Lab 2: Introduction to Modeling
IDS252: 3D Animation, Spring 2013

Goals

• Become familiar with modeling NURBS and subdivision surfaces.
• Learn how to import objects and combine objects into a single scene.
• Experiment with composition and story through the use of framing and other visual elements.
• Deliverables: Four images (cup, saltshaker, hand, composition) placed in designated folder on cs-render. See Evaluation Sheet (pdf).

Resources

• Camera angles and shot types are explained in Chapter 3 of your text.
  More information can also be found in the Yale Film Analysis Guide - See 3. Cinematography; Framing.
• General Design Components (pdf)
• Using the Camera to tell a story

Directions

1. Making a Project: For the lessons below, create a single project (e.g. called Lab2Project) on cs-render in the folder IDS252Sp13/Lab2/MayaProjects/your_name Remember, once the project is created, you must set the project every time you re-open Maya to insure that Maya will save files to the right place.

2. Modeling: In Maya, go to Help -> Tutorials. Click on the link Getting Started with Maya 2012 and then go to Getting Started with Maya. Do the following lessons:
   
   • NURBS Modeling:
     • Lesson 1: Revolving a curve to create a surface (glass),
     • Lesson 3: Lofting Curves to create a surface (saltshaker)
     • OPTIONAL! Lesson 2: Sculpting a NURBS surface. Only do this lesson if you have completed everything else.
   • Subdivision Surfaces:
     • Lesson 1: Modeling a subdivision surface (hand). (Get as far as you can. Don't worry if it doesn't look a lot like a hand. You don't have to model every finger nail, but give at least one a try!)
       
       
3. Rendered Image: For each object (glass, saltshaker, hand), render a 640x480 jpeg image and copy over to the folder on cs-render called IDS252Sp13/Lab2/FinalImages/your_name Name the image files as you did in lab 1, e.g. OrrJenny_Lab2_hand.jpg.

4. Importing Objects: At this point, you should have several Maya scenes (i.e. .mb or .ma files) from labs 1 and 2. Each scene file should contain a different object such as a temple, helmet, glass, saltshaker, hand. Copy the scene files (temple and helmet) from lab 1 over into the scenes subfolder of your current project folder (Lab2Project), so that all of the scene files are in one place. Before you continue, prepare the objects in each scene file as described below. If you don't do this, your composition scene file could become utter mess thus making it difficult to transform and duplicate objects.

   Cleaning Things Up:

   • Open Maya and set the project (e.g. Lab2Project).
   • Open up one of the scene files in that project, e.g. temple.mb.
   • Select the object. If there are multiple parts, make sure everything is selected.
   • Delete constuction history by going to the menu Edit->Delete by Type->History.
   • If there are multiple parts, group all of the parts together by selecting everything and going to the menu Edit->Group.
   • Rename the object (or the group if you grouped items) so that the name reflects what the object is. For example, the temple object should be called "temple".
   • With the temple group selected, set the pivot point in an appropriate place on the object. (On Windows, you press the "Insert" key to move the pivot point. On a Mac, you press "fn" key an "Enter" key). Scale the object so it isn't tiny or huge. Position it so that the pivot is at the origin. When done, select the menu "Modify->Freeze Transformation" to zero out the transformation node values.
   • If you are using the default lambert material, you should replace it with a material (e.g. a blinn type) that you created.
   • Delete any other items (e.g. lights) that you created unless you specifically want them.
   • Save the scene file.
   • Repeat for the next scene file in the project.

   For future reference: a general list of things to do to cleanup files can be found here.

   Importing: Once the objects in the individual scenes are cleaned up, you can now combine these objects into one scene as follows.

   • Create a new scene and save it into project folder (e.g. call it composition.mb)
   • Go to the main menu in Maya and choose File; Import....
   • Select one of your previous scenes to import. The object should appear in this new scene.
   • Repeat to import several more objects. You will need to translate the different objects so they aren't on top of one another.

5. Composition: In the scene you just created, arrange/duplicate/scale/etc the different objects in a way that tells a story or makes the viewer curious. Assign simple colors to objects, DO NOT USE FIRE OR OTHER SPECIAL EFFECTS THAT YOU DISCOVER IN MAYA). Note, in the class critique we will discuss the questions in the Evaluation Sheet (pdf)

6. Images to turn in: Copy the image of your composition to same folder containing your other images (IDS252Sp13/Lab2/FinalImages/your_name) It should now contain 4 images: the glass, the saltshaker, the hand, the composition. Please name them accordingly.

7. Project Folder Organization: To clean-up your Lab2Project folder on cs-render, do the following:

   1. Backup your project e.g. by copy the entire project folder to somewhere else such as a flash drive, your H drive (if there is room).
   2. Make sure that your final scene files are appropriately named (e.g. temple.mb, hand.mb, saltshaker.mb, composition.mb).
   3. Delete all other scene files, i.e. the ones that are no longer used.
   4. Delete all but your final .jpg images. Remove any files with an *.iff extension.

Evaluation

This lab will be graded on the modeling and organization. For details, see lab 2 evaluation. In the class critique on Wed, Jan 23, we will go over this evaluation sheet.

Note that late assignments will be penalized.

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