animation
a business worth getting into 270–1
golden age 207
Animation Layers 22, 23–5, 272–3
filter if crowded 277
lock BackAnimation 275
overrirde mode and muting 279
variations on a large scale 76
animators
Darrin Butters advice 291
Greg Kyle's advice 301
Jacob Bergman's advice 299
Keith A. Sintay's advice 295
Michael Cawood's advice 207
an im Export 143
Attribute Spreadsheet 141
audience focus 8
audience reaction 26
balls
animating with constraints 128–33
bouncing ball with antenna 12–13
bouncing ball using value operators 74–5
bouncing using Editable Motion Trails 96–9
curvesofa bouncing ball 18
using Grease Pencil tool 108–11
beats of a scene 72
Bergman, Jacob
advice for animators 299
animators as dying breed 299
favorite tools in Maya 298
first job in animation 299
knowing when you have found right idea for
reasons for sticking with it 299
relying on special script or plugins 298
working with motion capture 298
bookmarks, naming 79
Breakdown keys 73
Butters, Darrin
advice for animators 291
advice for a demo reel 291
doing things differently 291
favorite animator 290
favorite character 290
tips for getting inside character's head 291
understanding motivation/subtlety of a scene
workflow changes 290
camera angle 9
Cawood, Michael
advice for animators 207
animators as dying breed 206
favourite tools in Maya 203
finding the right idea for a shot 205–6
golden age of animation 207
interests and hobbies 204
personal projects 205
tips for getting inside character's head 204–5
understanding motivation/subtlety of a scene 204–5
using Maya in everyday job 202
channel selection 29
character poses
body movement 21
controller symmetry/object space 138–43
facial expressions 84–7, 246–69
giving and taking a pencil 126–7
hair Et cloth additions 168–71
lead action part of the body 116–17
rough posing 111
running and falling on the ground 182–7, 196–9
walking 28–9, 30–1, 76–7, 218–21
waving 14
see also facial animation; lip sync
clips
in relative space 91
clusters
move location 159
pivot point 161
position and weight 158
smooth influence of 163
coloring the action 22
compressed/contained 5
computer control 55
all or nothing approach 129
scale of 149
world 139
zeroing 140
copied pairs 188
core ideas 28
curves
of bouncing ball 18
drift 45
frame length 211
isolating specific curves on multiple controls 221
tweaking 92
see also splines (spline curves)
customizing see standing out
cycle with offset 139
experiment with making sections slightly
different in length 225
eyeballing 214
deformers
keep copy of body mesh before adding
deforms 155
Lattice Deform 72
wave 89
deleting 31
demo reel
Derrin Butter's advice 291
Greg Kyle's advice 301
John Nguyen's advice 297
Keith A Sintay's advice 295
dialogue
see also sound
dry erase markers on monitors 43
ease in/ease out see slow in/slow out
Editable Motion Trail 19, 20–1, 96–9
mouth corners (lip sync 2) 254–5
mouth shapes (lip sync 3) 256–7
see also character poses; lip sync
flatting 18
Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators 20
forward kinematics see FK
games 223
Infinity in 75
right click to give the menu 67
in-panel previews 11
Insert Key 72
inverse kinematics see IK
keys, working with 72–3, 182–5
Kyle, Greg
advice for animators 301
advice for a demo reel 301
animators as dying breed 301
favorite animator 300
favorite tools in Maya 300
knowing when you have found right idea for
a shot 300
reasons for staying with it 301
relying on special script or plugins 301
Lattice Deform 72
lip sync
see also character poses; facial expressions
maxed-out/hyperextended arms and legs 32
monitors, dry erase markers on 43
moving holds
mute/unmute channels 69
Nguyen, John
advice for animators 297
advice for a demo reel 297
animators as a dying breed 297
favorite tools in Maya 296
knowing when you have found right idea for
a shot 297
tips for getting inside a character's head 296
understanding motivation/subtlety of a scene 296
objects
running and falling on the ground 182–7, 196–9
selection 121
outstretched/extended 5
Pinned option 99
playing at speed 7
Polish, refining arcs in 196–9
Pre-Select Highlight 71
principles 3
overlapping action/follow-through 16–17
straight ahead/pose to pose 12–15
reference edits
namespace 233
standardize naming convention 235
Region Tool 72
Retime Handles 195
keep copy of body mesh before adding deforms 155
Roy, Kenny
making the most of reference video 172–3
scenes
acting out 178
saving a scene 33
understanding motivation/subtlety of 204–5, 291,293,296
Sintay, Keith A.
advice for animators 295
advice for a demo reel 295
how to use Maya in everyday job 292
relying on special script/plugins 294
tips for getting inside a character's head 293
understanding motivation/subtlety of a scene 293
working with motion capture 293–4
adding extra key to shape ease ins/ease outs 57
smooth channel 157
sound
generation 87
importing into a scene 249
tracking the movement 43
splines (or spline curves) 36–7
avoid letting curves drift 45
open viewport and Graph Editor together 39
see also curves
spotlight selection 11
handles pros and cons 53
keys pros and cons 53
weighted and non-weighted 50
plateau 49
spline 49
stepped 49
grease pencil tool 108–11, 112–15
texture
thumbnails 176
Track Editor 185
Trail Color slider 97
twinning 32
value operators
Add (+=) 74
divide (/=) 74
multiply (*=) 74
subtract (- =) 74
wave deformer 89
Darrin Butters' advice 290
moving holds with retime tool 194–5
moving holds when splining 188–93
world controllers 139
World Space 180
duplicating body parts 165
Youtube 176