Maya: Introduction



Maya
 For the next part of my development I will be using Maya to make the main weapon that the player will see in the final game, along with any other side objects I make to put inside the game at one point.

Maya is a 3d modelling and animation tool what is the industry standard for development right now. It is pretty useful and a good starting software to learn to use but at the same time pretty expensive to get a hold of unless you have the education license or pay the fee per year for the main license.

This is what the user will see on the start-up of Maya

The main user interface for the software may look complicated at first with the many tools that it shows but it is possible to only show the right tools you want for the specific task you would want to do. In the corner there is an option to change the workspace from "Maya Classic" to stuff for modelling or animation, this can help new users get used to the tools they will have to use for their task but most people can also use the regular classic view for the same tasks.

You are able to use a variety of shapes to start off with to make your own model for your game, they are all listed in the toolbar coloured in orange from here you can use the tools in the sidebar listed with the white shapes of a cursor or square, this will allow the user to select shapes, cut shapes and move/rotate/scale the shapes. You are able to select shapes multiple ways to the face, edges or the vertices. This will allow you to be more accurate when editing the shapes.

I have had experience with this software before but mainly for animation by using premade models found online that are already rigged, for the knowledge on modelling I went of the stuff I have made before in college. There was a tutorial provided for me to get used to the modelling tools what required to make a low poly house and utilized the tools what I would be using in Maya but I sadly didn't use it due to time constraints.

Animation

Maya also has another feature that makes it the standard for use in the game industry and that is with animation, The ways of animating in Maya makes it easy to pick up but also hard to learn. Animation in Maya uses a frame based system allowing you to animate in such options as 24fps that is ideal for making animations for films, 30fps and finally 60fps. There are more options of frames to animate in along with different ways of being able to animate your model.

Image of the Animation interface in maya

 The basics of animation involve using hotkeys mainly to make keyframes along with using the basic tools that would of been used with modelling. The S key is used to set keyframes along with the I key being used for inserting keyframes. These are the basic hotkeys that would be used when animating. There is more to animation when you open up the animation workspace what is located in the same dropdown menu where you choose your workspace, You are able to edit the frames to make it seem more smooth or more stiffer movement wise. 

Image of a model with added controls to make it easier to animate

There is different ways of being able to move the rig in the model around in Maya since it is possible to be able to have controls on the model to be able to make things easier animation wise, These controls can range from making facial movements easier to animate to even making it more simple to move individual fingers. These are an extra part to the rigging process what is a whole other part to the 3d modelling process that is also apart of Maya.

I have had some experience with this side of Maya before with animating a simple model that has been pre rigged off the internet along with being able to properly animate up to 30fps along with animating another model in college. I have followed a few tutorials on the basics of animation but have mainly tried to learn a lot on my own.



The next blog post will be about updates on the development of the game and also development of the gun model.

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