Vehicle Modeling

Vehicle Modeling

 While browsing the internet for a video tutorial of how to model a simple vehicle in maya I came across these articles. They go in depth in explanation on how to model various types of cars. Check it out when you have some free time, because I know its hard to find when you constantly read my blog posts!!

Model an Airplane in Maya!

Here is a very interesting series of videos on modeling an airplane in maya. I have provided a link that should show you all ten of the videos in the series. Although he is using an older version of maya, I am sure the same methods can be applied to the most recent version. Enjoy, and check out some of his other videos.

Here is a sample video (the first in his series):

Red Wagon Reference

This is the best video I could find that had a clear footage of a red wagon on different surfaces. Even though it may not have been intended for animation purposes, I will refer to it as if it was!

Octo-Wagon Progress

For this project I intend to have this octopus take a ride down a hill in his wagon. At the bottom of the hill will be a ramp which will enable him to launch himself back into the sea. So far I have modeled the octopus character, and the wagon. Now I just need to create the environment, and add the path animation.

Midterm - Progress

Here is what I have been working on for my midterm. We have to make this flying fox rig jump up and down, and make the tail follow his/her movements. I decided to have the fox jump as well as translate across a plane. Along with the translate I have added rotation and squash & stretch to bring the character to life.

The animation needs a bit more tweaking in the graph editor to improve flow. I will also keep checking the tail to make sure it is rotating properly.

Squash & Stretch - Video

Here is a video that I found on youtube, and it is one of my favorite animations in regards to squash and stretch. As you can see the smaller balls that are being launched have a lot of squash and stretch. Then when the bowling ball/cannon ball is launched it has little to none.

Also the balloon gives the animation a nice touch, because the balloon just floats towards the garbage can. It is almost as if the balloon is a character in itself.

Squash & Stretch

SQUASH & STRETCH

During my last research post I found an article about overlapping action, and I think that this article is also a part of that set of animation information. That being said, I was able to easily understand and get the information that I needed. 

What I learned from reading this article

 Every object has its own amount of flexibility. Even if you think that something doesn't flex or squash and stretch, the object has some sort of reaction. 

Rigidity - The ease at which the object squashes & stretches. (ex. A bowling ball has a high amount of rigidity, and a rubber ball has a low amount of Rigidity.) 

The bowling ball is very rigid and does not move much, whereas the rubber ball is not rigid and moves much more.

Volume - The object being squashed and stretched always keeps the same volume. This is important to remember when animation your object or character. 

You NEVER want to use scale to imitate squash and stretch, because it removes or adds volume.

Squirrel Tail Reference

I found it rather difficult to find a good reference video that captures a squirrel's jump. This video is the closest that I found. They left some peanuts on the ground to capture video reference of squirrels. Luckily they had an HD camera, and were able to slow down the jumps enough to see the tail movement. I think that this is the most relevant squirrel jump animation reference out there.



Here is another video that showcases a squirrel who moves his/her tail in a weird fashion. Although it does not show the squirrel jumping, it helps me understand more complex movements of the tail.