For a while now we have been using a custom script to export and import skin weights but a recent project made it necessary to re-work the code because it was just too slow for more complex meshes. Of course the task of transferring skin weights is nothing new and there are a bunch of [...]
The color picker in Autodesk Maya still lacks the ability to properly choose colors respecting any linear workflow settings. A current workaround is to introduce a gamma node which can be quite tedious even though a couple of scripts out there can help with the work. But still it results in more nodes being brought [...]
This rigging series for maya is the summary of my rigging lectures at the school I am teaching. I found that complicated workflows such as rigging can be never slow enough when doing it in the classroom. Especially the basics of rigging can be overwhelming for inexperienced users and so I thought I’d put together [...]
Just recently, while cleaning up a CAD model and remodeling parts, I noticed how cumbersome it is in Maya to move the current component selection along a specific axis, especially then the geometry needs to be extended. Though Maya has some nice tools to set the specific axis the way to get there can be [...]
This quick tutorial will show you one way to create a nice and clean looking wireframe render as used in the image below. Create a new render layer with your model selected and assign a new Lambert material to it. Set the color to black and the incandescence to white. Go to the shading group [...]
Animation und shot-breakdown for a recent production test. Most important to us was the realistic animation of the race car as well as a convincing look while keeping the render times reasonable. The goal was to develop an efficient workflow and an optimized production pipeline.
I put together a video showing the complete animation progress from shooting some reference video to final animation. Here is the breakdown of the video: 1. reference video: This was a lot of fun, we shot most of it in our living room pushing around chairs;-) 2. storyboard / thumbnails: I combined these two steps [...]
The compositing of the short was very basic and down-to-earth due to the fact that we had such a limited time for completion. For that the composition is nothing big, except for the good amount of layers and passes that had to get comped together. All in all there are 59 layers in the shake [...]
This year we decided to create a special holidays animation. Since we already had the santa character ready, it seemed to be a doable task, although it was already the 1oth of december. Our goal was to be finished on the 20th, and we almost made it;-) Here is the idea: Imagine it’s two days [...]
Sometimes I think renderers are to the 3d geek what shoes are to women: You can’t have enough of them and you need at least one for each occasion ;-) For a recent project we modeled a formula one race car and now had the time to do some testrenderings. Since we want to sell [...]