How To Fix Floaty Animation Curves in Maya

How To Fix Floaty Animation Curves in Maya. A common mistake made by beginners in Maya is "floaty curves". So how do you fix floaty curves? The answer is simple - with the Flat Tangents button in Autodesk Maya. 

Attaches in Maya - The "Cheat Method"

In this short video above we demonstrate how to do Attaches and Parenting in Maya, using "The Cheat Method". It's a very simple approach which involves parenting an object to another - in this case, Monty's hat, using the simple Shift Select P method. Then, rather than un-attach the hat, we simply replace the hat with a new identical hat, which looks exactly the same.  This way, we don't have the bother of un-attaching the original hat - we can just remove it from the scene and replace it with a new one. 

Depth of Field in Maya and the Arnold Renderer

How do we create Depth of Field in Maya and Arnold? Sometimes we don't want the audience to see everything in our shot. Animators are film-makers, and the audience needs to be guided through the scene, shown only what is important - and leaving out what is unimportant.  Focus and Depth of Field can help with this - if something in the shot isn't important, simply blur it out. To see how to create Depth of Field in Maya, watch the short video above.  And to understand the he theory behind it, read this blog post.

Infinity Curves with Offset in Maya

In this very short tutorial (just two minutes long) we show how to use "Infinity Curves with Offset" in Maya.  Let's say you animate a character taking two steps across the screen, and you want to replicate the action. By using Infinity Curves with Offset, you can replicate the motion automatically, and have the character take as many steps as you like.  Once you're done, you can bake your curves, and then edit the shot.  

How to Install and Use the Parent Master Plugin

In this short video we show how to install and use the free Parent Master Plugin for Autodesk Maya. The Parent Master plugin is a useful tool that allows animators to attach and un-attach objects easily and quickly.  Here at Animation Apprentice we've been using it and recommending it since 2014.  The plugin is a Python script created by Paolo Dominici and has recently been updated for py3.  Watch the video above to see how to install it. You can also read our original blog post here from 2014.  You can find the PM official site here, and also find the latest version at Paolo Dominici's site here.

Animating With Maya's Motion Trail Tool

This short video (just three minutes long) shows how to use Maya's Motion Trail Tool. The Motion Trail Tool is very useful for smoothing out the kinks and bumps in your animation, to ensure that your arcs and paths of animation are as smooth and flowing as possible. Bumpy animation curves will create pops and bumps in your animation. The Motion Trail Tool is one way of overcoming these problems and giving your animation an extra polish. 

How to Use The Layer Editor in Maya

How to use the Layer Editor in Maya. This short video tutorial is part of our series of beginners' tutorials on how to use Autodesk Maya, and how to develop a fast, efficient workflow. The Layer Editor works much like layers in Photoshop - it allows you to put different elements of the shot on different layers, so you can work faster and more efficiently.

Export a Render Sequence in Arnold

In this super simple tutorial we show how to export a Render Sequence in Arnold, in Autodesk Maya. First watch the tutorials on basic lighting setups, such as Lighting in Arnold with Physical Sky, or Lighting in Arnold with Sky Shader, and then watch this video to see how to render out a series of images that can be imported into Adobe Premiere or Blender - or any editing software - ready to export as a movie file.

Introduction to The Autodesk Maya Interface

The video above is an Introduction to The Autodesk Maya Interface. This video is aimed at complete beginners, taking their first steps to use Autodesk Maya - still the leading software for 3D animation.  To see more videos on the use of Maya for Animators, follow the links below.

Ragdoll Dynamics for Maya

We're recommending Ragdoll Dynamics to all our animation students. Ragdoll Dynamics provides Maya animators with real-time physics for fast, automatic overlapping motion. 

Ragdoll is a real-time physics solver for Maya, similar the native nCloth and nHair solvers except that it works on transforms rather than points.

 

Should You Run the Latest Version of Maya?

Should You Run the Latest Version of Maya? This is a question recently asked by a student at Animation Apprentice. You would think the answer would be obvious - run the latest version, which (as of today) is Maya 2022.  However, there is a simple reason why this isn't necessarily a great idea. 

How to Animate a UFO with Blend Shapes

 

We've uploaded a new four-part tutorial to our expanding list of free tutorials at our YouTube Channel.  This latest tutorial demonstrates how to animate Blend Shapes (also known as Morph Targets) in Maya.  The idea is to take a simple object (a cube) and turn it into a shape-shifting UFO - as in the example above.  Blend Shapes, which are used extensively in facial rigging, are a simple animation technique that can yield impressive results. 

How to Use the Grid in Autodesk Maya

We've uploaded a new free video to our YouTube channel - how to use the grid in Autodesk Maya. The grid is what anchors us in 3D space, and stops us getting lost in the infinity of the X Y Z axis. The Grid, like everything in Maya, can be adjusted and tweaked, to make it work for you and the shot you are working on. Watch the video above to see how the Grid works in practice.

Why Animators Always Create a Shot Camera

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to forget to create a shot camera, or to delay creating one until it's too late. If you were on a live action set, one of the first things you would do is set up your camera and decide what the shot was going to look like. But in Maya, because we get a Perspective View for free, animators often forget to create a shot camera. This is a mistake - watch the video above to find out why.

Make Your Playblasts Look Like Renders

We're liking this helpful video by Wade Nedstadt, hosted at YouTube, which shows animators how to make a desktop Playblast in Maya that looks almost as good as a full rendered movie file. Wade Nedstadt tweaks the Playblast settings in Maya, and explains how to create a Maya Playblast "that doesn't have to look awful anymore". It's a neat way to avoid long, time consuming renders, and a smart way to speed up your workflow.

Why Animators Need Snappy Timing

Animation by Jamie Floodgate

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to have even timing and spacing on their character performances.

Even timing and spacing produces soft, floaty animation, which lacks definition and feels mushy.  This is particularly the case when the animation is based on live action reference. Reference, if followed too closely, can end up feeling floaty and weightless.

The solution to this problem is to tighten up your key poses, and spend more time in the key poses, rather than transitioning slowly from one pose to another. Animators call this approach "snappy timing", or "tightening up the poses". Your goal is to make the motion feel dynamic and crisp.

Why Animators Should Avoid a Flat Horizon

Flat horizons are one of the curses of 3D animation - nothing gives the game away faster than a blank, flat ground plane extending into infinity. One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to animate a character on a flat ground plane - the sort of situation that occurs only in 3D - never in nature. After all, in life, our horizon lines are broken up by landscapes, buildings, trees - the jumble of modern urban and rural life. Watch the short video above for some tips on how to avoid the curse of the flat horizon.

Six Tips to Make Maya Work Faster

Tip Number 6 - stay low poly

One of the most common problems we encounter at Animation Apprentice is a student's Maya scene slowing down so much that they can't animate anymore, or their scene becomes so slow that animation becomes a burden - not a pleasure.

Below are our Six Tips to speed up your workflow, animate faster, and make Maya work at optimal speed.

How to Install the ParentMaster Plugin

Installing plugins in Maya can be a fiddly process, and often needs troubleshooting. And, worse, every time Maya updates their software, you have to re-install all the plugins you installed a year ago. Above is a handy short video showing how to install the free ParentMaster plugin by Paolo Dominici to the latest version of Maya - Maya 2019. The Parentmaster plugin is very useful for attaching and un-attaching objects. Say you have a character who picks up a phone, and then puts it down again. For this, you need the ParentMaster. To see more about how to install the Parentmaster plugin, see this blog post.

Camera Always Follows, Never Leads

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to have the camera lead the action, instead of following it. One of the basic rules of cinematography (a fancy word for a moving camera) is that the camera always follows, never leads.  For example, if a character is leaving a scene, they should initiate the motion, and the camera should follow them. This is natural on a live action set, where the camera will naturally tend to follow the actor. But in animation, where we get nothing for free, these choices have to be made deliberately, and we need to be aware of the pitfalls.