I used to know how to do this. In fact, I save everything; I even have my Maya files from my animation class back in 2001. So I dug them up, hoping to remind myself of how I rigged my characters. You know what? Maya 8.5 won't open a Maya 3 file. So much for that.
So I read the chapter on character rigging in my Maya book and found a couple of tutorials on the Internet. It wasn't the in-depth training I was hoping for but it was enough to get me started. And it's interesting, once I started organizing my models for different scenes, little things started to come back to me. For instance, I was in the middle of creating different facial and clothing setups for different scenes, and it suddenly occurred to me that I could add an attribute to my character and write an expression that turns different setups on and off according to that attribute. So I created an attribute called "Setup," which can be set to "normal," "morning," "day" or "night." Then I wrote an expression to turn on or off the different setup groups depending on how that attribute was set. The pic below shows "normal" next to "morning." And instead of showing and hiding things manually, all I had to do was use a drop menu.
Of course any seasoned Maya veteran probably thinks that's pretty basic knowledge, but I'm accessing parts of my brain that haven't been used in over six years. I'm just glad something's still there.
Speaking of buried knowledge, I got my animation project web site files off backup as well. Going through that site was beyond enlightening. I found a story synopsis I wrote but never developed. It was really smart, I'm going to have to put that on the future project list for sure. I'd also like to redo the project I did develop; I've considered that for years because it was a really good concept. I wish I had posted more information on the project I did develop but what I did post brought back a few things about modeling that I wish I had thought of earlier. The biggest find though was a presentation I did on advanced lighting techniques. It may even be a miracle I found it because I think I was about to embark on a pretty inefficient approach. Now I remember what I need to do, and finding that information even prompted a revision to the schedule. Lighting before texturing, not the other way around. It's starting to make sense again.
And you know what? I did some pretty good work back then, considering there was no such thing as an ambient occlusion pass. Can't wait to see what I can do now.
Somehow I still have to work in some serious web site revisions this weekend (and some serious sleep). Given the lack of official recruiting at SIGGRAPH by companies I was hoping to see, I'm going to have to get my name out there ASAP in case I can meet with anyone on the side. At least I have some friends in high places.
This is my latest weeknight yet. I'm sure glad it's Friday.
So I read the chapter on character rigging in my Maya book and found a couple of tutorials on the Internet. It wasn't the in-depth training I was hoping for but it was enough to get me started. And it's interesting, once I started organizing my models for different scenes, little things started to come back to me. For instance, I was in the middle of creating different facial and clothing setups for different scenes, and it suddenly occurred to me that I could add an attribute to my character and write an expression that turns different setups on and off according to that attribute. So I created an attribute called "Setup," which can be set to "normal," "morning," "day" or "night." Then I wrote an expression to turn on or off the different setup groups depending on how that attribute was set. The pic below shows "normal" next to "morning." And instead of showing and hiding things manually, all I had to do was use a drop menu.
Of course any seasoned Maya veteran probably thinks that's pretty basic knowledge, but I'm accessing parts of my brain that haven't been used in over six years. I'm just glad something's still there.
Speaking of buried knowledge, I got my animation project web site files off backup as well. Going through that site was beyond enlightening. I found a story synopsis I wrote but never developed. It was really smart, I'm going to have to put that on the future project list for sure. I'd also like to redo the project I did develop; I've considered that for years because it was a really good concept. I wish I had posted more information on the project I did develop but what I did post brought back a few things about modeling that I wish I had thought of earlier. The biggest find though was a presentation I did on advanced lighting techniques. It may even be a miracle I found it because I think I was about to embark on a pretty inefficient approach. Now I remember what I need to do, and finding that information even prompted a revision to the schedule. Lighting before texturing, not the other way around. It's starting to make sense again.
And you know what? I did some pretty good work back then, considering there was no such thing as an ambient occlusion pass. Can't wait to see what I can do now.
Somehow I still have to work in some serious web site revisions this weekend (and some serious sleep). Given the lack of official recruiting at SIGGRAPH by companies I was hoping to see, I'm going to have to get my name out there ASAP in case I can meet with anyone on the side. At least I have some friends in high places.
This is my latest weeknight yet. I'm sure glad it's Friday.
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