Parrot : .

The Making Of

We built a very basic model, introducing a few key tools in Maya, then rigged the figure we’d made.

Building the rig introduced bone and joint hierarchies, and also showed how a higher-poly model would deform better than a very basic one. The rig allowed for a good range of

movement, and introduced another important concept.

Weightpainting is essential to have a rigged model deform correctly. It allocates ‘weight’ to certain joints, which allows them to deform some parts of the model more than others. For

example, a waist joint should have some control over the chest, but none over the feet. My Parrot was painted so he could bend sideways and to and fro fairly well, without

distorting strangely. He was also able to open and close his beak, without the rest of his body following.

In order to weightpaint the model, you had to set some basic animation keys to see how the model would look in certain positions. This way, you see how your weightpainting affected the model’s distortions.

This model also introduced very simple UV unwrapping so textures could be created and applied. This was the first time I’d ever used Photoshop, and I found it even harder to

grasp than Maya. The different brushes were fun to experiment with, but rarely did it produce anything aesthetically pleasing.

Having exported UV snapshots, and externally created texture maps stressed the importance of having a proper project directory for each project. This keeps all the

files together, and easy for Maya to find. The outgoing UV snapshots go in images, and incoming textures go in sourceimages.

With or without its texture, the parrot was ready to animate. You had to remember to get rid of the keys set for weightpainting. This could be done through edit < delete by type < channels much easier than checking every joint.

I tried to incorporate the principles of anticipation and secondary action when animating my parrot’s jump. I think the anticipation is good, and he has a nice ‘springiness’ when he lands. The tilts and beak movements give him some character, and I think he’s rather cute.

When it came to refining animation, we were introduced to the graph editor. This allows you to alter the velocity/time curves of movements. It makes jumps look more natural if you break the tangents and alter the ones at the landing so the object does not slow before it touches the ground.

His texture looks slightly odd, but it still works. Very strangely, though, the texture on the top of his head moves when he does. The rest of him is fine, but on this one

face the texture shifts about. I’m not sure why, because all the settings seem alright, and I haven’t been able to reproduce the result.

This project introduced some key features of Maya, and familiarised me with the software a little. I still wasn’t particularly confident using it, but I could operate the

basic tools, and apply the concepts to further projects. I liked having a comprehensive and well-functioning rig to animate with, although

wasn’t keen on the weightpainting element of the process.I find the graph editor easy to use, as it is simply a velocity/time graph familiar from physics, and it helps me to understand what is happening with the animation when I

am refining it. I am still finding Photoshop difficult to get the hang of, although can create passable

textures. The UV unwrapping is also looking like it will be a problem with even slightly more complex models. This is possibly true for the modelling also, but it is difficult to

tell with such a simple example. I like adding small animated gestures to give the model character, but find larger

movements harder to perfect. Having a nicely working rig is wonderful, but building one requires careful attention.

This will need practise, but, I think, a valuable skill.Overall, I am happy with what I have produced in this project, and look forward to the next one, although I can tell I need to use the software much more to be comfortable

with it and its functions.