Animation Advanced 3D Space Production and Lighting Settings According to Storyboard
GCC Academy
Hello
My name is Seunghwan Yoon, in charge of the MAYA modeling lecture
MAYA is one of the 3D programs widely used
in animation and video fields
It is a program that allows a stable workflow
from modeling to rendering
and among them, MAYA modeling
has been developed functionally over a long period of time
and many users have proved its power
In this lecture, I will introduce the workflow
of character modeling using MAYA
and various methods
to complete better modeling
The modeling lecture will proceed through the stages of
MAYA settings and preparation, modeling, shading, and X-Gen hair
MAYA uses the Arnold renderer
but the renderer for this lecture
will be Redshift
Many animation companies use this renderer
which has the advantage of fast rendering speed
In this lesson
I will first talk about MAYA settings
and things to prepare
before getting into full-scale MAYA modeling
MAYA Settings for Modeling
Before getting into full-scale MAYA modeling
Let’s learn about MAYA settings and some tips
to increase work efficiency
Windows - Settings - Preferences
You can set basic settings here
There are so many menus, but don’t be scared
I will only go over the essentials as a modeler
First, go to the Display - Polygons menu
If you look here, there are Border edges in the Highlight
Check this
Border edges are
edges where Polygons
are not connected
Normally, when you summon an object
all faces will be connected
and it will appear as one closed entity
However, I will summon a plane
A plane comes out with edges that are not connected
If you consider polygons existing in the real world
these objects would not exist
If you look at it, the polygon itself has no thickness
Even if it is a thin piece of paper
thickness is always present
The back of the polygon is a concept
that was inevitably created to express the front
and in some cases, the back of the polygon
is not used to express an object
In order to distinguish these border edges well during modeling
it is good to check Border edges
and set the thickness to around 3.0
Go into Settings
I usually work with the Unit unit set to centimeters
Please note that it may vary depending on the studio
Select the File/Project menu
You can set the project path
as the default in Project Settings
but I will not touch it now
You can set it according to your personal preference
Here's a very important item
Check AutoSave
AutoSave cannot be emphasized enough
Although MAYA has a long history
there are still many times when it is forced to close
This is especially true when performing excessively heavy calculations
Even if that's not the case, it is a very useful function
when you close the program
thinking you have saved
AutoSave can burden your hard drive
because it frequently runs save edges
In that case, check Limit autosaves here
and set the maximum number of files
you want to save
The Interval right below
allows you to set the number of minutes for automatic saving
If 10 is written
one file will be created every 10 minutes
You can set the path below
and if you check the project
when you set the project path
it will be saved in the folder in that path
I use it by specifying a separate save path
as Named Folder next to it
If you look below, you will see a File Dialogue
Let's open the file window for a moment
MAYA's file open window
was created conveniently
but you may not like it because it is an unfamiliar explorer window
In particular
deleting a file by selecting it
and using the Del key is difficult
so I use the Windows default explorer window
If you check OS native here
the open window will open as the Windows default explorer window
An automatic update function
is in the Image Files below
so check this
This part takes up computer resources
but is very convenient, so I recommend checking it
Here is the Undo menu
If Infinite is not turned on in the Undo menu
I recommend checking it
This is a function that allows you to Undo infinitely
Let's go to the last item in Preferences
Applications
The function for viewing images
in MAYA in Image Viewing Applications
is set to Fcheck by default
but it may be inconvenient
I mainly use XM viewer
but you can choose according to your preference
Click on the folder
and select this executable file
It would also be good to set Editing Applications below this
I recommend setting it to Photoshop by default
Again, select the executable file
Other Image Files will simply be copied to Photoshop
Click on Save, and when you're done with all this
go to the File menu and select Save Preferences
Only then will all the functions in Preferences be saved
That's it for Preferences setting
and next is the plugin settings
If you go in Windows - Settings/Preferences - Plug-in Manager
most of the things we need will be set
We will check Redshift because we will use
Redshift as the renderer
Next is the render settings
If you look here, click the gear-shaped icon
and set Redshift in rendering
If you look below, you will see the render size
You can set it to the size you want
Usually, videos are worked on in HD 1080
You can set the sampling value in Advanced's Sampling
The initial value is 4, the minimum is 4, and the maximum is 16
When adjusting the detailed quality later
set this value to 8 or 32
If this is too much trouble
just check Automatic
There is another important part
You must check this part of Global Illumination
This part is very important
You must turn it on to express realistic light
You must turn it on
I set the first setting to Brute Force
and the second to Irradiance Point Cloud
but you can set anything
The next useful setting
is to turn on Display - Heads up Display - Poly Count
This will help a lot when modeling
Display - Heads up Display
Poly Count
If you look here, the numbers are 0
so I will create an object
The front part represents the number of polygons in the scene
and the back part represents the number of faces
of the object I selected
There are 800 faces in this scene
with 400 for each
and the object I selected
has 400 polygons
Knowing the number of faces in the modeling
will help a lot when modeling
Next, select Lighting from the menu
in the Display window
If Two Sided Lighting is on
I recommend turning it off
This is to distinguish
the back of the polygon clearly
If it's on, it's not easy to distinguish the front and back
Therefore, I recommend turning it off
Next is the shelf part of customization
I recommend creating your shelf
on the shelf above MAYA
If you organize and upload frequently used commands
the work speed will be much faster
First, there is a shelf for modelers
Delete the unnecessary commands
by right-clicking and pressing Delete
Then, if there is a command you want
hold down Ctrl+Shift and left-click
on the command you want, and an icon will appear
If you go into Edit
you will see that this icon is connected to a command
You can even add options to the command
Here is the Freeze command by default
Right-click - Select Edit
and look at the Command tab, then there will be a command
Look at the Double Click Command tab next to it
There is nothing inside
I think it would be good to put the Freeze option command here
Freeze Transformations in Modify
Here are the options
Hold down Ctrl+Shift and left-click
to create an icon
Let's open this with Edit
There is a command that is the same as before
but there is one more command called options at the end
Copy this
go to Freeze
and go to Edit - Double Click Command - Paste
Let's test it
I selected the object
and moved the location
I'll press Freeze
You can see it change to 0
Again
I'll double-click this icon
You'll see the options window pop up
Here, check the options you want
and run the command
In this way, you can create settings
that allow you to enter the options window
for other commands by double-clicking them
You can also group similar commands
when too many icons are on the shelf
If you look at Freeze in Modify
there is a command called Reset Transformation above
Let's create this
After copying this command
go to the Freeze command
and go to the Popup menu
Click the Create button
give it a name
and paste the command
Then, you can just close it
Go back to the Freeze icon
and right-click
If you look, you will see the command you created earlier
To test this
take out a new object
move the location, and right-click to select
You will see that the command works properly
Next, let's change the shortcut key
Shortcut keys are
a very personal part
To change this shortcut key, go to Windows - Settings
Hotkey Editor
and the shortcut key setting window will open
On the right are the keys already set
with shortcut keys
and on the left are the shortcut key lists
I will set Edge Flow, which I often use, as the shortcut key
If you type flow
in the Application Command below
the Edit Edge Flow I want will appear
Select this, and I will set it to Alt+1
Then, an exclamation mark will appear here
to tell you this is an existing shortcut
If you click Yes here, it will be ignored and just saved
Save
The next shortcut key is Grow
which I often use
to expand the Component selection
A shortcut key has already been saved here
I find it cumbersome to press this key
with my right hand
so that I will set it to the left
After selecting it, I will set it to Alt+Q
And the opposite of Grow, Shrink
is Alt+A
If you set a shortcut key that suits you like this
your work speed will increase significantly
Next, let's find the toggle key
As you all know, toggle is a function
that turns a function on and off with one button
I usually save and use backface culling as a toggle key
In the tab below, I will enter tgl, an abbreviation for toggle
Here, you can see a command called Object Backface TGL
I will set this to F
If you test it, you will see that
backface culling is toggled with F
If you look at the toggle commands
you will find many useful functions that suit you
For example, Symmetry TGL is also quite useful
Among the functions of the following shortcut keys
when setting the shortcut key, if you press the expansion icon on the right
you can choose On Press and On Release
You can choose one of these two
On Press applies the command the moment
you press the shortcut key
and On Release applies the command the moment
you release the key
An example of a command function that I frequently use
is the Pick/Marquee
and Tweak/Marquee settings in the modeling toolkit
To briefly explain this function
Pick/Marquee is used when moving components
such as vertices, edges
and faces after selecting them
This is the basic function state of MAYA
The inconvenient thing about this function is that
you have to select each vertex and then move it
If you select Tweak/Marquee
you can move it at the same time as clicking
Depending on the situation, this is a very useful function
If you search for Marquee in the shortcut window
select Select Mode Tweak/Marquee
and select A
Then, select Disable Tweak/Marquee and select A
On Release
Then, it is set to On Press here
Save
If you click on the vertex and move it
pressing A and entering the vertex
will move at the same time as you click
And if you release A, it will return to
the original mode, Pick/Marquee mode
If you assign a shortcut that suits you this way
it will be very helpful for your work
Various Script Functions
Script
A representative site for MAYA scripts
is Highend 3D
In the window
www.highend3d.com
If you go here, there is a search section
Here, I will install a script
called Duplicate Faces that can be executed faster
The script name is Dupefaces, Dupeface
The store section is Free files
he software is Maya, search
I will download it here and install the script
but you must be logged in
to download it here
Download
Copy
Go to the document
go to your MAYA version folder name in MAYA
and copy it here
Go back to MAYA
and look at the extension name of the script you copied earlier
it is Mel, which means Mel script
Then, if you click this button in MAYA
a window called Script Editor will pop up
Here, I will throw it in the MEL tab
Then, information about this Mel will appear
and most scripts will have an installation method
or a command to run this script written in the front
It's not written like this now
but if it's not written, the file name will mostly be
the operating command
Copy
and write the script file name here
drag and move it with the middle mouse button
select Mel
and delete the other useless ones
Let's test it once, click Face
You'll see that the Face is copied quickly
Usually, in addition to this function, there is a function called Duplicate Face
which is basically in MAYA
If you command here
the selector I don't want will be selected
and two objects will be selected separately
and finished in Face mode at the same time
Because you can skip all these processes simultaneously
it's a useful script for quick modeling
You can use the commands of this script
with shortcuts, not just the shelf
Open the shortcut window
go to Runtime Command Editor
and type New
dupeFaces
Enter the same name for the Description below
The sub-category is my category
so I think it is related to modeling
and name it models
Save
Then, go to Custom Scripts
and create a sub-category called modeling
a command called Depe Faces
I will assign it to Alt+2
If you test it, you will see
it is executed with the shortcut key Alt+2
I recommend that you collect several scripts this way
to create your optimized environment
If I tell you a few more useful scripts for modeling, there is a script
called abSymMesh
among the scripts you can find on this site
in Highend3D
This script has a function called blendshape
to create character expressions
It is a concept of creating various expressions in advance
and applying the shape according to the situation
and these expressions are called targets
Let's copy one from the sample modeling
The modeling on the left is the original
and I will create the expression of the modeling on the right
and apply a blendshape to the original on the left
Select the target, select the original object
and blendshape, then select the target
from this right shape and enter the value here
This is how animation is possible
However, I only made one side
because I can create targets on the left and right separately
and animate them separately
In that case, I can copy the location
to the other side after creating one side
The abSymMesh script is used for this
Open the abSymMesh script, select the original
select the object I want to flip left and right, and press Flip
The left and right shapes will be swapped
Select Flip again
and make the left and right shapes the same
Mirror Selected
You can easily create additional targets like this
The number of targets can be in the tens
You can see this script as a great help
in creating them
If you search for detachSeparate in Highend3D
you can get this script
The function of this script is
almost the same as the Dupefaces
I mentioned earlier
Dupefaces had the function of copying faces
but this script simply separates them
It easily and cleanly separates objects
The next script is Duplicate Along Path for Maya
After installing this script
and taking a look at the script, I created a curve
and an object as a sample
When you run the script, this window will appear
After selecting an object, press Object
and after selecting a curve, press Curve
and change the quantity to create it like this
The selected objects will be listed along the curve
In this case, if you want to change the direction of this object, you can grab the vertex
and change the vertex like this
to create a cylinder that flows along the curve
Another function is Deform
which can be created by deforming into a curve shape
Click Deform here
and click the button
These are objects that were created earlier, so I'll delete them
If you click Delete, they will be deleted
With Deform, these objects can be connected
and completed
as a single object in a pipe
If you search for Free files
with simple pipe in Highend3D
you can find a script called Simple Pipe if you scroll down
Download and install this script
This script secretly comes up with a lot of pipe-shaped modeling
You can think of it as a script
that makes pipe-shaped modeling easy
I'll show you a simple demonstration of creating a pipe
Here is the Curve I created
Then, run the Simple Pipe script
set the diameter and circumference with Create, Radius
and adjust the number of faces
around it with Round
There are also Taper, Twist, Rotate
and other functions
If you want to create a neater pipe shape
I plan to create a basic object
and create a pipe along
the edge of this basic object
First, select the edge
select Convert - Polygon Edge to Curve
Linear, and Apply
Hide for a moment, select Curve, and then press Create
Set the Taper function to 1
and make the face an octagon
The pipe is neatly created
Next, let's look at another site
other than Highend3D
It's a very famous site called ArtStation
It's also a site that modelers should know
There are mainly modeling works here
but they also sell scripts
I will introduce mainly free scripts
Here, in the sub-search, Arc Deformer
Download this script
The function of this script is to control
the flow of edges using curves
It is mainly used when creating natural curves
When you want to refine the shape of an uneven edge
select the edge
and run it, and the curve shape will appear like this
You can grab the Bezier of the curve and modify it
and you can grab the points of this curve and modify them
You can create points of this curve by adding them
You can modify the area
to give it power like this
The next script is Easy Rename
It is a name editing script
There are many types of name editing scripts
Most of them have similar functions
You don't have to stick to this script
you can use other name editing scripts
This is a script called Select Hard Edge
which automatically selects edges
It is mainly used in object modeling
and automatically selects the edge part
when adding an edge to the edge
Here is an example object
Normally, when I want to add a bevel to this edge part
I have to go into Edge mode
and select each one individually
but by using this script
I can select the edge at once
If you add a bevel here
you can create a very clean object
The next script I will introduce is Quad Sphere
This is a script that easily creates a cube-shaped sphere
In the case of the sphere supported by default in MAYA
the faces are concentrated in one place
so you can see that the surface is slightly distorted
the surface is slightly distorted when the shape is deformed
You can prevent this by using a cube-shaped sphere
When you run the script, it is created immediately
Even when you change the shape
you can see that the surface continues smoothly
This is a script that I use a lot
The script came out when MAYA lacked convenient features in the early days
but still supports useful, convenient features
It is called ZhCG PolyTools
but I will just call it PolyTools
When you install this script, there is a separate menu here
To briefly explain
Edit Components Edit Facet
This is a function that divides
polygons into natural edges
After selecting a face, press it
and this menu will appear
where you can divide various edges into edge shapes
The most commonly used ones are grid-shaped edges
or you can create radial-shaped edges
The next
most used is
Regularize
Here, Flatten flattens the selected face
in various directions
Using the X-axis
Y-axis
Z-axis
you can create it and the direction you are looking as a plane
or you can flatten it by calculating the average
Next is Randomize
It moves the selected components irregularly
And Relax is often used with this
It loosens the positions of the vertices
However, the disadvantage is that it shrinks slightly
and I don't use this that much
Next is Average Line
It is a tool used to organize edges
If you turn on Even and press it
you can see that the edges
are arranged at equal intervals
Next is Straighten Line
This function also
straightens the edges
When straightening, if you click Even and press it
it will be arranged at equal intervals and straightened
Next are the Duplicate Edges below
This is used to extract edges as curves
MAYA also has this function
but I don't necessarily use it and use this
because it can extract
multiple edges at once
As I will discuss later when working with hair
this feature is useful when extracting curves from a pile of hair
when working with hair in Xgen
Shape Line
This feature attaches edges to the extracted curve
Select the curve, add it
grab the edge you want, and press the button
to see it attached like this
The next feature is Quick Sel in Select
It quickly saves the selected components
The saved components are a useful feature that allows you
to select them again anytime
Next is To Pattern
It automatically executes a patterned selection without connecting
For example
if you empty two spaces and select and press this
the selection will be automatically made according to those patterns
These are the most useful scripts
Another advantage of this script is that
it allows you to assign shortcut keys
If you open Hotkey
go into Custom
and all the functions I used earlier
are here
You can assign shortcut keys to the functions you want here
to use them more easily and quickly
I'll end the script here
and when you have time, I'd like to tell you that
it's also fun to learn by slowly executing the commands
and scripts in the shortcut window
I'll summarize what we learned in this session
First, we learned about MAYA's settings
Second, we learned how to set shortcut keys
Third, we learned about useful scripts for modeling
Except for a few settings, most of what we learned today
can vary depending on the individual
If you have the settings that suit you
it will be a great help in shortening your work time in practice
Thank you for coming this far
Layout Concepts and Types Basic Settings for MAYA Settings Select [Windows]-[Settings]-[Preferences]
Check Border Edges in [Display]-[Polygons]-[Highlight]
Redshift settings in Render Settings Render size: You can set it to the size you want, usually work in HD 1080
Global Illumination feature: Must check to express realistic lighting
Change shortcut keys Shortcut key setting window: [Windows]-[Settings/Preferences]-[Hotkey Editor]
After searching and selecting Grow, you can set the Grow shortcut key to expand the component selection by entering Alt+Q as a shortcut key
Pick/Marquee function: Function used when moving a component after selecting it Tweak/Marquee function: You can move it at the same time as clicking when selecting it
Various script functions Using script commands in shortcut keys
Enter content in each field in [Runtime Command Editor]-[New] When selecting Custom Scripts, commands are created in Modeling
Setting shortcut keys for Absymmesh script commands Absymmesh function: Blendshape function exists to create character expressions
Clicking Mirror Selected allows you to easily create additional targets
Detech Separation Script Separate objects easily and cleanly
Duplicate Along Path for Maya Script Select objects and change the quantity to list objects along the curve
Grab the vertices and transform them to create a cylinder that flows along the curve
Various script commands Deform: Completes objects into a single pipe-shaped object with interconnected objects Simple Pipe: A function that makes mode
Arc Deformer: Controls the flow of edges using curves Select Hard Edges: Automatically selects edges
Sphere Maya: Creates a cube-shaped sphere ZhCG_PolyTools: Divides polygons into natural edges