The Game Animator's Guide to Maya

267 Pages·2006·7.584 MB·English

by  Michael McKinley

3857ffirs.qxd 5/11/06 4:37 PM Page i
The Game
Animator s
’
Guide to Maya
®
Michael McKinley
Wiley Publishing,Inc.

3857ffirs.qxd 5/11/06 4:37 PM Page i
The Game
Animator s
’
Guide to Maya
®
Michael McKinley
Wiley Publishing,Inc.
3857ffirs.qxd 5/26/06 1:50 PM Page ii
Acquisitions Editor: WILLEMKNIBBE
Development Editor: HEATHERO’CONNOR
Technical Editor: KEITHREICHER
Production Editor: DARIAMEOLI
Copy Editor: LINDARECKTENWALD
Production Manager: TIMTATE
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: RICHARDSWADLEY
Vice President and Executive Publisher: JOSEPHB. WIKERT
Vice President and Publisher: DANIELBRODNITZ
Permissions Editor: SHANNONWALTERS
Media Development Specialist: KATEJENKINS
Book Designer: FRANZBAUMHACKL
Compositor: CHRISGILLESPIE, HAPPENSTANCETYPE-O-RAMA
Proofreader: JENNIFERLARSEN, WORDONE
Indexer: TEDLAUX
Cover Designer: RYANSNEED
Cover Image: MICHAELMCKINLEY
Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN-13: 978-0-470-03857-4
ISBN-10: 0-470-03857-8
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To my family, for their love and support.
Acknowledgments
So once again, events have allowed me the great opportunity to work with Sybex and Wiley
to produce a book! And once again, while my name may be on the cover, I can’t take all the
credit for its realization. Without the support of my family and friends, the understanding of
those I worked with to produce the book’s artwork, and the hard-working assistance of my
editors, this book would never have made it out of the idea phase!
Great thanks once again to Steve Garcia, who contributed the ace concept art for all
four of this book’s major projects. He was able to take a few sentences of description and cre-
ate some fantastic pieces of art that I and the other artists were able to really have a blast
making!
Speaking of which, huge thanks to Gary Bergeron, David Russ, Leif Robles, and Evan
Calderaro, who worked with me to create the models and textures used in this book’s projects.
I couldn’t have done it without you guys!
Great thanks to my good friend Sarah Stacy for helping me out at the last minute by
providing her voice for the lip synching chapter.
Thank you very much to Jacque Reimer for performing the sometimes-embarrassing
gunslinger moves for the video reference and lugging those heavy pistols around!
Thank you as well to Michael Morlan for helping me with the video reference filming. A
great feature of this book wouldn’t have been possible without his expertise and equipment. Check
out his impressive body of work (and maybe hire him for some) at www.Michael-Morlan.net.
Big thanks to everyone I worked with at Feverpitch Studios. I’ve never worked with a
greater group of people, and I’d count myself blessed to get the chance to work with any of
you again in the future!
And, of course, I have to thank everyone who withstood my bickering e-mails and
finally conceded to contributing their profiles to this book. Floyd Bishop, Scott Ruggels, Kiel
Figgins, Grayson Chalmers, Adam Houghton, and my good buddy Steve Garcia—thank you!
I have to acknowledge the great people at Sybex, Wiley, and Alias who helped me so
much in the creation of this book. While my writing skills perhaps have improved slightly
since my first book, without their help I’m sure this thing would have been made with card-
board and crayons! Willem Knibbe, Heather O’Connor, Keith Reicher, and Daria Meoli,
thank you very much! Is book number three in the future?
And last, but certainly not least, my parents and family. Without your constant sup-
port and encouragement I would never have accomplished as much as I have. I love you all!
Philippians 4:13
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Contents
Introduction viii
Chapter 1 Careers in the Game Industry 1
Developers and Publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Artist Jobs in the Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Junior Artist 4
3D Artist 4
Concept Artist 4
Character/Environment Artist 4
FX Artist 5
Technical Artist 5
Senior Artist 5
Lead Artist 5
Art Director 5
Demo Reels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Art Tests 7
The Game Development Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Chapter 2 Animation 13
Animation Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Timing 14
Emphasis 14
Secondary Motion 17
Anticipation 17
Follow-Through 17
Overlapping Action 18
Arcing Motion 18
Squash and Stretch 19
Settling and Resting 19
Straight-Ahead Animation 19
Pose-to-Pose Animation 19
3D Animation Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Keyframes 20
Interpolation 20
Rigging 20
Binding 21
Articulation 21
Forward and Inverse Kinematics 22
Vertex Animation 23
Blend Shapes 23
Animation Cycles 23
Set Driven Key 24
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Rigging Tools and Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Joint Tool 24
IK Handle Tool 25
IK Spline Handle Tool 25
Paint Skin Weights Tool 26
Clusters 28
Mirror Joint 28
Smooth Bind 28
Detach Skin 29
Go to Bind Pose 29
Animation Tools and Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Setting Keyframes 30
Set Driven Key 32
Blend Shapes 34
Graph Editor 38
Dope Sheet 44
Trax Editor 45
Animation User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
v
Time Slider 47
■
Range Slider 47 C
Playback Controls 47 O
N
T
Upcoming Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 EN
T
S
Chapter 3 Project:Calamity Jane 53
Assignment Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Tutorial: Blend Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Creating Blend Shape Targets 56
Assigning Blend Shapes 59
Setting Up Set Driven Key 60
Tutorial: Rigging Calamity Jane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Creating Leg and Feet Joints 64
Setting Up the Arm Skeleton 65
Mirroring Joints 70
Creating Specialized Joints 70
Setting Animation Controls 76
Binding the Skeleton 80
Painting Skin Weights 82
Tutorial: Walk Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Establishing Arm Movement 90
Ensuring Smooth Cycling 91
Incorporating Secondary Animation 92
Tutorial: Action Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Setting Pistol Constraints 97
Continuing the Animation 99
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Chapter 4 Project:Dire Wolf 103
Assignment Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Tutorial: Rigging the Dire Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Hind Legs 107
Front Legs 109
Remaining Joints 109
Animation Controls 110
Binding to the Skeleton 112
Painting Skin Weights 113
Tutorial: Run Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Spine 117
Legs 118
Finishing Touches 125
Secondary Animation 126
Chapter 5 Project:Giant Kraken 131
vi Assignment Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
■
Tutorial: Rigging the Giant Kraken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
S
T
N Continuing the Skeleton 136
E
T Applying Animation Controls 138
N
O Binding to the Skeleton 140
C
Painting the Weights 141
Tutorial: Idle Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Beginning the Animation 145
Smoothing the Cycle’s Repeat 145
Creating the Head Movement 146
Tutorial: Attack Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Finishing the Sequence 150
Tutorial: Death Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Chapter 6 Project:Storm Tank 157
Assignment Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Tutorial: Rigging the Storm Tank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Parenting to the Skeleton 163
Creating Animation Controls 163
Tutorial: Walk Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Setting Back Leg Movement 166
Creating Middle Leg Movement 168
Creating Body Movement 170
Establishing Gun Bounce 172
Tutorial: Action Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Creating Body Movement 177
Making Recoil Brace Animation 178
Continuing the Sequence 178
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Chapter 7 Lip-Synching 183
Acting in Video Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Using Audio in Maya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Tutorial: Lip-Synching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Phoneme Shapes 186
Matching the Mouth 192
Tutorial: Conversation Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Creating Eye Movement 201
Adding the Details 203
Animating the Body 204
Arming the Animation 207
Adding Secondary Animation 210
Chapter 8 Other Animation Projects 213
Assignments Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Tutorial: Taking Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 vii
■
Tutorial: Oozing Blob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 C
Oozing Down the Street 222 O
N
Getting Mean 224 TE
N
Stretching Out 225 T
S
Tutorial: Getting Ready to Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Glossary 234
Index 237