Your final project is to animate something transforming from one thing into another. This should be your best work yet - see how far you can push your animation abilities in 3D!
Think of objects/characters that would be interesting to work with. You can have any combination of organic and hard surface shapes, such as...
mailbox becoming a robot
plane transforming into mini-sub and diving under water
watch becoming a mechanical insect
character transforming into monster
cucoo clock becoming a helicopter
Jack in the box into UFO
Laptop into train
Egg into mechanical bird
Tree becoming wood flying machine
Your idea for this project is due by the end of class today!
Projects should be at least 15 seconds long with at least 5 different animated camera shots. Please note that the transformation itself does not have to take 15 seconds – part of that time can be used for introducing the scene, or showing the transformed object/character leaving the scene.
Projects will be graded on both aesthetic and technical animation achievements.
Final project should be at least 0:15 seconds long @ no less than 720 x 480 resolution, and submitted as a rendered movie file and uploaed to youtube, vimeo or dailymotion.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
How to render animation - batch rendering
Once your render settings are setup correctly, save your scene file, and then open up an explorer/finder window to see your frames as they render. Check the top of the render settings for the location, the default is:
Documents>Maya>Projects>Default>Images
When you are ready, go to render>batch render. Maya will begin rendering your frames and you should see them collect in the images folder. Make sure to check the first couple of frames to see if your animation is rendering correctly.
Once the rendering is completed, open Adobe AfterEffects and go to:
File>Import>File
Find the location of the rendered image files and click on the first one. AfterEffects should have a check box called "Image Sequence" - make sure this is checked, then click open.
The images should show up in the project window (Upper left of the AfterEffects screen layout). At the bottom of this window is an icon that looks like a filmstrip with a few shapes in it. Drag your image sequence onto this icon and AfterEffects will put them into a new composition that is the resolution and duration of your sequence.
Scrub through your animation to ensure it looks correct. Then, go to composition>add to render queue.
In the "Output Module", click on "based on "Lossless"" and change the format to .h264
In the "Output To:", select the name and location for your rendered movie.
Click "Render" on the right side of the render queue, sit back, and watch AfterEffects render your film!
Documents>Maya>Projects>Default>Images
When you are ready, go to render>batch render. Maya will begin rendering your frames and you should see them collect in the images folder. Make sure to check the first couple of frames to see if your animation is rendering correctly.
Once the rendering is completed, open Adobe AfterEffects and go to:
File>Import>File
Find the location of the rendered image files and click on the first one. AfterEffects should have a check box called "Image Sequence" - make sure this is checked, then click open.
The images should show up in the project window (Upper left of the AfterEffects screen layout). At the bottom of this window is an icon that looks like a filmstrip with a few shapes in it. Drag your image sequence onto this icon and AfterEffects will put them into a new composition that is the resolution and duration of your sequence.
Scrub through your animation to ensure it looks correct. Then, go to composition>add to render queue.
In the "Output Module", click on "based on "Lossless"" and change the format to .h264
In the "Output To:", select the name and location for your rendered movie.
Click "Render" on the right side of the render queue, sit back, and watch AfterEffects render your film!
How to render animation - render settings
To render an animation in Maya, you must tell Maya to render out a sequence of frames. You can then use AfterEffects or Quicktime to compile the frames into a rendered movie.
Go to window>rendering editors>render settings
COMMON
The information at the top of the "Common" tab will show you where your rendered frames will be put on the computer. Additional details, such as frame range and resolution are included as well.
FILE OUTPUT
File name prefix:
you can set the name of your image files here, or maya will use your scene name as default
Image format:
Use PNG, TIFF, TARGA or BMP. Maya's IFF format cannot currently be ready by AfterEffects
Frame/Animation ext:
Use name.#.ext
Frame padding:
Increase this to add zeros in front of your frame numbers so that AfterEffects reads your sequence correctly
FRAME RANGE
Set this to your start and end frames
RENDERABLE CAMERAS
Set this to the camera you wish to render through.
IMAGE SIZE
640 x 480, 720 x 480 or HD 720
MAYA SOFTWARE
ANTI-ALIASING QUALITY
Set Quality to Production Quality
MOTION BLUR
You can activate motion blur to soften the motion of your objects and blur them as they move. Turn this on and then test it on various frames to see how it looks.
Go to window>rendering editors>render settings
COMMON
The information at the top of the "Common" tab will show you where your rendered frames will be put on the computer. Additional details, such as frame range and resolution are included as well.
FILE OUTPUT
File name prefix:
you can set the name of your image files here, or maya will use your scene name as default
Image format:
Use PNG, TIFF, TARGA or BMP. Maya's IFF format cannot currently be ready by AfterEffects
Frame/Animation ext:
Use name.#.ext
Frame padding:
Increase this to add zeros in front of your frame numbers so that AfterEffects reads your sequence correctly
FRAME RANGE
Set this to your start and end frames
RENDERABLE CAMERAS
Set this to the camera you wish to render through.
IMAGE SIZE
640 x 480, 720 x 480 or HD 720
MAYA SOFTWARE
ANTI-ALIASING QUALITY
Set Quality to Production Quality
MOTION BLUR
You can activate motion blur to soften the motion of your objects and blur them as they move. Turn this on and then test it on various frames to see how it looks.
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