Animate a Swimming Jelly with Caustics

 Animate a cartoony jelly traveling underwater.

In this super simple tutorial we show how to animate a cartoony jelly traveling underwater. This is a very basic tutorial aimed at beginners in Maya.

The idea is to do some very simple animation of an underwater scene, then add a caustic effect to reproduce the effect of light penetrating water.  The jelly rig can be downloaded for free here. 

Jelly Rig

The cartoony jelly rig can be downloaded for free here. If you can't find a copy, email us at info@animationapprentice.org

Work Method
Part 1- Animate a Jelly Swim Cycle

Jelly Swim Cycle Frame 1 and 33 on left

1. Download the rig and familiarise yourself with it.
2. Set your timeline from 1 to 33.
3. At frame 1, start with the recovery stroke. The jelly is flattened out, and its “legs” are splayed. Keyframe the jelly and frame 1 and 33
4. At frame 17, the jelly moves upwards, and stretches out, and stretches out its “legs”. Press play and you have the basic cycle.
5. Now add breakdown positions at frame 9 and 25
6. Adjust the motion of the “legs” so that, as they move upwards into the recovery stroke, they overlap and bend against the direction of travel. You will need to key each “leg” independently to achieve this.

Part – Add Caustics

In the second part of the tutorial we use Maya's Content Browser to add an underwater light effect.
1. Windows/Content Browser/FX/Fluids/Ocean Examples/Underwater Caustics

2. Select the Underwater Camera and Look Through Selected. This is your camera view

3. Scale down the Jelly (Scale to 0.01) and position the Jelly in front of the camera. 

4. Render a frame using the Maya Software Renderer

5. Render a Sequence of Frames so that the Jelly swims in front of the camera

Beginner Animation Tutorials in Maya

Animate a Simple Head Turn with Monty

To see more free basic tutorials in Maya, aimed at animation beginners, see below:

• Animate a Telephone Ringing in Maya
• Animate a UFO on a Motion Path
• Animate a Candle with Blend Shapes
• Animate a Simple Head Turn with Monty
• Animate a Flickering Neon Sign in Maya
• Animate a Foxy Tail in Motion
• Animate a Flag Waving in Maya
• Animate Two Dice Falling and Rolling
• Animate a Cartoony Vehicle Coming to a Sudden Stop
• Animate a Traffic Cone Being Knocked Over
• Animate a Submarine Underwater with Caustics

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.