VIP: April 6th MONDAY class - ITT 322 classroom
It will NOT be in Lang 213 lab this Monday Apr 6th!

QUIZ Wednesday, April 8th

Wednesday, April Fool's Day class - 2009
Dynamics (Special Effects with particles) assignment

Demo of Digicell Flipbook by Jason Ryan
Anticipation and Squash/Stretch - 2 of the 12 principles
Set Driven Key animation compared to Timeline keyframe driven animation

  1. This assignment involves making special effects in Maya, specifically creating a particle fountain with a beautiful color pattern. To do the assignment, you will need to study the online tutorial material shown below. The assignment is due on Thursday, April 9th by 10 p.m.

    2. Maya 2009 online help: Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Dynamics > Lesson 01: Particles, Emitters and Fields. You will always want the TUTORIALS section and you do NOT want the User Guide for this introductory Maya class.

  2. Jason Ryan and Digicell flipbook software: Demonstration of using Digicel in planning out character animation by drawing stick figures. Illustrates ANTICIPATION concept early on. Watch for the Onion Skins and how Jason uses them to advantage. Jason reminds me of Marshall Dillon on Gunsmoke. No bad guy or outlaw could draw as fast as Matt. Jason Ryan also has a quick draw! :-)

    1. More about the Digicell flipbook tool.
    2. Anticipation is seen in the Jason Ryan demo. We also discussed Squash and Stretch today as we reviewed the Monday Lang 213 class. ANTICIPATION and SQUASH AND STRETCH are two of the 12 basic principles of animation according to Ollie and Frank in their 1981 book about Disney animation. Putting the Illusion of Life into animation is based on these 12 principles.

  3. Review of PARTICLES and special effects using the Dynamics menu set (APS D R) = D=Dynamics=F5. This page is background to review before you do the Particle Fountain assignment.

  4. Everything you ever wanted to know about SET DRIVEN KEY. We reviewed Set Driven Key today, after using it on Monday in the Lang 213 lab class. The Monday class links to a video that covers Set Driven Key by using a Squash custom attribute that was creating using the Modify menu > Add Attribute... command. Animate menu > Set Driven Key > Set... is the command that you use to get to the dialogue.

    I had an entire quiz on SET DRIVEN KEY last semester, so you can certainly expect the SDK topic to be on the April 8th quiz.

  5. Look over these Fall 2009 Maya final projects. Be thinking about what you want to do for your open ended final project assignment.

  6. One of these episodes was the episode mentioned in class today as the single best hour of TV I have ever seen: Guess the ER episode that was as exciting and engaging as media can get, much less a TV show.

Maya Fountain Assignment is due on Thursday, April 9th.