Autodesk Maya Tutorial - Dancing Comic Book

Comic Book Setup - Part 1 This tutorial tutorial shows you how to set up a comic book book type m agazine for for character character anim ation. This This Setup is the one used to create create the target poses used in the Blended Comic Book tutorial. In this tutorial:

a y a M f o e t s a T A

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Wrap ap D efo rmer Using the Wr

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Using Wire Deformers

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Clustering Curve CVs as Animation H and les

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Creating a Reset Pose Shelf Button

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Strategies for Blend Blend Sha pe Target Creation

Comic Book Setup

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Before you start: This tutorial requires Maya scene files. If you haven’t installed the tutorial files go to the “Try Maya” section section of the “ Taste of Maya” CDROM to install. Starting Maya: You You can start Maya by d ouble-clic ouble-clicking king th e Maya 2.5 Evaluation icon icon on th e desktop or from Start → Programs → Maya 2.5 Evaluation → Maya. In Maya: Once the tutorial files files have been installed you will need to set th e current p roject roject in order to access access the Maya scene scene files. files. To set the current pro ject from w ithin Maya select select File → Project → Set... an d Nav igate to the d irectory irectory w here you installed installed th e Maya scene files. files. Selec Selectt the d irectory: irectory: Maya_tutorial_data and p ress ress OK.

Character Control The animator’ animator ’s job job is to bring life to an object. object. When you anima te you have clear ideas of how the object/ object/ person/ animal will move. To To create this this movement, your character character mu st be manipu lated lated into sequences sequences of poses. setup . This setup Before you can animate you r character, the chara chara cter must be setup. setup is much like creating creating a pu pp et that will be able able to perform perform m ovements based on inpu t from the animator. Maya Maya provides a pow erful erful suite of tools tools to do this type of work. In this tutorial you w ill ill work w ith Maya’ Maya ’s deform er tools to create a control control m echanism for the com ic book. This setup w ill ill allow allow you to move the comic book into into hu man -like -like poses.

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January 2000, 2000, Alias| Wavefront, Wavefront, a division of Silicon Silicon Graphics Limited. All rights reserved. By using this tutorial, you h ave agreed to the terms an d conditions w hich can be found in th e setup.exe file file in the Install Tutorials folder of the Taste of Maya CD-ROM.

Questions? visit www.aliaswavefront.co www.aliaswavefront.com/ m/ tasteofmaya tasteofmaya

Comic Book Setup

Scene file descriptions:

comicsetupstart.ma : This This is the scene file file you will start w ith. It contain contain s a textured comic book object object and some curves. comicsetupdone.ma : This This scene file file contains contains th e finished finished examp le of the comic book read y for anima tion or blend shap e target creation. creation.

Comic Book Cover Texture The source image for the comic book cover texture is located in the sourceimages directory. You You m ay have to reestablish the path t o this texture in the H yper Shad e Editor. This This process is show show n below. Source images for textures shou ld be referenced referenced au tomatically when th e project project structure is established. established. You You m ay have to establish this path th e first first time time you open a scene scene file file however.

Wrap Deformer The wra p d eformer lets you u se any object object as a deforming object. object. Other d eformers in Maya su ch as the lattice lattice deformer work from a pred efined efined shape su ch as a cube. The The wr ap d eformer eformer can be a N URBS URBS or polygonal surface surface in any shape you need. In this tutorial you w ill ill work with a NURBS NURBS plane as a w rap d eformer. eformer. Think Think of the w rap d eformer as an object object that will control the object/ object/ s it is conn conn ected to.

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2000, Alias| Wavefront, a division of Silic Silicon on Grap hics Limited Limited . All rights reserved . By By using this tutorial, you ha ve agreed to the term s and conditions which can be found in the setup.exe file in the Install Tutorials folder of the Taste of Maya CD-ROM.

A Taste of Maya 3

Comic Book Setup

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When w orking with an objec objectt that is mad e up of more than on e surface surface it is better better to simplify simplify this group of objects objects down to a single surface or deformable shap e. One w ay to d o this is to create create a Wrap deform er object. object.

1 Open Open comicB comicBoo ookSt kStar art. t.ma ma I

Select File → Open Scene

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Select comicsetupstart.ma I

Press Open

This file file contains three objects objects und er the grou p no de comicBookGroup: c comicBookGroup: comicBookObject, omicBookObject, w rapPlane ireCurves ves.. an d w ireCur

comicsetupstart.ma configuration and contents comicBookObject is a group nod e that contains the N URBS URBS surfaces that make u p th e comic comic book. This object started life as a N URBS URBS cub cub e.

The comicB comicBook object object has b een texture m app ed. Press the 5 key for for shaded display, 6 key for texture shaded and the 7 key for textur textur es with lighting in the persp ective ective view. The Th e wrapPlane object object is a NURBS NURBS plane th at has been scaled to fit just just a roun d the comicBook. comicBook. Inside Inside the comicB comicBookGroup is another group named wireCurves. This group contain s several curv curv es that you w ill use as w ire deformers for shap ing the comicBook comicBook into variou s poses later in this tutorial.

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January 2000, 2000, Alias| Wavefront, a division of Silicon Silicon Graphics Limited Limited . All rights reserved . By By using this tutorial, you hav e agreed to the terms and conditions which can be found in the setup.exe file in the Install Tutorials folder of the Taste of Maya CD-ROM.


Comic Book Setup

Comic Book Cover Texture If the comic book frontCov frontCov er texture does not ap pear on th e magazine cover you w ill need to establish the path to this source image. I

In Hypershade/Visor dou ble click click the frontCover material from th e Visor Visor ’s Materials folder.

frontCover material in the Attribute Editor I

Use the Attribu called frontCover. Attribu te Editor to ed it the m aterial called The Th e frontCover material has a file texture texture connected connected to the Color attribute.

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Navigate to the file1 texture texture nod e by pressing pressing on the righthand side side arrow button for the Color attribute.

file1 texture attached to the frontCover Color attribute

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Comic Book Setup


The Th e Image Name attribute attribute w ill ill need the absolute path to the comicBook.iff image located in the sourceimages directory. I

Click Click on th e folder folder icon then n avigate to the sou rceimag rceimag es directory.

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Select comicBook.iff and p ress ress Open .

2 Create Create a wrap deformer deformer for for the comicBo comicBook ok To simp simp lify lify the deform ation app lied lied to th e mu ltiple comic book sur faces faces you w ill ill app ly a wrap deformer. I

Open th e Outliner, Outliner, Window → Outliner... If it is is not already disp layed.

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In the Ou tliner tliner Ctrl LMB select th e comicBookObject then the wrapPlane objects. objects. Make sure to expand expand the comicBookGroup to get to the comicBookObjec comicBookObjectt grou p in th e Ou tliner.

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Select Deform → Create Wrap (the deform menu is found found u nder the Animation menu sets). This will will create create a w rap deformer between the wrapPlane and the comicBookObject group.

The Th e order of your selection selection is imp ortant. You can tell which object object is the w rap by seeing w hich object object gets a base ob ject add ed to it. In this case a new object object called called wrapPlaneBase is created created ind icating icating that th e wrapPlane is the wrap d eformer. eformer. Tip:

If you find find that you have selected selected objects objects in in the w rong ord er, simp simp ly press z to undo and reverse reverse your selecti selection on ord er and try it again.

The comic comicB Book group is now being controlled controlled by the w rapPlane shape. To move or d eform eform th e comicBook comicBook objects objects you will move or deform the w rap Plane object. object. This This single surface is is a mu ch simp ler object object to manipu late.

3 Test Test the the wra wrap p defo deform rmer er You shou ld test the wrap deformer. I

Selec Selectt the w rap Plane object object in the O utliner.

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Press F8 to enter component mode. You should see the CVs of the wrapPlane displayed. If not check your component pickmask settings to ensur e that the CVs are pickable.

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selection mask . From this portion of the The pickmask is located located on th e status line and is also also known as the selection status line you can select select which objects objects or components of objects objects are selectabl selectablee and / or w hich are masked from selection. selection. See See the fund amentals tutorial for mor e information on this p owerful feature of Maya.

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LMB drag select select a CV on th e wr apP lane object. object.

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Press w to display the transform transform m anipulator

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Translate the CV an d confirm confirm that th e comicBook comicBook object object follow follow s along. Press z to undo.

You could begin building tar gets by “ tweaking” tweaking ” these CVs into into a p ose then d up licating licating the comicBook comicBook grou p to form a sn apsh ot of this pose. But But to m ake the p rocess a little little easier you are going to create a more generalized generalized m ethod of tweaking using w ire deformers deformers and clusters. clusters.

Wire Deformer Wire D eformer. This deformer tu rns a N URBS Another Maya d eformer eformer is the Wire URBS cur cur ve into a object object that w ill deform a sur face face mu ch like a wire inside a p iece iece of cloth. cloth.

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Comic Book Setup

1 Create Create wire deformers deformers between between the wireCurves wireCurves and the wrapPlane wrapPlane using using the Wire Tool. Selec Selection tion o rd er is no t used for envoking th is fun fun ction. You w ill select select the objects objects as you are p romp ted by th e tool. This is is the difference difference between Selecti Selection/ on/ Action and Tool method s of w orking in Maya. I

Select Deform → Wire Tool... The bottom of the Maya window contains a line called the Help Line . You You can toggle th is section section of the UI und er the Op tions menu. The H elp Line Line p rovides tips and usages for tools tools and selec selectio tion n op erations. erations. The Th e Wire Tool will prompt you to select the object you want the curve to deform first.

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Select Select th e wrapPlane in the Outliner Press Enter to validate the selection. selection. Note that the Help Line prom pts you to then select select the curves

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Ctrl select select the w ire curves in the Outliner. These curves curves are located located u nd er the wireCurves group.

Press Enter to valida te the selection selection The curves curves w ill ill now d eform eform the w rapPlane as you m ove them. To move the curves you w ill ill cluster cluster the curve curve clusters w ill, ill, in a sense, move th e curve CVs’ positioning u p into w orldsp ace. This will mak e it easier CVs. The clusters to control the curv e CVs’ CVs’ transform ation and allow for keyfram keyfram ing of the curv curv e CVs. CVs. I

Once you have created your w ire curves curves you can hide or template th e wrapPlane. Templating the w rap Plane w ill keep a w ire version visible visible but not selectable. selectable. Hiding the wrap Plane will keep it out of view and only selectable in the Outliner.

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To see the objects objects and curves clearly, use wireframe mod e by pressing pressing the 4 key.

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In the Outliner select the wrapPlane and p ress ress Display → Object Components → Templates this will turn th e wrapPlane object into into a templated object, object, one th at is v isible isible but not selectable. selectable.

2 Cluste Clusterr the the CVs of of the wire curv curves es A cluster is a grou ping of curve or su rface CVs CVs (Control Vertices). Vertices). A cluster is a very basic deformer. It is used for various jobs jobs that entail mov ing curve or su rface rface CVs. You w ill use th em in this examp le as a method of controlling controlling the w ire deformer curve CVs. I

Select topWireCurve Select topWireCurve and p ress ress F8 to toggle toggle to comp comp onent mod e.

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LMB drag select the tw o edgemost CVs on the topWireCurve curve. For example the two adjacent curve CVs CVs in the upp er righthand corner.

Select Deform → Create Cluster

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Pattern of Cluster assignments to wire curve CVs, note center clusters are clustering 3 CVs each.

Tip:

When you create the cluster the selection of the curve will be cleared. You will need to select the curve in the Outliner again and press F8 twice twice to get back to compon ent m ode for CV selection. selection. Use the “ g ” hotkey to repeat the last command once you hav e selected selected the n ext CVs CVs to be clustered. In this case the Deform → Create Cluster command will be repeated on the selected selected CVs.

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Repeat this for the rest of the CVs on this curve u sing the above ima ge as a guid e. Use the “ g ” hotkey to “ repeat last command ” , to to speed up your w orkflow. orkflow.

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Repeat this for the other CVs on the mi d an d bottom curves in the following manner: Edge CVs: The tw o edge CVs of each curve get a cluster Center CVs: The center three CVs of each curve get a cluster Mid cur curve ve CVs: The CV between the center and the edg e gets a cluster. cluster. See the figure above but also experiment with different configurations.

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The curves curves p rovided for m aking the wire deformers have been tweaked or shaped into the curved curved p attern in ord er to better control the sur face face they are a ssociated ssociated w ith. It It is a su btle thing that p rovides a little more control over the wrap Plane surface.

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Comic Book Setup


More about Clusters Although the cluster cluster is a deformer, you can also think of the cluster cluster as moving th e CV comp comp onents up into world space. Using the cluster cluster deformer in this mann er you can think of it as a hand le for for components. A han dle that can have keyframes applied to it and animated as an y other objec object. t. You can app ly a cluster cluster to su rface CVs CVs as well as curve CVs. You You can also adjust the w eight of the d eformation on a p er CV basis. basis. With surface clustered CVs you can u se Artisan and it’ it ’s paint w eights technology technology to adjust these w eights. eights. A cluster can also behave accord accord ing to to its parent. The Relative attribute on a cluster cluster controls this behav ior. This attribute when tu rned on lets you paren t the cluster cluster to ano ther object object withou t creating creating a d oub le transform ation. For this tutorial it w ill not be a factor factor but if you wa nted to p arent the clusters to the magazin e so that they travelled travelled a long with the comic comic book you w ould need to set this attribute to on .

3 Test Test the the Clus Cluste tere red d CVs CVs The setup is comp comp lete for for this character. The next task is to see if if the character can get in the n ecessary ecessary p oses. I

Make sure you are in object object mode by p ressing ressing the F8 key.

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Ad just th e pick mask to only allow selection selection of Cluster deformers.

Pick Mask I

In the Pick Mask select select All Objects Off .

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In the Pick Mask deformer button RMB pu lldow lldow n selec selectt Clusters . Now w ith ith only clusters clusters a s selectable selectable objects objects you can qu ickly ickly select select the clusters an d t ranslate th em to form you r po ses. This This pr events you from accid accid entally selecti selecting ng oth er objects objects like like the curv es or comic book su rfaces. rfaces.

4 Grou Group p the the Clust Cluster ers s To make th e file file a little little easier easier to control you will group the clusters you just created. I

In the Outliner, shift select select th e clusters th en select select Edit → Group . This w ill create a grou p of the clusters.

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Rename this group as clustersGroup.

To get the clusters back to the defau lt und eformed p ositions: ositions: I

select select th e clustersGroup then select select Modify → Reset Transformations This will reset the grou p an d its childr childr en back to the p osition that they w ere created at or < 0, 0, 0 > translation in X, Y, Y, and Z. Later you w ill create a shelf button that w ill do this quickly.

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Adjust settings to the wrap and wire for best results Here are the settings for for the attributes of the wrap and wire deformers. You You shou ld also experiment experiment w ith these settings to see see wh at the valid rang e of values is and h ow th ey affect affect the deform ation. I

Place the comic book into into a somew hat exagerated p ose by translating some of the clusters clusters to form bends and folds. folds.

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Switch Switch to the Ch ann el Box Box from Options → Channel Box.

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Select Select th e wrapPlane object.

Channel Box of wrapPlane object showing Dropoff, Wrap Samples and wire attributes

Wrap When you create create a w rap d eformer eformer the object object that is the wrap gets two attributes add ed to it. You can see these attributes attributes in the channel box wh en the wrapPlane is selected: Dropoff: This attribute controls how the w rap influence dim inishes over distance. Values between 4 an d seems to w ork fairly fairly well but but you can also also see what hap pens at a value of 20. 8 seems

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Comic Book Setup

accura tely the wrap is deforming the sur face or surfaces. The Wrap Samples: This attribute controls how accura higher th e value the more accurate the d eformation w ill follow follow bu t also more slow slow ly as this increases the compu tational overhead . A value of 15 is fairly fairly accurate accurate w ithout too m uch calculation. calculation. Higher sam ple values can slow slow d own p erformance. erformance.

Wire When yo u create a wire deformer u sing one or man y curves a deformer object object is created called called a w ire. Sometimes it may be hard to get at this nod e. You You can u sually find find it as a related tab in the Attribu te Editor wh en you selec selectt one of the curves curves that you are using as a w ire deformer. deformer. You You can also see see it as an Outp ut n ode in the Chan nel Box. Box. This is is the preferred m ethod of access accessing ing related nod es and att ributes. Dropoff Distance : Each curv curv e in the wire d eformer has an entry for d ropo ff distan ce. In this case you w ill see 3 attribu tes [0], [1], [1], [2]. [2]. A valu e of 6 in each each of these seems seems to w ork pretty good but again, experiment with these settings.

influen ce the wire will have on th e surface. Typically Typically this Envelope: This attribute controls the amou nt of influen value is kept at 1 bu t if you n eeded to exagerate the influence or decrease the influen influen ce you can ad just it here. controls the am oun t of rotation that th e surface w ill ill get normal to the curve. Rotation: This attribute controls Experiment w ith this attribute, you may find th at in certain certain poses it will help the su rface follow follow the curv e ’s bend without twisting twisting too m uch. Valid Valid values are from 0 to 1.

Making a Cluster Reset Shelf Button You can also m ake a shelf button th at selects selects all of your Clusters an d p erforms the Reset Transforma Transforma tion with one button clic click. k. A shelf button is a comm comm and or series series of comman comman ds th at have been recorded as a m acro and are executed executed by selecting selecting the associated icon that ap pears on a shelf. The following following step s will take you thr oug h creating and using a sh elf button to reset your comic book clusters clusters to their d efault positions.

1 Create Create a shelf shelf button button for for Reset Reset Transfor Transformation mations s I

Note:

Hold down the Shift, Ctrl an d Al t keys at the sam e time that you select select Modify → Reset Transformations from the main menu . You cannot u se the Hotbox representation of the main m enus in th is manner to create a shelf shelf button.

This will create a shelf button for this comm comm and on the currently displayed shelf.

2 Edit Edit the the Shelf Shelf Button Button Command Command I

Select Options → Customize UI → Shelves...

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from this menu select Shelf Contents tab and then the Reset Transformations button that you have created.

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Select Select th e Edit Commands tab, this displays the MEL comm comm ands that are executed executed wh en you pr ess the shelf button.

You need to add the “ selection of your clusters ” part of the command . I

Open the Script Script Editor, either either by p ressing ressing the bu tton in the far bottom righthand corner of Maya Maya or by Window → General Editors → Script Editor.

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In the Outliner select the clustersGroup grou p. The action is reflec reflected ted in t he Script Editor as: as : select -r clustersGroup;

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text (includ (includ ing th e semi colon “ ;” at the end of the line). line). LMB dr ag to select this entire line of text


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Comic Book Setup


When it is highlighted MM B dr ag it to the Shelves Shelves editor above th e Reset Reset Transformation command also known as makeIdentity . (You may have to press the enter key before th e for the select -r... command to go above.) above.) makeIdentity command to make room for I

Here is wh at the tw o command s in the shelf button editor will look look like: like: select -r clustersGroup; makeIdentity;

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Now add a selec selection tion clear clear comman comman d. Und er the makeIdentity line line add : select -cl;

Note th at if you LMB drag selec selectt nothing in th e perspecive perspecive view this is the command that is echoed echoed to the Script Editor. I

You shou ld now have three lines: lines: select -r clustersGroup; makeIdentity; select -cl;

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Once you have the comm and looking looking right then p ress the enter key on the “ numeric” keypad keypad to Shelves to save the shelves to the Maya p references. validate. Press Save All Shelves references.

Test the operat ion by translating some clusters and th en pr ess this shelf button to mak e sure it is is working as intended intended . You can bu ild ild and edit shelf buttons in this man ner to create handy “ macros ” for often often rep eated command s and series of of comman comman ds.

Finished Scene File comicsetupdone.ma The scene file comicsetupdone.ma is also also provided as a finished finished v ersion ersion of the setup steps you h ave just just comp leted. For For the follow follow ing steps and in the futur e, to w ork from a finished finished setu p u se this scene scene file. file.

Building Blendshape Targets You now have a character that is setup setup and ready to an imate. You You can simp ly begin begin m oving the clusters clusters and keyframing keyframing their position. position. In this mann er you can animate the comic book into many actions actions and performances. You can also record th ese poses as blend shap es targets. In In the Blend Blend ed Com ic Book tut orial you see the results of creating creating th ese targets as a library library of movem ent or as an in-betw een sequen ce. The process of building blend shap e animation involves creating blendsh ape targ ets that the base object object will deform in to. Typically, Typically, d up licates licates of the base object object that form the cand idate targets w ill ill have iden tical tical topology. This is is desireable and w ill mak e the deformation s smoother bu t also note that Maya will do blendsh ap es between objects objects that do not h ave identical topology or a one to one correlation correlation between each objects geometric configuration, i.e. Vertice count, vertice position etc... The following following steps show you th e beginning of the process.

1 Duplicate Duplicate the the comicBookOb comicBookObject ject as the base object. object. You will need a comicBook comicBook to act as th e base object. object. This This comicBook comicBook w ill be the on e that is animated with blendshape animation. I

Reset the clusters clusters back to their default or u n-deformin g position.

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Comic Book Setup

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Selec Selectt the comicBookObjec comicBookObjectt grou p a nd press Ctrl d or select Edit → Duplicate to make a copy of the comicBookObject in its rest pose.

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group as comicBookBase Rename this group

2 Pose the comicBookObjec comicBookObjectt using using the the cluster clusters s Now pose the character character into poses that you can blend blend between. Think Think in terms of moving only a locali localized zed area like the hand to form a pose, the w aist, the head , the foot. You w ill be add ing these poses togeth er so avoid having two poses that both move the same p art of the characte character. r. This This would result in in d ouble or summ ed Individual targets. movement an d m ay not work th e way you intended. This is the the process for for building Individual targets. I

Create a pose and then duplicate the comicBookObject group and translate this copy to a place behind your w ork area. Rename Rename this group to something meaningful.

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Reset the clusters clusters ba ck to their default p osition.

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Pose the comic book again and du plicate the comicB comicBookObjec ookObjectt grou p aga in.

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Repeat this process process until you have several several target posed grou ps.

Two strategies for working with blend shapes Blend shape targets can be used individually or as in-betweens. I

Indivi dual targets targets

The first first strategy is to create individ ual mo vemen ts that can be add ed togeth er to form form p oses. For For examp le you could create create a target that just just has the arm move and another target that has the leg move. When you create create a blend sh ape u sing the d efault settings, settings, a slider is created created for each target. By By combining th ese two targets you can pu t the character into into the n eeded p ose. This techn techn ique allows for reuse of targets to create many d ifferent ifferent poses. I

In-Between targets targets

With this strategy you create a series series of poses that comp lete a motion. When you create the blend sha pe you specify “ In-Between ” in the Create Blend Blend Shap e Op tion Box. Box. This This will create a single single slider tha t transitions through each each target.

Workflows for target creation: Individual 1. Create a pose and then d up licate licate the comicB comicBookObject ookObject grou p an d tran slate this copy to a place behind you r work area. Rename Rename this grou p to something m eaningful about the p art of the object object you are deforming,( deforming,( ie. ie. headBending). 2. Reset Reset the clusters back to th eir default p osition. osition. 3. Pose the comic book again and du plicate the comicB comicBookObjec ookObjectt grou p ag ain. 4. Repeat this process process until you have several target posed group s that w ill ill lead lead into one another an d n ot overlap overlap too mu ch.

In-Between 1. Create a pose then du plicate the comicB comicBookObjec ookObjectt grou p, tran slate this copy copy to a place behind yo ur w ork area. Rename Rename this group to a nu mbered p ose to identify identify the sequence sequence order. 2. Translate the clusters to the n ext pose in the sequ ence. 3. Duplicate the comicBookObject group, translate and rename this group to the next numbered sequence. 4. Repeat un til the poses hav e been created to comp comp lete the per formance.

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CONCLUSION There are many w ays to animate a character in Maya. Each Each of Maya ’s d eformers eformers has its strengths strengths and because because you can layer layer these deformers you h ave several options options for getting getting the shap e to go w here you wan t it to go. Create simp simp le control control hand les les that qu ickly ickly let let you pu t the character character w here you w ant it. If If you find that you need more control then ad d it in. But But it is usu ally best to keep keep th ings simple at first. Learn each deformer ’s attributes and w hat they control. Work Work on v ery simple mockups first. first. Then Then ap ply wh at you have learned to the full mod el.

Work with the blend shapes created from this setup: Blended Com ic Book tutor ial available on the Discover Maya CD uses targets created by this setup The Th e Blended technique technique in blend shape an imation. imation. The comic comic book serves serves a tennis ball takes takes a bow and even morp hs into an an vil in in this tu torial.

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Blended Comic Book - Part 2 This tutorial tutorial shows you how to use Maya’s Maya’s blend shap e deformer tools tools to animate a comic book. In this tutorial:

a y a M f o e t s a T A

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Creating ind ind ividual and in-between blend shape animation

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Keyframing Keyframing blend shape an imation

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Deleting Deleting and Editing blend blend shapes

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Strategies for for creating blend shape targets

Blended Comic Book

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Before you start: This tutorial requires Maya scene files. If you haven’t installed the tutorial files go to the “Try Maya” section of the “Taste of Maya” CDROM to install. Starting Maya: You You can start Maya by d ouble-clic ouble-clicking king th e Maya 2.5 Evaluation icon icon on th e desktop or from Start → Programs → Maya 2.5 Evaluation → Maya. In Maya: Once the tutorial files files have been installed you will need to set th e current p roject roject in order to access access the Maya scene files. To set the current project from within Maya select File → Project → Set... and Navigate to to the directory w here you installed installed the Maya scene scene files. files. Selec Selectt the directory: Maya_tutorial_data and press OK.

Comic Book / Magazine animation App lying lying animal characteri characteristi stics cs to a norm ally ally in-animate objec objectt is a time h onored an d mu ch dem and ed anim ation job. job. Advertisers often ask for their prod ucts to become actors in in comm ercial ercial and print p ieces. ieces. target poses. You will then In this tutorial you will create create two types of blend blend shape an imation imation u sing provided target animate between these p oses. oses. A second tutor ial called called Comic Book Setup has been created created that explores the the techniques used for setting setting u p the mag azine for character control. control. This is is the character setup th at was u sed to create the character based blend shap e targets you will be working w ith in the following following tutor ial. Scene file descriptions:

comicbookstart.ma : This This is the scene file file you will start with. It contains grou ps of p osed ob jects you w ill use to blend blend between. comicbookanim.ma : This scene scene file file contains blend sh ape an imation u sing all of the p rovided target p oses.

These scene files files contain th e comic book w ith comicbookserve.ma, comicbookserve.ma, comicbookb ow .ma, comicbookothers.ma comicbookothers.ma : These various blend shap es app lied lied m atching atching the progression progression of this tutorial.

Layers: The du plicated posed targets of the comic book in these Maya scene files files have been org anized into layers . These layers can can be m ade v isible isible by accessing accessing the layer bar , Options → Layer Bar. To To toggle th e visibility of each layer press th e RMB (Right (Right Mou se Button Button ) on the layer bu tton, and select select Visible . Comic Book Cover Texture: Texture:

The source image for the com ic book cover cover texture is located in the sourceimages directory. You You m ay hav e to re-establish re-establish the pa th to this texture in the H yper Shad e Editor. This This process is shown below .

Blendshape Animation Blend sha pe anim ation in Maya is the techn techn ique of deforming a “base” object object by blend blend ing throu gh a series of “target” objects. objects. These These “target” objects objects are deformed into the p oses that the “base” object object will assume or m orph into. The The blendshap e is then keyframed at the d esired esired p ose at the desired time.

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January 2000, Alias| Wavefront, Wavefront, a d ivision of Silicon Silicon Graphics Limited. All rights reserved. By using this tuto rial, you have agr eed to the terms an d cond itions which can be found in the setup .exe file file in the Install Tutorials Tutorials folder of the Taste of Maya CD-ROM. CD-ROM.

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Blended Comic Book

Blend Shape Editor Window Blend shape workflow in brief:

object that will und ergo blend sh ape an imation (In this exam exam ple it will be a comic book). 1. Create the object 2. Make m ultiple copies of the object object (comic (comic book) and d eform them into p oses. The The p osed cop ies are called called targets. targets . The The original object object that is un deform ed bu t is going to hav e the blendsh ape ap plied to it is is called called the base. base. 3. Apply the Blend Blend Shape d eformer eformer to th e targets an d base objects. 4. Op en the Blend Blend Shape Editor, Window → Animation Editors → Blend Shape... adjust and keyframe keyframe the mix of blend blend shape target sliders. 5. Adjust Graph Edito r for smooth Adjust keyfram es and animation curves in the Graph smooth m otion otion and blend blend ing.

Local and World Blend Shapes: Blend sha pes can blend betw een objects objects and only use the local space or component shap e deviation deviation or they can also includ includ e the wo rld space transform ations in each target. In In this tu torial we will use the local space blend blend shape interpolation interpolation for blending blending between target p oses. oses.

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2000, 2000, Alias| Wavefront, Wavefront, a division of Silicon Silicon Grap hics Limited. All rights reserved. By By using t his tutorial, you h ave agreed to th e terms and cond itions which can be found in the setup .exe file file in the Install Tutorials Tutorials folder of the Taste of Maya CD-ROM. CD-ROM.

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comicbookstart.ma objects and layers

Creating Blend Shape Deformer Animation In the following following tutorial steps steps you will be working with the blend shape d eformer eformer to create blend blend shape animation using provided target objects.

1 Open Open comicBoo comicBookSt kStart art.ma .ma scene scene file file I

Start Maya

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Select File → Open Scene

...

Na vigate to the location location on you r hard dr ive where you have copied th e project project files files from from th e CDROM. CDROM. The scenes directory is where you will find find may a scene files. files. I

Select comicbookstart.ma

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Press Open

This file file contains several objects objects and grou ps o f objects: objects: comicBookBase bowPoses servePoses

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Blended Comic Book

heartBeatPoses otherPoses

Open the Outliner to view th ese object object group s as well as lighting lighting and camera objects. objects. These objects objects are actually grou ps o f objects. objects. In the Ou tliner you can LMB on the + sign to the left of the ob ject nam e to open the nested objects. objects. These objects objects may be p arents of other objects objects as well. The comicB comicBook object object has b een texture m app ed. Press the 5 key for for shaded display, 6 key for texture texture shad ed and the 7 key for textures textures w ith lighting lighting in the p erspective view.

Comic Book Cover Texture If the comic book frontCover frontCover textur e does not ap pear on th e magazine cover you w ill need to establish the path to this source image. When you hav e your p roject roject directory directory setup correctly, correctly, sourceimages like like this one shou ld be referenced referenced a utom atically. atically. You m ay need to establish establish th is path w hen u sing these scene file filess with th e evaluation copy of Maya for the first time. I

In the Hypershade/Visor wind ow select select the frontCover material from the Visor’s Visor’s Materials folder.

frontCover material in the Attribute Editor I

Attribu te Editor to ed it the m aterial called Use the Attribu called frontCover.

The Th e frontCover material has a file texture texture connected connected to the Color attribute. I

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Navigate to the file1 texture texture nod e by pressing pressing on the righthand side side arrow button for the Color attribute.


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file1 texture attached to the frontCover Color attribute The Th e Image Name attribute attribute w ill ill need the absolute path to the comicBook.iff image located in the sourceimages directory. I

Click Click on the folder icon icon then nav igate to the sourceimages directory.

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Select comicBook.iff and p ress ress Open .

You sh ould see the comic book cover cover texture texture ap pear w hen you are in shaded texture texture m ode. (Press (Press 6) 6)

Blend Shape Targets for Serve Poses

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Blended Comic Book


2 Create Create a blend shape between between the serve serve targets targets and the comicBookBase comicBookBase objects. objects. Create a blend shap e relationship betw een the bow targets and the comicBookB comicBookBase ase objects. objects. Selection election ord er is important. I

In th e Layer Bar RMB toggle Visibiltiy for the ServePoses layer to see these objects objects in in th e viewp ort. If the Layer Bar is n ot visible select Options → Layer Bar from the main menu.

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In the Outliner open the servePoses grou p to see its contents. contents. There are several group s each listed listed in ord er servePose1, servePose2, etc... etc..... These group s w ill be the targets for for the blend shape.

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Select Select th ese target group s in in the Outliner by holding holding down the Ctrl key and LMB selecting selecting each on e or Shift selec selectt the top group in the list list then th e bottom group in the list list to select select these these group s/ objec objects ts quickly quickly and in order.

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With the Ctrl key p ressed select select the comicBookBase grou p to a dd this to the selected selected ob jects list list last. last.

This order of selecti selection on is imp ortan t. The The tar gets first first an d the base o bject bject last. last. The ord er of target selection selection w ill also determine th e order of target slider slider or targ et position in the blend shap e. I

In the Main Menu select Animation as the menu set. (Lef (Leftt hand up per corner)

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Select Deform → Create Blend Shape ❐ option box. Confirm Confirm th at Blend Blend Shap e is reset to the default values by p ressing ressing Reset. The default settings will mak e “Individu al” targeted sliders. But But w e wan t to do an “In-Between” “In-Between” blend shape first. first. Later Later we will do an “individual” blend shape. Select “ In-Between ” check box so that it is checked. checked. Press Create to create create the blend shap e.

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Open the blend shap e editor Select Window

→

Animation Editors

→

Blend Shape ...

A blend shap e slider slider should be created created in this wind ow. Adjust Adjust the slider through its range to see the base object object morph between t he series of target p oses.

Blend Shape for Serve In-Between Poses

3 Keyframe Keyframe the blend blend shape shape sliders sliders to animate animate through through the the poses By ad justing the slider and keyframing keyframing its value you can control the the speed in wh ich ich p oses and blends b etween poses occur.

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To chan chan ge time LMB drag in the Time Slider time line. The The curr ent tim e field field w ill reflect reflect the curren t frame. Once a pose has been reached at the prop er time, keyframe keyframe the slider slider by pressing the Key Key bu tton in the blend shape window. I

Adjust the curren t time in the time slider. slider. Key Key the poses for the desired time un til you h ave a roug h animation sequence. sequence. If you just want a linear linear p rogression rogression through the pose set a keyframe at frame 1 with a slider slider v alue of 0, change curr ent time to fram fram e 90 and set the slider slider to a value of 1 and p ress key. You may h ave to adjust the Range Slider, expand expand ing the playback range to 1 - 90 frames.

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Press the play button to see the progression progression throu gh the poses over time.

Deleting Target Shapes If you are hap py w ith the blend blend shapes being derived from the targets you can delete the targets targets and still still retain retain the blend shape an imation. imation. The deformation deformation information is retained retained in the blend shape w hen you delete blend sh ape targ ets. This can can red uce the size of you r Maya file. file. To To get the d eleted target back, you could set the base object object in in the p ose with the blend shap e slider slider th en d up licate licate the base object. object. Note:

To edit the blend blend shape you will use the same type of select selection/ ion/ action. action. For examp examp le to delete a blend blend shape slider you wou ld select select the target that correspo nd s to the slider then th e base object object and then select select Deform → Edit Blend Shape → Add/Remove/Swap to edit the blend blend shape in the man ner necessary.

Two strategies for working with blend shapes Blend shap e targets can can be used as In-Betweens In-Betweens or as ind ividu al targets. I

In-Between targets targets

With this strategy you create a series series of poses that comp lete a motion. When yo u create the blend shap e you specify specify “In-Between” “In-Between” in th e Create Blend Blend Shap e Op tion Box. Box. This will create create a single slider slider that tran sitions sitions throu gh each target. This is what you just d id to mak e the comic book serve the ball. I

Indivi dual targets targets

This strategy strategy involves creating individu al movemen ts that can be combin combin ed togeth er to form form p oses. For example you could create a target target that just just has the arm moved or posed and another target that has the leg moved or posed. When you create a blend shap e using the default or individual settings, settings, a slider slider is created created for each target. By combining these tw o targets you can pu t the character into the needed poses. This This techn techn ique allows for reuse of targets to create man y d ifferent ifferent poses by comb ining them . You You need to be careful careful in selec selecting ting how you tran sform sform between some poses. They They m ay not be compatible without u sing sing some sort of transition pose.

1 Change Change the Time Slider Slider rang range e If you you have created animation and wou ld like the following following blendshape animation to occur occur after after the keys you have created created then ad just the ran ge slider slider farther dow n the timeline timeline I

If your your first first blendshape animation run s from frames 1 to 90 then set the ran ge slider slider to ru n from 90 to You can do this in the Playback Start Time an d Playback End fields of th e Range Slider. 180. You End Tim e fields You m ay hav e to increase the End Time field field to a value greater then your Playback End Time, in this case greater than 180.

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Blended Comic Book


2 Create Create “Individual” “Individual” blend shapes shapes using using the the bow poses Now you w ill create a blend sh ape th at uses individ ual target p oses. You w ill anima te the base object object by blending in a combina tion of target poses. I

On the Layer Bar toggle visibility visibility for the ServePoses to hidden the BowPoses to Visible.

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In the Outliner open the bowPoses group

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Shift Shift Select Select from from top to bottom the bow Pose grou ps: head Pose, rt_shou rt_shou lderPose, rt_armPose, etc... etc.....

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Ctrl select th e com icBookBase icBookBase object last.

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Targets and base shou ld be all selected selected at this point. Select Deform → Create Blend Shape

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❐

to open the op tion box.

Press Reset to reset the options to the default settings. Note tha t In-Between is no t checked. Press Create

Blend Shape for Comic Book Bow below the serve Blend Shape.

The default settings for for blend sh ape w ill create blend blend sh ape sliders for each each ind ividu al target you ha ve selected. selected. Each of these sliders will contribute to the sh ape o f the base object. object. If the com icBookBase icBookBase object looks a little chunky texture-wise press 3 to increase the display smoothness.

3 Anima Animate te the the Blen Blend d Shap Shape e Adjust and key the ind ividu al slider slider valu es to form form p oses that will create animation on the comic book. The targets that have been provided are d esigned esigned to w ork for the character character to take a bow. I

Open the blend shap e window to view view the ind ividu ividu al blend blend shap e sliders. sliders. Select Window

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→

Animation Editors

→

Blend Shape ...


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Adjust each each slider to see how th ey work together. I

Tip:

In the same m ann er as the earlier steps, key the slider valu e against different frames. frames. Anoth er hand y feature of the Blend Blend Shap e editor is the KeyAll KeyAll button. This lets lets you ap ply a key on all the sliders sliders at once at the curr curr ent frame.

You can work in a roug h man ner and clean clean up the animation in in the graph editor. Note that some targets may not flow flow smoothly into each each other and also that some poses will add add to each each other an d require mid-range values to comp comp ensate.Y ensate.You may find th at you cannot get to a p ose without the n eed for some add itional itional inbetween target p oses. oses. The second second tutor ial that is related related to th is examp examp le explains explains how to setup the comic book as a character for for qu ickly ickly creating creating th ese target poses.

4 Create Create Blend Shapes Shapes using using the other provided provided target target objects objects The scene scene file also contains two m ore grou ps of targets, hearBeatPoses and oth erPoses. I

In the Outliner open the heartBeatPoses groups and the otherPoses groups. To view these targets in the viewp ort toggle on their respective Layers.

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Shift Selec Selectt from top to bottom the heartBeatPoses groups.

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Ctrl select the comicBookBase object last.

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Targets and base shou ld be all selected selected at this point. Select Deform → Create Blend Shape

❐

to open the op tion box.

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Press Reset to reset the options to the default settings. Note tha t In-Between is no t checked.

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Select In-Between so that it is checked. Press Create

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Repeat this pr ocess for for the otherPoses group but do not u se In-Between.

You should have 4 blendsh apes in you r scene and th e ability ability to blend blend th e comicB comicBook ook into man y different different poses and shapes.

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Blended Comic Book

Heart Blend Shape Applied to the Comic Book

Workflows for target creation: Individual 1. Create a pose and t hen d up licate licate the comicB comicBookObject ookObject grou p an d tran slate this copy to a place behind you r work area. Rename Rename this grou p to something m eaningful about the p art of the object object you are deforming,( deforming,( ie. ie. headBending). 2. Reset the clusters clusters b ack to their d efault position. 3. Pose the comic book again an d d up licate licate the comicBookObjec comicBookObjectt grou p a gain. 4. Repeat Repeat this process until you have several target target posed groups that w ill ill lead lead into one another an d n ot overlap overlap too mu ch.

In-Between 1. Create a pose then du plicate the comicB comicBookObjec ookObjectt grou p, translate this copy to a p lace behind you r wo rk area. Rename Rename this group to a nu mbered pose to identify identify the sequence order. 2. Translate the clusters to the n ext pose in the sequ ence. 3. Dup licate licate the comicB comicBookObject ookObject group , translate and renam e this group to th e next num bered sequ ence. 4. Repeat unt il the poses hav e been created to comp comp lete the per formance.

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CONCLUSION The pow er of Maya’s Maya’s blend shap es comes comes from qu ickly ickly creating morp hing an d blend ing between objects objects of like or d isimilar isimilar shap es. There are man y w ays to anima te a character in Maya. Each Each of Maya’s Maya’s deformers h as its strengths and because because you can layer layer these deformers you h ave several options for getting getting the shap e to go w here you w ant it to go. Blend shape an imation can can be broken d own into tw o basic techn techn iques: 1. Each portion of the shape is blended ind ividu ally, this is a common technique for blending facial anim ation. A blend for each facial facial mu scle. scle. 2. The entire shape shape is blended blended into comp comp lete lete poses, happy face face,, sad face, face, mouth p honems, and other expression expression based shapes.

Learn How the Target Poses used in this tutorial were created: The Th e Comic Book Setup tutor ial fur fur ther illustrates Maya’s Maya’s pow erful deformer tools. Layering Layering d eformers to create a structu re that is easy to control is is the goal of this tutorial. The The target po ses used in the bow a nd serve blend shap e were created created u sing the character character setup you will learn learn in the Comic Book Setup tutorial.

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Autodesk Maya Tutorial - Dancing Comic Book

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