This post is going to be mostly about effects that I have been making over the past month. Some of these are tools that can be implemented in any software package and one effect is native to Maya fluids but can also be redirected to a number of different applications.
First up is a Coil tool I created that you can customize to your specification. This coil also has Dynamic features.
Second is a Domino Tool I created that will create however many Dominos with random numbers as well as being able to shape the roll of dominos however you'd like via a curve.
Third is a Tool that will fracture walls and make them dynamic for simulation purposes.
Last is a Maya Fluid project that involved creating a fire effect using maya's Fluid system.
For this project I wanted to explore the notion of using rigging techniques to create a dynamically driven motion.
When thinking of this idea I asked myself what would best represent this idea and that's when I thought of tree's.
For this system I first started by creating a joint system. I did this by creating a master joint system. Then separately I created individual joint chains for each branch. Next I parented these children joint chains into the master joint system.
Now that I had a proper hierarchy I need to create curves along the "curvature" of the joint systems. This Curve system would serve as the goal weight for when I apply Softbody Dynamics. Once I had my curves in place I then created IK-Splines for each individual joint system including the master joint system. After this process was done I created an automation mel button to create the joint systems and IK-Systems based off the geometry.
Below is a video of the result that I got. ( I used a Turbulence Field to create the rustling )
Here is an example of another system using a Lattice to create a similar effect.
This was an exciting new world for me. I have always used maya's native particle system nparticles but never had I ever used the hardware particle system inside of maya. What I learned from this was the basics of what most particle systems consist of in most other programs.
In this project My goal was to create a scene that used multiple avenues of software and hardware particles. I mostly used sprites with creation expressions as well as animated instancer geometry.
First For the smoke effects and exhaust effects I used a basic volume emitter with sprites as the render type. After cycling the images that the sprite would use it made for a very believable result.
Second for the rain effects I created another volume emitter but instead of using sprites I used a multi streak render type. The great part of this effect was having the particle interact with the car and the ground, I've even added particle collision event to have the rain droplet create a splash on impact.
This month I've been exposing myself to all kinds of new techniques for creating interesting and somewhat realistic animation via maya's dynamic simulations.
My first project was of a Rigid body exercise create active and passive rigid body's to elude to the audience that everything in the scene is actually interacting with each other. Underneath is a playblast of the animation that I came up with.
Here is a short lip sync I did outside of class last month for fun. I used the Max rig for Maya and used school assets to populate the scene. I had this clip on my hard drive and had been planning to do something eventually so the time seemed right. I also lite and rendered this for fun. Enjoy!
For the next two weeks Im going to be animating to a short sound clip. This assignment is currently in the blocking phase where I'm trying to create dynamic storytelling poses that will help let the character's emotions read.
I wanted to take a second and post what I've been doing recently in maya and at Full Sail University.
This month I'm focusing on strong animation body mechanics and acting. In the first exercise my class and I were tasked with creating a short animation based on a given scenario, by showing the characters full body and with the help of strong storytelling poses I believe I was able to achieve a comprehensive representation of my scenario.
Scenario: "You are impatiently waiting on the bus and are excited or relieved to see it arrive, only to have it whiz right by. You must walk 3 consecutive steps in this scene."
Below is what I came up with!
Next post will be about the next project. Lip Syncing!!
