Assignment #8



Relevant Hotkeys/Tools ← Click!

Menu Navigation

Spacebar - Holding down this hotkey will bring up the "hotbox". The hotbox is all of Maya's menus in one place relative to the center of your mouse. This allows you to bypass having to switch menu sets every time you want to access certain functionality.

Camera/Viewport

  • Alt + Left-click and drag - Rotate the camera.
  • Alt + Right-click and drag / Scroll Wheel - Zoom the camera in and out.
  • Alt + Middle-click and drag - Pan the camera.
  • f - Focus camera on the selected object. The camera will now rotate around that object.
  • 4 - Display objects as wireframe.
  • 5 - Display objects as solid.
  • In four panel view: Hover mouse over viewport and press Spacebar to jump in and out.

Object/Component Selection

  • q - Select Tool. Also useful for "canceling" out of another tool.
  • F8 - Object selection mode.

Object Manipulation

  • Red tool handles correspond to the x-axis, green to the y-axis, and blue to the z-axis. Remember this color scheme, as it is used consistently throughout Maya for easy axis identification.
  • w - Move Tool
  • e - Rotate Tool
  • r - Scale Tool
  • + (the plus key) - Makes the tool size larger (affects all manipulation tools). Bigger tool handle sizes make small adjustments easier.
  • - (the minus key) - Makes the tool size smaller.

The Most Important Hotkeys You Will Ever Learn ...Ever!

  • z - Undo. Undoes the last thing you did. Applies to selections and deselections as well. Does not apply to camera movement by default. Maya's undo queue is initially set to only allow 50 undos in a row, so go to Window → Settings/Preferences → Preferences, select Undo from the list, and set the Queue Size to something like 500. You can set it to Infinite, but that may increase the likelihood of Maya crashing. Note for later in the year: importing resets the undo queue, so be careful.
  • Z (Shift + z) - Redo. Undone things are reverted. Be careful not to select or deselect anything if you are doing of bunch of redos, as that will reset the redo queue.
  • g - Repeat last action. If you need to perform a single action multiple times (such as extruding) but do not want to repeatedly dig through Maya's menus, just hit the g key.

For this assignment, we will continue to work on cardinal expressions, specifically disgust and joy. You will pose the face in two disgust poses: middle fibers and inner fibers. You will also pose the face in two joy poses: broad smile and slight smile. You will be using the Valencia rig for this assignment. Keep in mind that even the slightest details can change how the face is read, so make sure the movements you make show the correct expression you want it to be read as. Use the mirrors in the lab and yourself as reference.

First make a new folder in your student folder and label it “assignment_8”

You can get the maya file for the assignment 8 template on the course website.

Once you’ve opened the assignment in Maya, you’ll notice that a neutral expression has been keyed and labeled for all the poses.

    000 – Inner Fibers

    040 – Broad Smile

    080 – Slight Smile

Make sure as you go through the assignment that you are keying your poses every time you change something and to save often!

Use the “front_face_cam” to see in the view in which you’ll be turning your assignment in. It is highly recommended that you also use perspective and side view as you work on this assignment.

On some of these poses, you might want to turn on the secondary anims.

Remember, when the lips need to look stretched and thinned, use the push and curl attributes in the channel box.

For some of these expressions, we will be using the nose anims. Before you start using them, turn on the secondary face anims.

There are 3 nose anims total. One anim on each side and one in the center.

You are able to move and rotate these anims. You can make the nose wider and longer. For this assignment, you will either be making the nose slightly wider or will be making the nose into an arrow shape.

To widen the nose just move the outside nose anims outward.

To make the nose into an arrow shape move the outside anims up. You could rotated the center anim to make it look a bit downturned, but do so minimally.

Before you start screenshotting, make sure to click 7 so that the correct lighting is on.

MAKE SURE YOUR ANIMS AREN’T VISIBLE!

AND MAKE SURE YOU'RE IN FRONT_FACE_CAM VIEW!

Screenshot each pose. Name your screenshots:

    inner_fibers.png

    broad_smile.png

    slight_smile.png

Assignment due at 11:59PM on Monday 7/16 For turn in, submit the following to the assignment_8_submissions folder: