[CGMA] Intro to Maya

(2023) Rendered & Animated Robot
Apps: Autodesk Maya, Substance 3D Designer, Premiere Pro

During CGMA’s Maya course, I wanted to challenge myself by applying the practices to create a more customized outcome. As a result, this is my animation by the end of the ten weeks.

Click here or copy the link to see this project on Artstation:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/dKqrZx

WEEK 01-03 : Modelling

Changes to Design: joints, eyes, brows
Optimize Quad-based Topology
Cautious of N-gons & Triangles

I learned about the basics of sub-d modelling, utilizing a wide range of tools to help optimize your mesh, and methods to avoid using triangles or too many n-gons on surfaces such as bevels, edges, and corners.

WEEK 04 : Creating UVs

UV Boundaries
Cut & Sew for Optimization
Layout UVs

Once I was done with the modelling, I created our UVs for the robot parts. I found this process enjoyable, creating boundaries to lay the parts flat and using cuts and sews to avoid too much stretching on the faces. It was also essential to be cautious of where I placed the boundaries as that area may show the seam.

WEEK 05-06 : Texturing & Rendering

Hypershade
Arnold Materials & Presets
Diffuse, Normal, Bump, Displacement Maps
Substance Painter to Maya
Prep for Render: Lighting & Camera DOF

Week 5 & 6 was all about shading, texturing and rendering. Although I was taught to apply curvature on our Arnold materials using the nodes and Maya 2D textures, I wanted to apply what I’ve learned from the Substance Basics course to this project.

So, I assigned the robot an aiStandard Surface material and imported my Painter maps into the corresponding inputs.

WEEK 07 : Rigging

Setting up Human IK
Parenting & Skin Binding Robot Parts
Control Handles for Lattice & Blend Shapes
Key Sets for Animation

In week 7, I began rigging the robot, assigning the parts to the Human IK, then parenting the limbs and skinbinding the body to it.

I learnt to use the Lattice Deformer for the eyes and brows so its form could be manipulated. Using NURBS was very helpful in creating control handles for the eyelids and the mask’s blend shapes, as well as being easy to change when animated, as all of these techniques are keyable.

WEEK 8-10 : Animating & FX

Point On Poly Constraint
Utilize Mocaps & Baking
Animation w/ Timeline, Graph & Time Editor
MASH: Nodes & Animation
Paint FX: Particle Bushes

I encountered an issue with the body’s Skin Bind as the buttons on the chest wouldn’t follow when they twisted. I was suggested using Point On Poly to constrain each button and a face on the chest. It was tricky since this technique initially wouldn’t work, but later, I realized I had to create more cuts for the buttons to bind better on the surface.

Animating was a slow yet rewarding process, using the Graph Editor to adjust specific parts efficiently (since the mocap would distort the knee and elbow joints) and the Time Editor to arrange the transitions between the animations.

Within the last week, I created a simple MASH animation for the floating cyber-cube character and the particles coming out of the robot when it roars. Paint FX was used to add a bit more texture to the background.

Finally, I rendered the animation and added some sound design using Premiere Pro.