Body Mechanics and Animation in Maya: Lifting Heavy Objects
Easily learn character animation and the body mechanics involved for lifting heavy objects and add style, personality, and life to you next animation. Please note that the project files provided with this training kit require Maya 7 to be opened. If you do not have Maya 7, you can create your own character rig with the help of our Character Setup in Maya training kit. Software required: Maya 6.5 and higher (Maya 7 required for project files).
What you'll learn
Easily learn character animation and the body mechanics involved for lifting heavy objects and add style, personality, and life to you next animation. Contains nearly 7 hours of project-based training. Popular highlights include: Exploring the Body Mechanics of a Heavy Lift; Animating to Show Believable Weight and Tension; Proper Timing and Spacing using Rhythm; Working with Storyboards; Pose to Pose Method; Adding Arcs; Follow-Through; Overlapping for Fluid Motion; Exaggerating Poses for Appealing Movement; Graph Editor; Weighted Tangency and Free Tangent Weights; Modifying Tangents; Editing Timing of Actions with Character Sets; Animating the Body in Sections; Animation Hot Keys; Character Animation and Object Checklist. Please note that the project files provided with this training kit require Maya 7 to be opened. If you do not have Maya 7, you can create your own character rig with the help of our Character Setup in Maya training kit. Software required: Maya 6.5 and higher (Maya 7 required for project files).
Table of contents
- Setting up the Scene 4m
- Scene Summary, Blocking out the Animation (Part 1) 11m
- Blocking out the Animation (Part 2) 8m
- Blocking out the Animation (Part 3) 9m
- Blocking out the Animation (Part 4) 10m
- Blocking out the Animation (Part 5) 10m
- Adjusting the Timing of the Extremes to Show Weight and Tension 16m
- Smoothing out the Extremes 7m
- Frames 1-23: Animating the First Section of the Upper Body 8m
- Frames 1-43: Finishing the Upper Body 12m
- Frames 1-79: Finishing the First Section of the Upper Body with Subtle Motion 16m
- Frames 65-79: Tweaking the Upper Body to Show Tension on the First Lift 5m
- Frames 88-127: Character's Second, More-forceful Attempt to Lift the Weight 10m
- Frames 112-184: Character Preparing to Throw the Weight to His Chest 9m
- Frames 156-186: Adding Follow-through Motion in the Head 9m
- Frames 165-184: Final Tweaks on the Upper Body to Complete Section Four 8m
- Frames 180-230: Improving the Arcing Motion of the Weight Toss 6m
- Frames 180-220: Modifying the Timing and Spacing of the Weight Toss 11m
- Frame 180-261: Aminating the Head to Show Impact of Weight Hitting Chest 7m
- Frames 221-272: Character Throwing the Weight Above His Head 12m
- Frames 254-311: Fixing the Timing of the Character's Forward Translation with the Weight 7m
- Frames 286-380: Animating the Fall of the Weight to Show Gravity and Impact 10m
- Frames 242-380: Finalizing the Weight Fall 10m
- Frames 332-380: Preparing the Hands to Drop the Weight 12m
- Frames 311-380: Finishing up the Upper Body 4m
- Frames 332-380: Adding Follow-through to the Right Arm 5m
- Frames 332-380: Completing the Right Arm 8m
- Frames 272-380: Refining the Right Wrist 6m
- Frames 332-380: Fine-tuning the Left Arm 7m
- Frames 332-380: Wrapping up the Left Arm 6m
- Frames 272-380: Finishing the Left Wrist 4m
- Frames 331-380: Final Tweaks on the Upper Body to Complete Section Nine 6m
- Frames 1-200: Blocking out the First Steps and Planting the Feet 7m
- Frames 1-35: Fine-tuning the Steps 7m
- Frames 20-43: Shifting the Body According to the Steps 12m
- Frames 66-201: Finalizing the First Segment of the Feet 3m
- Frames 185-260: Modifying the Feet for the Weight Toss 6m
- Frames 231-330: Adjusting the Timing of Character's Step Forward with Weight 11m
- Frames 260-330: Focusing on the Foot Steps 11m
- Frames 260-330: Weight Transfer According to Steps 10m
- Frames 244-330: Animating the Weight to Complete Section Three 6m
- Frames 294-380: Blocking out Final Foot Steps 5m
- Frames 294-380: Refining the Steps 7m
- Frames 294-380: Adding Shifts in the Body According to the Steps 10m
- Frames 1-380: Animating the Fist Channel of the Right Hand 6m
- Frames 1-380: Detailing Individual Fingers of Right Hand 6m
- Frames 1-380: Working on the Left Hand 4m
- Frames 1-380: Finalizing the Left Hand 9m
- Final Tweaks to the Animation 13m
About the author
Delano works avidly as an animation author at Pluralsight. Starting his career at animation studios like Shilo, Delano has developed a strong passion for his talents. His animation and rigging background help him teach and create some of the most-watched training on Pluralsight. A few of his favorite projects that he has contributed to include: Character Interaction in Maya and in Softimage, Rigging the Human Face in Maya, Rigging Sea Creatures in Maya, and Rigging and Animating Transforming... more