----- Date: Wednesday, 1 October 2008 22:40:08 CDT = (Central DayLIGHT Time) From: Mark Francis Jacobson ----- To: 810-088-11-fall@uni.edu Subject: Maya S H A D O W S and Lighting/Rendering new links... Hi Maya students, http://www.cs.uni.edu/~jacobson/maya/lights/LampBaseballBatWineGlass.html has two new links: http://www.cs.uni.edu/~jacobson/maya/lights/ShadowInMayaOct1st2008.jpg http://www.cs.uni.edu/~jacobson/maya/lights/PointSpotRender.jpg The 2nd link you have seen before, as it was a handout on Monday morning. But it was enhanced since then to show the relationships between Lights and Rendering and the relevant menus and Status Line icons to utilize. The 2nd link also makes it especially easy to see that the Render Current Frame icon (outlined in Purple on the JPEG image) is in the 7th group of icons and is the 2nd icon in group 7. The screen snapshot also shows the Shelf when the Rendering tab of the shelf is the chosen tab. --------- Finally, the screen snapshot shows that the menu set that is currently chosen is the R in A P S D R, i.e. the Rendering menu set. A - Animation P - Polygons S - Surfaces D - Dynamics <---------- This is the only menu set we have not used. R - Rendering It will probably be November or perhaps early December after a much needed Thanksgiving week long break that we will first see anything from the Dynamics menu set. Many people talk about APPS as an abbreviation for Computer Applications or Software Applications, i.e. Software Apps. How many apps do you know? Think of APSDR as the following. Show me some APS DR, i.e. show me some APPLICATIONS DOCTOR, APS DR is the acronym for the 5 menu sets in Maya PLE. An APS DR could be a help desk employee. You call or go see some computer consultant at the help desk. Think of taking your problem to the APS DR, the applications doctor. - - - - - APSDR = Animation Polygons Surface Dynamics Rendering - - - - - You will use P and S and R menu set items for this 2nd Maya project. No Animation till the 3rd assignment/project. No A from APSDR. No Dynamics until November at the earliest. No D from APSDR. Finally, looking at the following URL JPEG graphic screen snapshot, notice that the Create menu is red rectangled. The Create menu is part of the fixed FEMCDW and now we have Created NURBS Primitives Created Polygon Primitive Created Lights and Created CV Curves (CV Curve Tool) using the Create menu. What are the first two menus in the Rendering Menu set, i.e. the 7th and 8th menus on the menu bar when Rendering is the menu set chosen? 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- F E M C D W ? ? --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- File Edit Modify Create Display Window --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Question: What commands have you used from the Edit menu in Maya that you have never seen on the Edit menu of any other program (skip Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste)? Question: What command on the Modify menu did you use at one point in doing the Boiler assignment of the Steam Locomotive first assignment? Question: What command is needed from the Modify menu so that the Luxo Lamp that is created can properly model adjusting the study lamp to illuminate whatever book or flowers or newspaper or still life we want it to illuminate and bathe in light? Hint: think of Iowa winters, and you might be able to recall the name of the command. Mark A PS from DR Michael O'Rourke, - -- -- whose More on Hierarchies tutorial you are studying and practicing and following for part of your 2nd project, says the following: "Whatever contraints a system imposes and whatever the complexity of the model, it is important that you define the structure/skeleton of your model in a way that allows you to make the kind of movements you want to make with your model. In order to do this, of course, you must first know what those movements are. How, for example, does a horse's foreleg move? And how is that different from the way a horse's hind leg moves? You also must be aware of the technical constraints of the system you are using. Are angles limited to 180 degrees? Are rotations in all three axes possible?" Page 171 of Principles of Three Dimensional Computer Animation by Michael O'Rourke in 1995 with new editions in 1998 and 2003. Character Rigging and Skeletons go inside of surfaces. Before the end of the course you will see a character Leon and hear a few things about how his skeleton and his joints and legs and arms and spine were set up. Its called character rigging. We won't do any of that, well, we might do something really simple for a snowman so it can respond to rock and roll and kind of move like its got a spine and skeleton and came to life. Think Iowa winter again, here. It is nice that the little boy, Leon, and the squirrel in the movie Moongirl are both vertebrates and both mammals, cause the squirrel named Earl-the-squirrel can then actually be rigged by taking the rigging (skeleton, joints, arms, legs, etc.) that were created for Leon and adapting them for Earl-the-squirrel. Earl-the-squirrel is Leon's pet. I expect that the animated short film Moongirl may move into first place on my all time favorite movies list before 2009 is over. I will show you that short film before our class is over. In any case, I hope you enjoyed receiving A PS from DR Michael O'Rourke, and that creating the two lamps - -- -- by following his tutorial throws more light on Maya for you. You could say O'Rourke is a 3D apps doctor, i.e. a 3D APS DR ... :-) --- -- ----- Date: Wednesday, 1 October 2008 22:40:08 CDT = (Central DayLIGHT Time) ----- LIGHT from the Rendering menu set = APS DR - TIME from the Animation menu set = APS DR - ---- Date: Wednesday, 1 October 2008 22:40:08 CDT = (Central Daylight TIME) ---- Tastes Great... Less filling... Its Miller (Light) Time! Quote from Ghostbusters, modified by adding one very relevant and TIMEly word. "Its Miller Time!" from one of the final scenes in Ghostbusters when they mistakenly think they have defeated Gozur the Gozerian and all the slimers. Mere minutes, no mere seconds, perhaps 100 to 200, before the audience and our heroes are to witness and be surprised into freezing in fear as one of the most terrifying, threatening monsters in all motion picture history is unleased upon New York City. I shudder to even recall this moment, but am reassured knowing how the heroic battle of Venkman, Stantz and Spengler and newly recruited 4th Ghostbuster Winston Seddemore is able to save the day. I can still remember the screams heard from several surprised audience members on that day in the early 1980s in that dark movie theatre named The Regent in downtown Cedar Falls.