art 384: introduction to 3d animationmcdo/384/384_l01.pdf · art 384: introduction to 3d animation...

Art 384: Introduction to 3D Animation

Neal McDonald, M.S., M.F.A. mcdo@umbc.edu

First Lecture

Introductions

•  I am Neal McDonald – Production Experience: Lamb & Company – Game Industry: Half-Life total conversion,

Greenhouse Software – Teaching Maya 8 years – mcdo@umbc.edu, www.workly.com

•  Call me “Professor McDonald” – That’s what my boss wants. – Sounds funny! – Or, “Neal”

Syllabus

•  All grades are weighted equally. •  Don’t cheat. •  No tests, only turned-in artwork. •  Get 3 4GB Flash drives.

– They’re in the bookstore, but Amazon has good deals.

– Bring your project to class every day!

Emergency Prep

•  Tornado: stay here, really. •  Fire: go up the stairs or out the front. •  Earthquake: go up the stairs, I guess.

•  There’s a panic button; it works. It calls the Campus Police: 410-455-5555.

•  Cellphone reception in this room is very bad.

Turning in: Drawings

•  Every assignment has a drawing component

•  Please turn in drawings as PNG’s.

Turning in: Video •  We won’t be making video this month. •  There is a particular format

– First frame=title frame •  umbc.edu/~mcdo/384/titleCard.psd

– Last frame=credits •  umbc.edu/~mcdo/384/creditCard.psd

•  We will be using AfterEffects, more later.

Turning in:Naming Files

•  The format: lastname_assignment_othernames.format –  "lastname" is not your UMBC user name –  "assignment" = assignment letter –  ".format" = .tif, .mov, .jpg

•  Please, please do this – Enables me to verify that I have everyone's

work – Worth a letter grade to you-- every time!

Starting Maya •  Start=>Programs=>Autodesk=>Autodesk Maya 2008

Names of Windows

Main Menu Menu Switch

Shelf Toolbox

Attribute Editor Modeling Window Playback Control

Time Slider Range Slider

Exploring Maya

•  Use the menu switch to change the menu set.

•  Get a load of all those shelf tabs! •  Clicking in modeling window

– Alt-Right, Alt-Middle, Alt-Left drag •  Space Bar switches to 4-view •  Click on dotted areas to make windows

disappear!

Windows that Disappear Remedy: Display=>UI Elements=> …

Making something- a sphere

•  In shelf, click on “Polygons” tab.

•  Click on leftmost button:

•  Click and drag on the grid in the modeling window

More first things •  Make several spheres,

cubes, cones. •  Click on objects to select

them. •  Shift-click to select

several at once. •  Use move tool (“w”) to

move selected objects. •  Use rotate tool (“e”) to

rotate •  Use scale tool (“r”) to

grow/shrink •  Make a snowman!

The Transform Manipulator

•  Is not an object •  Appears to denote

selection. •  The green, blue,

red, and yellow parts do different things.

The Rotation Manipulator

•  Red rotates around X

•  Green rotates around Y

•  Blue, Z •  Yellow, around the

eye-direction

The Right-Hand Rule

•  Lets you turn a direction into a rotation

•  Thumb points in a direction, fingers curl in the rotation.

•  Rotation is around a center!

Scale Manipulator

•  Stretches or shrinks an object.

•  Moves its points closer to or further from a center point.

•  Scale by 0 = infinitely small.

Gotcha! •  Things that look fine from one direction might

need adjusting– use 4-view

Further Explorations •  Control-D duplicates selections •  Try translating, rotating, and scaling multiple selected

objects. •  Use 4, 5, 6 and 7 to change display settings:

wireframe, solid, shaded, lit. –  Can’t tell the difference between 5 and 6 yet.

•  Don’t press 8!! Too late. Use Panels menu to recover.

Assignment A

•  Make a human figure, in motion, out of cubes.

•  Use a photo source. •  Do gesture-drawing studies.

•  umbc.edu/~mcdo/384/arA.pdf

Look at the Rubric!

•  It is a worksheet. •  To make your grade, I fill it out. •  Read it to understand what I care about.

•  For instance: nothing about color on this one! Vertex pulling: no!

•  Extra credit for awesome gesture drawings.

Review

•  Starting up •  Moving camera, switching views. •  Recovering UI windows •  Making spheres, cubes, etc. •  Translate, Rotate, Scale, Duplicate •  Projects