Intro to Maya is an in depth study of working with Autodesk's Maya Software. This course was specifically designed for students that are new to 3D, or for students that are transitioning to Maya from a different software package.
Our 11 week course thoroughly explores the Maya interface, and covers the basics of creating and manipulating objects, rigs and animations. In addition students will have an overview of materials, lighting, rendering, and customizing the Maya interface.
This course will give the students the solid foundation they need to be successful throughout the rest of the courses in our programs. By learning the the basics of the Maya software package before taking our more advanced courses, students are better able to focus on learning advanced techniques in our other classes.
The Body Acting course is a milestone in the Animation Program, in this course students focus on creating a multi-shot pantomime story that will likely be an important piece for their portfolio. By using a characters expressive actions and poses, the students learn to communicate situations and feelings to their audience. The students learn the values of thorough blocking to help make the splining and polishing stages simpler. Over the course of the term they will likely be surprised themselves at the level of progress this project will bring to their skills. They will learn to use essential tools to help them bring great performances from their character, some of these tools are: posing, staging, rhythm, solidity, beats/phrasing, appeal, personality, structure, solid and malleable parts, simplicity of form, straights and curves, texture in timing, and moving holds. With their first attempt in story-telling at Animschool, our students will gain important knowledge, experience, and a portfolio piece; while also allowing themselves to express their creativity at a whole new level.
Students that are enrolled in our Introduction to 3D Modeling course will develop the skills needed to model 3D objects and characters. Our course focuses on practical application of the principles and techniques of efficient and appealing 3D modeling.
Throughout the course students will practice modeling organic and inorganic real world objects and objects from a design. Students will learn how to effectively interpret a design and realize that vision in 3D space. Students will also be taught about visual appeal, and how to make their models really stand out.
As this is an introductory course students are also exposed to several modeling techniques, including polygon modeling, Sub-Division Surface, nurbs, and more. Students learn about edge flow and topology, and how to optimize their models for the 3D pipeline. Because this course is taught by professionals in the animation industry students will also learn best practices and efficient ways to work, this will help students to accomplish more in the time they have available.
AnimSchool’s Intro to Rigging is an unparalleled introduction to the world of Rigging. Students will develop a remarkable skillset of rigging techniques, culminating in the rigging of an entire humanoid character.
Building on a series of fundamental rigging exercises students will gain an appreciation, and understanding of rigging principles. Each exercise builds on the previous, so students are able ease into the complexities of rigging.
Students learn how to use ZBrush software, sculpting a character from a design. Students learn the process of topologizing a dense sculpted mesh into a usable 3D model in Maya.
Students learn the best modeling work-flow and practices in order to make appealing characters. Students tackle advanced facial modeling and learn the landmarks including: how to evaluate a model from multiple vantage points, how to simplify lines, what to look for to reveal model problems.
Students also model a hard surface object or set piece for their character.
NOTE: This course requires the purchase of the student version of ZBrush, typically $450.
Advanced Production Modeling students will focus on creating a portfolio level character model. Students will be guided through the entire process from selecting and interpreting a design, thru modeling an appealing character with proper topology and edge flow. The finished characters will prepared for deformations and rigging.
Students will learn industry standards for modeling in both posed and T-pose to best showcase their work. Starting from simple shapes and increasing detail and applying proper anatomy. Students will pay special attention to Bodies, heads, hands and feet. This course also covers topics like UV Mapping, normals and smoothing.
Environmental modeling will help students learn the technical and artistic skills to create visually appealing 3D environments.
Students will learn about analyzing and interpreting designs, blocking, rhythm, variation, spacing, UV Mapping, hard surface, organic, and prop modeling, generating textures, Maya's NCloth and more.
Students participating in Intermediate Rigging will use the rigging concepts they have previously as well as more advanced techniques to create a production level Rig. Students will learn about using ribbons and follicles to create a more flexible rig. And a more advanced hierarchy and constraint system is used.
This course teaches body rigging. Rigging controls like forward/inverse kinematics, twisting, and world/local constraints are added for ease of use during posing. Then shapes and customizations are applied to refine deformations. Concepts such as multiplier attributes, lattices, wrap, nonlinear, and wire deformers, beginning Python scripting, and gimbal avoidance are covered.
Program Students are encouraged to use the character models from Intermediate Modeling to create a fully functional rig, and portfolio piece. Students without an approved modeled character may have one provided by AnimSchool.
Learn the secrets of appealing facial rigging! AnimSchool's great face rigs are known all around the world. Our students learn facial rigging techniques that will help them break up facial articulation into the most usable set of functions and shapes.
Students will delve into the world of Python scripting in Maya in our Rigging Automation course. Students will learn about Functions, Classes and Object Oriented Programming. The primary goal for the class is to prepare students to develop custom auto-rigging utilities, and interfaces, to optimize their workflow and automate repetitive tasks.
Introduction to 3D lighting provides students with an in depth overview of the lighting tools available in Autodesk Maya and Mental Ray. Students will become comfortable working with lights in Maya and will learn how to compose and render amazing images.
In addition to learning how to light a scene in Maya students will be taught cinematic lighting principles, and how they apply to real world lighting applications as well as CG applications. This will better inform the lighting decisions that the students make.