IDS 252: Topics for January 13, 15, & 17, Spring 2014

• Discuss course structure and expectations

• This course counts towards:

  • The Creating in the Arts (CA) general education requirement.
  • An elective in the Arts, Technology and Multimedia minor.
  • An elective in Film Studies.
  • An elective in Studio Art.

• Lab 1: Introduction to Maya

• Some Graphics Fundamentals

  • Navigating the Maya interface.
  • Coordinate Systems: Right/left handed, World vs Object
  • Setting colors.
  • Demo - Creating and transforming simple Maya shapes.
  • Modeling Basics:
    • Click here for images .
    • General discussion and comparison: Polygons, NURBS, Subdivision Surfaces.
    • Maya: Working with Polygons - Use Quads as much as possible.
    • NURBS
      • In Maya
      • An Interactive Introduction to Splines
    • Subdivision Surfaces
      • Maya 2011: SubDs
      • Quick Introduction to Subdivision Surfaces
  • Adding color to your object - need to create a Material.
  • Rendering an image. Need to set parameters in the render settings.

• Overview of Animation Production Process. Roles

• Some Animation History, Early animation.

• Animation Examples

  • past animations from IDS-252
  • Look at Animation Shorts
    • SIGGRAPH Electronic and Animation Theaters (DVD)
    • Pixar Shorts Also, look at "Behind the scenes".
    • Pixar on YouTube
    • Gerald McBoing-Boing
    • Pipe Dreams
    • Others: Bunny
  • Begin to observe style:
    • Scott McCloud (see resources on cs-render).
    • Walk cycles on the Animator's Survival Lit

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