Animating Creatures in Maya: Insects
Learn an artist-friendly workflow to creature animation in Maya. Software required: Maya 8.5 and up.
What you'll learn
Learn an artist-friendly workflow to creature animation in Maya. Contains over 4 hours of project-based training for character animators learning new methods of animating multi-limbed creatures. Popular highlights include: Animating Hexapedal Creatures; Tips for Animating Insect Legs; Adding Energy for Appealing Movement; Using Pose to Pose and Straight Ahead to Block in Animation; Convincingly Animating Antennas; Follow-through; Overlapping; Weight; Anticipation; Establishing Timing for an Attacking Creature; Fine-tuning Motion With the Graph Editor; Adding In-betweens to Control Spacing; Animating in Sections for a Faster Workflow; MEL Scripting for Animation. Software required: Maya 8.5 and up.
Table of contents
- Preparing the Scene for Animation 10m
- Blocking in the Next Two Extremes 11m
- Finalizing the First Blocking Pass 14m
- Adding a Second Blocking Pass 7m
- Smoothing Out the Animation 5m
- Planting Foot Steps - Front Legs Moving Forward 15m
- Inbetweening Foot Steps - Middle Legs Moving Forward 12m
- Planting Foot Steps - Front Legs Moving to the Side 9m
- Planting Foot Steps - Left Back Leg Moving to the Side 12m
- Inbetweening Foot Steps - Middle Legs Moving to the Side 11m
- Tweaking the Body During the Charge 8m
- Animating the Back Legs During the Charge 11m
- Completing the Leg Plants During the Charge 12m
- Finishing the Leg Plants - Focusing on Right Side 8m
- Finishing the Leg Plants - Focusing on Left Side 7m
- Beginning to Finalize the Upper Body 10m
- Adding Animation to the Front Section of the Thorax 10m
- Completing the Petiole 9m
- Animating the Head 8m
- Animating the Gaster 13m
- Working on the Mandibles 11m
- Adding Animation to the Antennae 9m
- Fine-tuning the Front Right Claw 9m
- Wrapping up the Right Claws 13m
- Fixing up the Front Left Claw 8m
- Completing the Left Claws 13m
- Finalizing the Insect Animation 16m
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