Maya 8 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual Quickstart Guide

12. Animation

Maya was built for animation. Almost anything you encounter can be animated, whether it’s a color, a texture, an object’s shape, or the intensity of a light. When combined with the techniques explored in Chapters 10 and 11, Maya allows you to undertake complex character animation (Figure 12.1).

Figure 12.1. Raf Anzovin animated this leaping character with Maya’s animation tools.

Most animation is accomplished by setting keyframes. In traditional hand-drawn animation, a lead animator creates key poses of a character—drawings at the beginning and end and other vital points of an action—and an assistant then draws the in-between frames, ...