Using Maya

     In the last week and a half we have begun using Maya to create basic animations. Our first lesson gave us a feel for the program where we learnt simple controls, how to create shapes, and how to navigate around it. The next two sessions were spent creating a very basic animation of a ball bouncing. We were required to apply the squash/ stretch factor that we learnt about in our animation research. We also spent a session with our tutor Mark beforehand, going over the process so as to tackle it most efficiently when we approached it ourselves. It also introduced us to new techiques such as the graph editor and tangent breaking. Most recently we have spent a session practising animation a ready made and rigged character which we have taken away to work on further. We will be required to create a walk, run and jump cycle for this character.