Animating a Merry-Go-Round using Expressions in Maya 2009
“Animating using expressions can be a big timesaver, especially when it comes to mechanical objects such as a merry-go-round! In this tutorial, Stephen Ko walks us through a simple expressions-based project, creating a simple UI with sliders to control the different parts of his model. Let’s get started!”
FurryBall GPU realtime renderer for Maya in production quality
“FurryBall is the first unique real-time GPU renderer in production quality implemented directly into Maya. No more time-consuming exports, waiting and tuning in new applications!!
“You can see your render in real-time with bumpmaps, textures, soft shadows, reflections and refractions,ambient occlusion and color bleeding, depth of field and many other features directly in Maya viewport. No more waiting for render! FurryBall is about 30-300x TIMES faster than CPU renderers on regular Graphics card.”
Modelling a Luger P08 using Subdivision Surfaces in Maya – Day 2
“In the second part of this 2-day, narrated timelapse tutorial, Sebastian Kim adds the final touches to the Luger P08 model. Created using Maya’s basic polygonal toolset, this model allows us to take a look at different hard surface subdivision modeling techniques – all of which play a huge part in today’s production environment.”
Modelling a Luger P08 using Subdivision Surfaces in Maya – Day 1
“Hard surface subdivision modeling can be a difficult concept to understand, however as it has become such a big part of today’s production environment, learning it has become much more of a necessity. Using the basic polygonal toolset, this 2-day, narrated timelapse tutorial covers the process of modeling a Luger P08, and is a great introduction to a standard SDS workflow in Maya.”
Quick Tip: Creating Custom Marking Menus in Maya
“Whether created for a specific project or even if you’ve had the same ones for years, marking menus form an essential part of the Maya interface. In this time-saving quick tip tutorial, Pratik Gulati will be walking us through how to create our own marking menus from scratch in Maya 2009.”
Animating with Deformers in Maya
“Although animating with deformers is a commonly used technique in the VFX industry, a lot of people dont know about it’s benefits. Well, after this tutorial that’s going to change. We’ll be looking at how to animate complex expressions with deformers, along with why they can be extremely useful. Enjoy!”
Quick Tip: Creating Compound Curve Icons in Maya
“In this quicktip tutorial, we’ll walk through one way to create complex NURBS-based icons in Maya. Useful control icons can make or break a good rig, and are essential when creating in-interface GUIs. Putting together simple, one-piece shapes are easy, but making compound icons can be much more difficult. One method for combining multiple curves is to parent them under a single transform node. We’ll first do this by hand, and then look at an easy MEL script that automates the process.”
Procedural Modeling with MEL Scripts in Maya – Day 2
“This tutorial is an introduction to using external MEL files and procedures, functions, loops, and scripted interaction within the Maya workspace. We’ll be going over basic coding practices, and putting together a nifty geometric object that would be very difficult to create without scripting.”
Composite a 3D object into video footage with Boujou, Maya and After Effects
“Matchmoving is a visual effects technique that allows the insertion of computer graphics into video footage. In this tutorial we’ll start by taking a look at how we can track our footage using Boujou. We’ll then jump into Maya and use that tracking information, along with a custom HDR image, to create and render a 3D object which we can insert into the scene. We’ll then use After Effects to composite the 3D object into the original video. The techniques used in this tutorial can be applied to almost almost all of your 3D integration shots.”
