Another Dimension: Maya - Basics

The world of 3D animation, a realm that I have just set foot in. I have never been interested in digital 3D animation, however, have never had any experience which might make me rash if I were to "knock it before trying it". With our newest Applied Animation module, we shall be introduced to this technique of animation which is the most prevalent in modern cinematography, and might be used eclectically by us 2D and stop-motion oriented animators. During the first session, we were taught the functions, tools, and main shortcuts of Maya, as well as the interface. Considering that it's an intricate yet versatile piece of professional software, it was necessary to go through the fundamental tools of the software, which is why the majority of the session was spent on the mechanics of Maya (and how to find our way around it). Unlike any other program I've used before, Maya places a necessary emphasis on the use of shortcuts, all of which I've written down for future reference. Several days after our session, following the online guide as well as some of the skills I developed during the session, I started making the truck in order to portray a general understanding of the program. By using basic polygonal shapes as templates, I made the truck from primal objects into a structure. When it came to the rendering, my tutor helped me out quite a bit with the notions of exporting a non-dull image of the workbase, something that I found to be quite versatile, as well. Luckily, I ran into no trouble, mainly thanks to my notes on some of the key tools in use. What I learned was that Maya is a strictly vector-based program with a substantial flexibility when it comes to manipulating objects, enabling all kinds of external structuring (vertex, face, and edge manipulation, rotation, scaling, distortion, warping, extrusion, beveling, etc...). With having no understanding of how these types of programs even function, I simply love the straightforward functionality of Maya and how there is no unnecessary complication when it comes to manipulating objects with the tools - you wanna rotate it? click, click, click, logical! Now, it's time to make a simple object, but without using any video guides on how to do it. Gotta develop my understanding further and further, step by step.

Finished truck model