Course Syllabus

ANIMA-270-09

Maya for Game & Animation

Greg Lemon, glemon@cca.edu

Wednesdays 7:15 - 10:15pm
Fall 2017

Course Description:

Animation Workshops are a series of courses that teach essential skills about a specific topic within animation. Under the guidance of the instructor, students will engage in rigorous study about a specific subject matter. The goal of Animation Workshops is to produce work that illustrates the skills learned. These courses are open to all CCA students who have completed CORE D1 and 4D.

Course Learning Outcomes:

Upon course completion, students should be able to:

• Perform visual reference research for the purpose of developing technical and aesthetic direction for class projects.
• Create high quality 3d models and textures using industry standard tools such as Maya, Photoshop and Mudbox.
• Rig and animate a simple 3d character.
• Export modeled and textured assets, and import them into Unity.
• Create visual effects.
• Use Unity, C# and basic scripting techniques to create appealing interactions between elements in a VR scene.

Disability statement

Any student who feels she/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact Access & Wellness Services to discuss specific needs. Please contact Suzanne Raffeld, Director of Access & Wellness Services at 510-594-3775, via email at sraffeld@cca.edu, or stop by the office (Irwin Student Center) to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.

Class Structure:

This is a three (3) hour class meeting once per week. The class will consist of lectures, demonstrations, and work time.

Expectations:

• Come to class. Missing three (4) classes will result in an F grade for the course.

• Deliver game assignments on time. Late work will not be accepted.

• Failure to deliver a final project (due on the last day of class) will result in a failing grade for the course.

Grading breakdown:

Class Participation: 10%

Research for VR world project + blocked model : 20%

Completed 3d models/textures for VR world : 20%

Simple animated character for VR world : 20%

Final interactive Unity VR world project : 30%

Project 1: Research for VR world project + blocked model

Submission: zipped file containing 10 research images and maya project/files.

Due: Week 3

The VR world project is an interactive 3D VR scene you will create for your final project. 

In this assignment, you will do two things.

1. Brainstorm ideas and collect/curate research imagery for inspiring the look and feel of your VR world. 

• The VR world should be simple - think floating island, cuckoo clock, diorama, terrarium, snow globe, gnome house, etc…
• Your VR world should have one simple animated character in it. This character will have several simple animations that it will play. 
• The VR world should have visual effects elements and props than are animated. Think about how things in this world could move.
• The VR world should have elements than are interactive. Think of how touching this world and its contents could be made fun and interesting. 
• The VR world should feel authentic and polished.

2. Create a simple blocked out model from primitives - a “sketch” - for the purpose of finding the overall shapes and masses that make up the world. Think of this like modeling a rough version with pieces of clay.

Project 2: Completed 3d models, materials and textures for VR world
Submission: zipped file containing maya project/files.

Due: Week 6

Create high quality models, materials and textures for your 3d world, which you will later export and integrate into Unity/VR.

Quality guidelines:

Models should have:

• shapes that represented the object in a clear and appealing way.
• efficient and organized poly counts/layouts.
• topographies that help define shapes and underlying structures.
• efficient UV’s that texture cleanly and scale.

Materials/Textures:

• help define both the art style and properties of the object’s surface.
• surface properties
• materials and textures should work together; think about…
• surface finish: glossy or flat? Bumpy or smooth? Transparent or opaque?
• manufacturing details: stitches, grain, seams, patterns, etc..
• wear and tear: dirt, scratches, rust, stains, etc…

Project 3: Simple animated character for VR world

Submission: zipped file containing maya project/files.

Due: Week 9

Create a simple animated character for your project. This character will live in the world and interact with the player in a very simple way. The character should have at least 3 animations:

• Idle - plays automatically while the character is in the VR world. 
• Fidget - alternative to idle, plays randomly. 
• Interact - plays when the user touches the character in VR.

Project 4: Final interactive Unity VR world project

Submission: zipped file containing finished Unity project and VR build.

Due: Week 15

Your final 3d model and character, integrated into a Unity scene, with interactive elements. 

Final project checklist:

• Models and characters integrated into a Unity scene.
• Animated character plays idle, fidget and interact animations.
• At least one visual effect element created in Unity.
• at least three interactive elements that respond to VR inputs.
• sounds and haptic feedback for interactions.
• Consistent look and feel throughout the models and textures in the world.
• Good level of aesthetic and technical polish.
• VR app runs at a comfortable frame rate.

Schedule breakdown

Week 1 

• Introductions and class overview
• Intro to maya, film/game shot project assigned

Week 2

• Review film/game shot project
• Setting up a Maya project. Snapping. Selecting and deleting components. Soft-select. Lattices and Non-linear deformers. Nodes. Dependency graph. History. Order of modeling - from base shape to refined. UV’s and texturing. Organizing work in display layers and hierarchies. Using google to figure things out in Maya.

Week 3 - Due: Project 1: Research for VR world project + blocked model

• Review Project 1 submissions
• Demo: poly modeling in Maya. Iterative workflow. Cut tools and extrude faces. Defining a shape with primitives, using various mesh editing tools to refine. Modeling on top of image planes. Intro to UV’s and texturing.

Week 4 

• Demo: advanced modeling and UV layout in Maya. Curve modeling, sculpt surfaces tool. Selection tools, combining meshes, mesh cleanup. Developing materials and textures in Maya and Mudbox.

Week 5

• Workshop, one-on-one help.

Week 6 - Due: Project 2: Completed 3d models, materials and textures for VR world

• Review Project 2 submissions, critique.
• Demo: Building an animated character/object in Mudbox and Maya. Character modeling, UV layout. Using edge loops to define body contours and deformable areas. Building a skeleton in maya, skinning tools and weight painting.

Week 7

• Character modeling/rigging, continued. Skinning mesh shells to selected bone lists. IK setup, blend shapes.

Week 8

• Character animation. Animating character controls and creating animation clips. Blocking and refining animation.

Week 9 - Due: Project 3: Simple animated character for VR world

• Review project 3 submissions, critique.
• Demo: Exporting assets into Unity as .FBX files. Intro to Unity. Project structure, asset organization. Intro to scripting in C#. Classes, variables, methods, conditional/sequential logic.

Week 10

• Demo: Unity, continued. Intro to VR. Tracking head and hand positions. Using colliders and triggers for basic interactivity. Controlling animated characters with state machines and C#. 

Week 11

• Demo: Physics in Unity. Creating interactive physics objects. Creating movement and transitions with interpolation and animation curves. VR, continued. VR teleportation and camera control.

Week 12

• Demo: Visual effects in Unity. Particle systems. Controlling particles with C#. Complex interactions using advanced scripting techniques.

Week 13

• workshop

Week 14

• workshop

Week 15 - Due: Project 4: Final interactive Unity VR world project