In this video, I lay out a somewhat automated way to set the Focus Distance correctly when rendering with Depth of Field. It involves connecting a distance measuring tool to the camera.
Setting Focus Distance
Category: Autodesk Maya
Isolating Lights in the Arnold Render View
How to see the contribution of individual lights to the scene in the Arnold Render view. One minute video in the new series Maya Tips and Tricks.
Procedural Mountain Building
In this series of 3 videos I show how to procedurally build and texture a mountain in Autodesk Maya, using the texture deformer and simple node networks.
3D Paint Tool
These two videos show the basics of using the 3D paint tool in Maya, and how to then refine the result in Adobe Photoshop. The model used was created by Naeem Green ’22 A rather old but still useful tutorial can be found on 3dtutorialzone.com
Using the Andy Rig
How to use the Andy Rig.
The basic features of the Andy Rig are explained in a video.:
How to use DSN Rapid Rig Basic
There are several scripts out there that let you create a rig for your character in a more or less automated way. The only free one that I found that actually works in Maya 2011+ is DSN Rapid Rig. There are two version: the basic and free one and the full version which of course is not free. Luckily the basic version provides enough functionality for us.You can download the MEL script from Creative Crash […]
BlendShapes: Shape Editor
Morphing has gotten a lot easier in Maya with the Shape Editor.
Morphing
This technique, also know as Shape Animation / Shape Blending, enable you to deform an object from one shape to another. The principle is simple: you have a base shape (the un-deformed state) and a target shape. By determining a percentage, for instance by pulling on a slider, you can by smoothly interpolate between the two shapes: the points of the object will move from the positions they are in for the base shape, to […]
Retopologizing using the Quad Draw tool
The Quad Draw tool in Maya is great for retopologizing a model. You basically draw a new mesh on top of the (probably way too high density scanned) mesh, Here is a video on the basics. To start drawing quads on top of an existing mesh Select the surface you want to re-topo (draw on) Make live (right click – make live, or magnet icon [plain magnet]) You can see which surface is live on […]
Inserting an Edge loop around an Eye socket
A simple technique to enhance the topology of your model. The eye is boxed in and could use an extra edge loop around it, so why not just draw it in and collapse the resulting triangles? Note that the actual modeling is done without smooth preview. The Interactive Split Edge tool has been replaced by the Multi-Cut tool