Intro to Maya - More Notes

I will probably add in more stuff here later on.

Importing Sound

1. Firstly place the audio file into the sound folder of your project folder
2. File>Import>Sound>Sound File

Dope Sheet

A dope sheet is a simple chart that enables an animator to break down actions and sound against time, it can be used as a pre-production tool for animation and can be used to assist in the production of facial animation.

Phonemes

Phonemes are the distinct sounds that language is made up from and in animation they are identified through various mouth shapes.

Blocking/Stepped Key Frames

Creating Stepped Key Frames is a good working practice when animating in Maya, especially as it prevents complications with the graph editor as compared to when inbetweeners are automatically created.

1. In the Animation Settings (The tiny little icon in the right bottom corner) > Choose Linear for "Default in Tangent" and Stepped for "Default out Tangent"
2. Make sure your Key frames are in the right poses
3. After the first keyframe, remember to create a Quick Select Set whole Moom to easily reset him back into his default position before posing him for that keyframe
4. Once you get all your key frames in, select flatten out tangent in the graph editor

Animation Constraints

This one will take quite a bit of practice before you can really get the hang of it (These notes aren't necessarily in order and I think I didn't mention the bit where the weight has to be toggled with when moving an item between two locators... so... this is more for my reference really, sorry).

• Create Locators in parts of the character's body that will interact with the prop
• Constraint>Parent translate, rotate values, select constraining object first then the object you want to constrain (Prop, locator), Maintain Offset turn on, Translate and Rotate all is ticked
• Pair prop to the locator (For instance if it's a hat, locators will have to be placed into the head and hands)
• Parent prop with used locator
• Select next locator
• To swap the prop between these two locators, key frames the changed values of the locator power for the two, the settings between
• If the offset is off, item will actually stick closer to the locator, and it will be easier to adjust that prop later on in the inbetweeners
• Adjust key frames again
• Group the object the constrained object/child so that it can be moved on it's own when selected and won't snap back in place with the constrainer/parent
• Constraints can be animated unlike parents
• Display>Animation>Joint Size (Fix Sizes)