3D Animation for the Raw Beginner Using Maya

329

Chapter 12

Specialized Materials

and Material Effects

T

    of specialized eects that come with Maya, and we look at three

of them in this chapter. First, we look at creating what appears to be 2D animation

with Maya. en we look at painting in Maya, a powerful paradigm that is used in multiple

contexts. Finally, we address a common problem when creating an outdoor scene: provid-

ing lighting that naturally resembles daylight.

MAKING A TOON COW

Since this book is about 3D animation, it might seem that 2D animation is outside our

scope. But it’s not. at is because there are actually two ways to make 2D animation with

Maya. Well, to be precise, two ways to make our 3D animation look 2D.

Why would you want to do this? 2D animation has a completely dierent look than

3D. 2D animation is based on vector graphics, along with the distinct assignment of

colors to areas enclosed or partly enclosed by lines. is means that we do not gradually

fade one color into another and we leave the borders between colors sharp. is is how

we obtain the at 2D cartoon look. Oen this is the best way to create a model that looks

funny. e problem with 2D animation is that we have to draw our models from multiple

perspectives. is is time consuming and more signicantly, some of us are not the best

drawing artists.

Maya can render a 3D scene as if it was 2D, and we can simulate 2D by making use of

special shaders.

The Vector Renderer

Until now, we have only looked at using three renderers: Maya Soware, mental ray, and

Maya Hardware. But there is another one, called Maya Vector. If you go to the Render

Settings and select Render Using, you will nd the Maya Vector renderer. If you go to the

330 ◾ 3D Animation for the Raw Beginner Using Maya

Common tab, you will also nd that one of the choices for Image format is SWF, which is

Flash animation, the most widely used vector animation format. e vector renderer can

also produce vector images in Adobe Illustrator (AI) format.

e problem is that it is up to us to create a 3D scene that will look good when it is

vector rendered. is can be quite tedious to do. If you are, for example, using polygon

modeling, you have to carefully control

the number of faces on your object and the

colors you put on those faces if you want

the vector renderer to produce that at 2D

cartoon look.

But Maya has another way to get the job

done.

The Toon Shader

e second way to get a 2D vector look is by

using the Toon shader in Maya. We select

the model and then choose:

Rendering Main Menu → Toon → Shaded

Brightness Two Tone (see Figure12.1)

What Maya does is create a ramp shader

with two colors. If you look at Figure12.2,

you can see that the two colors have been set

to a dark and a light brown.

Next, we choose:

Rendering Main Menu → Toon → Assign

Outline (see Figure12.3)

FIGURE 12.1 Shaded brightness two tone.

FIGURE 12.2 Two colors selected.

Specialized Materials and Material Effects ◾ 331

is tells Maya to add an outline around areas of a given color, in order to simulate the

lines that might be drawn by a 2D vector artist.

Finally, as seen in Figure12.4, we choose a background color and have Maya place it on

a plane that is perpendicular to the default camera perspective:

Rendering Main Menu → Toon → Set

Camera Background Color

e resulting render is shown in Figure12.5.

Maya has taken care of the task of deciding

where each of the two colors will be placed

on the cow, as well as where to draw the

black outlines.

MAKING A GRAFFITI-COVERED

WALL WITH PAINT EFFECTS

e paint metaphor is used widely in Maya,

and the Artisan engine inside Maya sup-

ports a number of tools, in particular, the

FIGURE 12.3 Assign Outline.

FIGURE 12.4 Background color.

FIGURE 12.5 Toon cow render.