build it into a real-time game. The coordina-
tion of all these parts is a complex undertaking that requires the game
developer to work with concept artists, modelers, animators, texture
artists, level designers, programmers, writers and musicians, to name a
few. With the ability for near photorealistic output from next-generation
systems (game consoles, graphics hardware and PCs), development
teams have grown from small teams of 5 or so people, to larger teams
of 30 or more.

Gaming Workflow
While a distinct workflow will vary from studio to studio, there is a basic
gaming workflow. This workflow, from design document to concept
art, game art, level building and game programming, is not necessarily
a linear one as all of these activities can happen at the same time.
Because of the number of tasks involved, establishing a workflow at the
beginning of a project can mean the difference between making a dead-
line and missing it.
Game Creation

Design and Planning Game Art

Every game starts with a design document that lays the groundwork for the Starting with the design sketches, 3D characters, props and sets are built using
player’s real time experience. Characters, environments, puzzles and music are techniques defined by the chosen game engine. Texture maps, lighting and
laid out along with detailed design sketches that become the game’s story- other game specific data are also added. Models are built for different levels of
boards. The plan defines the workings of the game, while the sketches define detail since props and characters in the foreground can have more detail than
the look and feel. those in the background.
interactive 3d

Level Building Game Programming

Level building is where the various digital game art pieces are brought together This is where most 3D artists tend to be less involved. The artwork and levels are
to create the gaming environment. This is where many objects will be placed run through a game engine designed for a specific console. Ideally, the game art is
repetitively to make the most efficient use of game memory. The level builder is built in such a way that the programming runs very smoothly.
designed to work intimately with the actual programming of the game.

84
 THE ART OF MAYA

Game Art Level of Detail

All the visual content created for a game, whether it be concept draw- One of the ways to keep frame rates consistent in
ings, 3D assets or levels, can be referred to as game art. The concept a game is to use a technique called Level of Detail
drawings can be used in Maya as a reference to create 3D assets. 3D (LOD). With this technique, multiple versions of a
assets can consist of characters models, or items for use in the game. model created with varying polygon counts are
These 3D assets can also be rendered to create sprites. Levels often use switched depending on their proximity to the camera.
varied amounts of these 3D assets to help create a feeling of realism in When the model is close to the camera, the
the space and for items like weapons or power-ups. higher detailed model will be used. As the object
moves farther away, the higher detail models will be
Environments replaced by lower detail models. Maya will let you
Environments, or levels, comprise the take a group of models and assign them to an LOD
world that the player sees and interacts
with. These environments can be broken group. This group will switch between the models
down into interiors and exteriors. They based on their distance from the camera in Maya.
can be created in Maya using polygon
manipulation, procedurally with height
maps or a combination of the two. LOD Visualization
When setting up the LOD group, the high-
detail model is selected first, with lower
detail models selected in descending order.
Props You need to have two or more objects
Props can be items like the pictures and benches selected to create a level of detail group.
in the gallery or a key that the player must collect. Edit > Level Of Detail > Group will assign
Props help a game convey its realism or lack of them to the LOD node and automatically
realism. Maya toolsets allow the creation and set up distances to switch models. You can
modification of these props. select this node and change the distances
that the models will switch. For example,
looking at the images to the left, the top
Characters image shows a model that is closest to
Characters help bring a game to life. the camera and consists of 1422 polygons.
A character can be the hero of the The second image was set up to switch at
game or its evil villain. Maya 8 units from the camera; it contains 474
character animation tools allow polygons. The third and final model of the
for the creation of animation that LOD group will switch at 20 units from
can breathe life into your game the camera and consists of 220 polygons.
characters. Animation that you You can also use a quad with a software
create can also be reused on render of your model mapped to it as a
different characters to speed up texture map.
production.
Blind Data
Traditionally, data such as item spawn points,
environmental conditions (slipperiness, noisy
Color and Texture floors) and condition triggers (enemy attacks,
The skillful use of color and texture on a model can help you imply door opens, platform moves) fell into the game
detail. You can apply color to a model and use a grayscale texture programmer’s domain. Today, the ability to
map to suggest shading. This technique can also help you save assign this information visually also allows 3D
texture memory. Maya not only allows you to paint color informa- artists and level designers to control where it’s
tion on a model, but also to create textures by using Paint Effects in placed on a model or environment.
canvas mode.

Textures
Textures are used to add detail where no geometric
detail exists. Some textures will be on what is
called a decal. A decal can be a singular texture
map or multiple textures laid out into a square to
maximize texture space.

Color per Vertex

Color information can be stored at the vertex level
and is derived from prelighting geometry, painting
the color on or setting color values at each vertex.

Painting Blind Data

Lightmaps Blind data can be painted onto components using the Artisan tool sets to help
Lighting information in a scene can be saved to a you see where the data is being applied. You can set multiple data types and
picture file that can be applied to the base texture assign colors to them. Here, the door trigger is being painted. You can see the
as a light map so that lighting for a level does not color applied to the model.
have to be calculated at runtime.

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Official Autodesk Training Guide

8.0
Foundation
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