Spring of 2013

Study Guide for the 10:00 a.m. Tuesday May 7th Final Test
aka 5/07/13 Maya exam



  1. 2012: Basics of Maya review: Learning the User Interface H O C, FEMCDW, APSDR, etc. should be carefully reviewed and practiced for the final exam.
  2. 2012: The SDK animation quiz material will be important to know for the final exam, so look at this SDK Set Driven Key review page.

    SDK: Set Driven Key Animation October 29th quiz preparation page. (12/12/12)

  3. 2012: Weeks 1 and 2 Maya basics review. See the 14 page chapter one from Introduction to Maya book by Wiley publishers.

  4. 2012: Assignment One paper and pencil questions from 2009.

  5. 2012: X and C and V - the snapping icons and Maya keyboard shortcuts. X is two intersecting lines suggests a GRID. C is the first letter of the word Curve. V comes to a point or points, like a pointer or an arrowhead. X, C, V are side by side on the keyboard and in the same order as the first 3 snapping icons.

  6. 2012: Spring 2009 - Class #5 review page: H O C; Tumble, Track and Dolly; Selection Masks and Vertexes, Faces and Edges; Snap to Grid - X, C and V shortcuts for Snapping.
  7. 2012: The Solar System: Understand how to make the Sun, Earth and Moon animation and be able to answer written questions about the techniques and concepts behind making the Sun, Earth and Moon. Grouping, Parenting, Pivot Points basics and how they apply to the Sun, Earth, Moon solar system animation we started the class off with. Spring 2009 resource, useful for Fall 2012 final exam.

    1. Sun, Earth, Moon Solar System exercise.

    2. Study guide for the Sun, Earth, Moon Quiz (hands-on) from week #14 (April 24, 2013)...

    3. Followup to One Star, One Planet, One Moon week #14 quiz (Friday April 26th, 2013)...

  8. 2012: Lights in Maya - the Point Light and the Spotlight. Casting SHADOWS Depth Map Shadows can be turned on from the Attribute Editor or from the Channel Box or by using the options on the Create menu > Lights specific command to get the dialog box of settings at the creation time.

    2012: Lights example: Also, see the URL: Squash and Stretch Cartoon Ball - Animation Curves and the Graph Editor. Know Tangents: See the Linear and the Flat Tangents combination. Peak keyframes of bouncing ball were set to FLAT and Valley or Landing keyframes were set to Linear Tangents. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT the rest of the page for 2012 final!

  9. 2012: Know the Ease In and Ease Out concepts and review animation curves and the graph editor.

    Watch any of these suggested 3D Buzz videos to review the way we animated the ball. This material is excellent in helping you understand the Dariush Derakhshani textbook pages handout. It also is likely very helpful in helping you as you finish your final project.

    1. Keyframe Animation - Bouncing a Ball
    2. Creating a Cartoon Ball - freezing the transforms.
    3. Animating the Ball - Shift+W; Auto Keyframe; Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor.
    4. Animations Curves, Tangent Handles.
    5. Acceleration (ease-in).
    6. Deceleration (ease-out).
    7. Flat Tangents versus Linear Tangents on the Cartoon Ball.
    8. Squash and Stretch.

  10. What is a STORYBOARD?

  11. 2012: Set Drive Key (EEE-FFF), Edit>Delete by Type > Static Channels (DDD), Lighting Overview, Keep Image, Render View, 7 (GGG).
       i. construct things (model)
      ii. bring them to life - add motors, etc. (movement, animation, change)
     iii. paint stuff in the real world - hypershade and texture the
                                           geometry we have created.
      iv. we have lights - pumpkins, lamps, spotlight, shadows, ambience.
    
      Up to 2:30 in the video, lots of ideas on simulation and modeling,
                               lots of parallels between the virtual
                                               world and the real world.
    
    Note: the above breakdown from (GGG) relates to 4 of the 7 stages: Modeling - Animation - Textures - Lights...
      i. Modeling
     ii. Animation
    iii. Textures
     iv. Lights
    

  12. Review test one questions (Monday October 15th, 2012 test).


Spring of 2013

Study Guide for the 10:00 a.m. Tuesday May 7th, 2013 Final Test