Lab 4: Creating an Animation Loop
IDS252: 3D Animation, Spring 2013

Goals

• Become familiar with setting and adjusting keyframes and timing to create an animation.
• Learn how to use the graph editor to adjust keyframes.
• (Optional) Learn about path animation.
• (Optional) Learn about driving keys.
• Deliverables: A 10 second animation loop. Place in the designated folder on cs-render. See Evaluation Sheet (pdf).

Maya Modeling Tutorials

The supplementary files you will need for the tutorials listed below can be found in the folder

In Maya, go to Help -> Tutorials. Click on the link Getting Started with Maya 2012. In the contents, click on Getting Started with Maya, and then Animation. Do the following lessons:

• Lesson 1 (Keyframes and the Graph Editor)
• (optional) Lesson 2 (Set Driven Key). You will have the opportunity to do this later if you don't do it now.
• (optional) Lesson 3 (Path animation). You will have the opportunity to do this later if you don't do it now.

The above tutorials will not be collected.

10 Second Animation Loop

1. Make a Project: For the lessons below, create a project on cs-render in the folder \IDS252Sp13\Lab4\MayaProjects/your_name Use the default Project settings.

   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. 10 Second Animation Loop: You are to create a 10 second animation with the following requirements:

   • The technical instructions for setting up Maya and creating the animation can be found here. Please read this before you begin. It is important to set the FPS, playback speed, and render settings, before you begin.
   • The animation should be a loop, i.e. it should end exactly where it begins. To do this, set the keyframe at t=1 for whatever object you are animating. Then, without changing anything in the scene, move the slider to t=300 and set the keyframe again. At this point, you can begin animating in between.
   • The motion does not have to be complex but there should be some non-trivial motion.
   • Aim for realistic motion. This is difficult to do and you are just starting to animate, so do the best you can. Observe how things move in real life. Think about the Principles of Animation. You will most likely need to use the graph editor to get the motion correct. Don't be afraid of the graph editor!
   • Use any objects you have created so far, but also create a few new objects.
   • Use any of the animation techniques you have learned so far, e.g. keyframing, path animation, etc.
   • It is recommended that
     1. Use only one camera. Note, it is better to create a new camera (e.g. called renderCam), rather than use the default persp camera.
     2. Keep the camera still or, at least, limit its movements.

3. When you have completed the animation, place it in the folder: \IDS252Sp13\Lab4\FinalAnimations. Make sure that the name of your animation is named as in the previous labs.

Evaluation

The animation is due on Feb 13. It will be graded based on the criteria listed in the Lab 4 Evaluation Sheet.

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