3D Animation for the Raw Beginner Using Maya

235

Chapter 8

The Fuzzy Border between

Modeling and Animating

T

    border between techniques used to model and techniques used to

animate models. is makes sense, as part of animating a model oen calls for alter-

ing its geometry. In this chapter, we are going to look at a few examples that underscore this

duality. Along the way, we will also take a look at Maya Fur and Hair (nHair, actually), as

well as Maya’s Ocean dynamics eect.

USING NURBS, SHATTER, AND FUR TO MAKE AN EGG AND CRACK IT

Let’s look at the Shatter tool in Maya. It breaks a surface into pieces in a controlled, yet

semirandom fashion to create the look of something breaking. First, we set up the scene

using NURBS.

Smooth Modeling for an Egg

In Figure8.1, we see a NURBS egg. It was made by rst creating a NURBS sphere, then

going into Control Vertex mode (with a right click), as seen in Figure8.2, and then select-

ing some of the control vertices (CVs) and pulling on them, as shown in Figure8.3. is is

an intermediate state created while pulling on a number of CVs. en, with each successive

pull, fewer CVs were pulled, until it formed a smooth egg shape.

Cracking the Egg with the Shatter Tool

Now, we go to the Dynamics menu, as shown in Figure8.4. In Figure8.5, we go into

Surface Patch mode in NURBS modeling (with a right click). In Figure8.6, we select a

patch. en, as seen in Figure8.7, we choose:

Dynamics Main Menu → Eects → Create Shatter

e result is shown in Figure8.8. e tool has taken that patch of egg and broken it

into smaller NURBS patches. e settings for the shatter tool (which you can access by

236 ◾ 3D Animation for the Raw Beginner Using Maya

clicking the box to the right of the Create Shatter menu

item) can be seen in Figure 8.9, and, in particular,

they control the shard count. e shards are clumped

into semirandom chunks—just what we need for our

cracked egg.

In Figure8.10, we move some of our chunks away

from the egg surface. Finally, we apply a white Blinn.

us, we can take a modeling technique—the shatter

tool—and use it to animate a cracking egg. All we need

to add is the keyframing of the fragments in dierent

directions.

A Chick and Fur

Next, we create a NURBS sphere and change the tab

selector to Fur; this pulls up the Fur shelf. e Fur shelf

provides a set of prefab shortcuts that can be used to quickly put fur on a character or

creature.

With the new sphere selected, we choose the yellow fur, and see the result in Figure8.11.

But keep in mind that the view in the design window in the Main Window is always an inexact

rendering of what is actually a 3D vector model. It is particularly dicult to quickly render

fur, and so what we see in Figure8.11 is actually quite dierent from what we will render.

FIGURE 8.2 CVs of a NURBS sphere.

FIGURE 8.1 A rendered egg.

The Fuzzy Border between Modeling and Animating ◾ 237

In Figure8.12, we have tucked the chick into the egg. In Figure8.13, we adjust some of

the attributes of the fur, in particular, its length.

e nal render is shown in Figure8.14. To apply fur to a model, you can use either

polygon or NURBS modeling. In Chapter 13, we will look at the UV Texture Editor as a

tool for carefully engineering the way a material is applied to a model. Cleaning up the

(u, v) texture grid of a polygon model can also make fur look a lot better.

Maya Fur and nHair: An nDynamics Effect

Now we look at a more sophisticated example. is involves the use of both fur and hair.

FIGURE 8.3 Pulling on NURBS CVs.

FIGURE 8.4 Dynamics menu.ti.

FIGURE 8.5 Surface patch mode.

238 ◾ 3D Animation for the Raw Beginner Using Maya

FIGURE 8.8 Shatter result. FIGURE 8.9 Shatter settings.

FIGURE 8.7 Create shatter tool.FIGURE 8.6 Select a patch.

FIGURE 8.10 Aer moving shards. FIGURE 8.11 Sphere with fur.