Taught by Matt Leonard, this Maya course is aimed at those who have little or no experience in 3D, or post-grads who know another system, such 3DS Max or Softimage but want to expand their software skills. The course is designed to cover all the main areas of Maya's vast toolset including Modeling, Animation, Rigging, Muscles, nParticles, Dynamics, nCloth, Hair, Fur, Fluids, Shaders, UV’s, Lighting, Cameras and Rendering.

This course is entirely project focused and throughout the term we’ll be working on a single shot featuring two animated characters chasing each other around in humorous way. The shot will be created with a final Stereoscopic output in mind and will utilize all areas of Maya mentioned above. An extra bonus class has also been added on to complete the project in Nuke. All models, animations, etc will be made available to complete each class so if you fall behind you’ll still be able to jump in at any class and follow along.
Leonard has been in the 3D and visual effects industry for 19 years and has produced work for feature films, commercials and large corporate projects. He has spoken at various events and shows on behalf of Autodesk, The Foundry and eyeon Software. He has had articles published in magazines and journals and has beta tested Maya, Nuke, Fusion Particular and Mocha. He currently runs his own on-site training company in the UK and has trained artists from companies such as Framestore, MPC, Digital Domain and Mr. X.
Class 1:
If this first class we will begin by looking at Polygon and Sub-Division modeling techniques. We will also talk about the new 2011 UI and various hotkeys. We'll finish up the lesson by looking at creating various models using Curves and Surfaces.
Class 2:
Our second class is dealing mainly with animation. We cover animating objects down a Path, via Keyframes and the use of Deformers. We also look at the Connection Editor, Set Driven Key, and various editors including the Graph Sheet, the Dope Sheet and Trax, Maya's non-linear editing system. I have also included an extra video covering some modeling techniques used to build the rest of the models we are using
this week for animation.
Class 3:
Characters, Rigging and Muscles: Our third week moves into more character-based work, we’ll look at building Skeletons and Rigging them for both FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics). From here we’ll Bind the Skeletons with the geometry from class 1 and set Constraints. Finally we’ll look at Skin Deformation and the use of Maya’s Muscle Collation system .
Class 4:
In our 4th class we move away from model animation and into particle animation. Adding Maya's nParticle systems to our scene we'll be learning how to create various types of Emitters and then control our Particles. Alongside this we'll explore Nucleus, the heart of Maya's nDynamics system, and look at adding Fields and a very brief look at Goals that control and order the Particles.
Class 5:
In class 5 we stay with Dynamics and look at the animation of Rigid and Soft Body objects. This is done through the use of natural forces such as Gravity, Wind, and Turbulence. We'll explore how objects can Collide with each other (and Particles) along with how to Constrain Dynamic objects together and keep Soft Bodies from totally ripping apart through the use of Goals weights.
Class 6:
In class 6 we progress on from nParticles and Dynamics to look at nCloth, Mayaís high-end cloth simulation system. We'll cover how to convert geometry into nCloth and how to edit its parameters, changing its Material type, Weight, Tearability and resistance to Dynamic forces, etc. We'll also cover nClothís ability to Collide with geometry and nParticles, along with nConstraints used to constrain cloth to other objects.
Class 7:
In class 7 we look at both Fur and Hair. For Fur we cover Light Models, Scale and Density, Length, Baldness, Inclination, Polar and Roll, Width, Curl, Scraggle and Clump. Then in Hair we look at Paint Effects Style and Curves, Follicles, Start and End Positions, Constraints, Collisions, Texture, and more.
Class 8:
In class 8 we dive into the world of Fluid Dynamics. We look at Oceans, Ponds, Wakes and 2D and 3D Fluid Dynamics. We cover the use of Locators for floating objects Boats and Motorboats, Foam creation, shaders and more.
Class 9:
In class 9 we look at camera and lights. For camera we specifically look at Types, Environments, Depth of Field, Stereoscopic, Film Backs, and mental ray shaders. And for lights we look at Types, Colour/Intensity, Shadows, Decay Rates, Light Linking, and mental ray shaders.
Class 10:
In class 10 we cover shaders and textures, along with rendering. Specifically we look at creating Shaders, Texturing, UV Mapping, mental ray shaders, setting up the Rendering, Render Layers, Render Passes and looking at openEXR files in Nuke. In the special bonus class we continue to look at Maya's Rendering using mental ray. We specifically look at Final Gathering, Global Illumination, Caustics, HDRI and Physical sun and sky.

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