Module 3: CAMERA AND

MOTION PATH
ANIMATION
 There are exciting camera angles, cut and transition in a movie is of
the same importance as the animated character when animation is
nothing but an art of good storytelling.
 From this unit, you will learn how to use a camera according to a
path, which will help you to communicate the audience better.
 There is also a session about path animation, which will help you to
animate any object according to a specific path decided by the
animator. You can always modify the path later, when required.
SESSION 1: CREATING CAMERAS

 Create > Cameras > Camera

 Camera
 With this camera type, you see only the camera icon.
 camera freely rotates and loses track of its "up" vector, you should use
it only when you're linking the camera to another object for movement
and animation, or when you are placing a camera in one fixed spot.
 Camera and Aim
 This camera includes a camera target and an aim handle for adjusting
the camera target.
 This camera automatically stays level in relation to the horizon
 Camera , Aim and up
 This camera type includes two handles: : the aim handle, described for
Camera and Aim, and an up handle for banking (levelling) the camera.
This camera type is useful when you want to bank the camera during
your animation.
 Camera Settings : key settings for cameras under the Camera
Attributessection:
 Camera Attributes:
1. Angle of View and Focal Length: It controls the amount of
perspective exaggeration. Raising the angle of view attribute
lowers the focal length attribute.
2. Camera Scale: Camera Scale is like a multiplier for the Angle of
View setting.
3. Clip Planes: Only objects located within the values specified for
the camera's clip planes appear in the scene. If distant
objectsare not showing up in your scene, raise the Far Clip Plane
value. If nearby objects seem to be appearing in cross-section or
not appearing at all, lower the Near Clip Plane value.
4. DepthofFieldEnable: The distance blurs with this attribute. It
can be a render-intensive effect, but yields a nice cinematic
result because objects close to and far away from the focus
point are progressively blurred. You can view the calculated
distance of the camera from the object and apply that value to
the Focus Distance for the camera to achieve DepthofField.
5. BackgroundColour: The background fill colour for images
rendered from this camera
Orthographic Views
 Orthographic views are two-dimensional views of three-dimensional objects.
 Orthographic Projection is a way of drawing an 3D object from different
directions.
 Usually a front, side and plan view are drawn so that a person looking at the
drawing can see all the important sides.
 There are two ways of drawing in orthographic –
FirstAngle and ThirdAngle.
 They differ only in the position of the plan, front and side views.
 Below is an example of First Angle projection. You can create perspective
cameras ,rotate them in to position, and then set them to orthographic to
get a "flat“ view for projecting textures onto an object.
Path Animation
 Path animation allows you to animate an object along a path specified by a
curve. In this way, the curve controls the motion of the object.
 With path animation, the motion for the object is defined by its location along
the path curve.
 Path animation is useful for animating objects such as trains, boats, airplanes,
and moving cameras whose motion follows a set path.
 To animate an object to do this type of motion smoothly With keyframe
animation would require you to laboriously create and edit many keys for the
motion.
 By having the object move along a curve, you can easily adjust the object’s
path by editing the curve.
SESSION 2: ANIMATING THE
CAMERA
 The process of animating the camera Places and links the
selected object to the current curve. The current curve becomes
the motion path.
 Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path >
 Opens the Attach to Motion Path Options.
 Start Time Specifies the start time of the motion path
animation.
 Only available when Start or Start/End in Time Range is on.
 End Time :Specifies the end time of the motion path animation.
Only available when Start/End in Time Range is on.
Parametric Length
 Specifies the method Maya uses to position an object as it moves
along a curve.
 There are two methods:
1. the parametric space method : the markers represent positions
in the U-parameter space of the curve
2. the parametric length method : the markers represent positions
as a percentage of the total curve length.
The parametric length method is also known as the “fraction mode”
method because the evaluation of the path is based on a fraction of the
length of the path curve.
 To understand the difference
between the two methods, consider
a curve that has uniform
parameterization and unevenly
spaced CVs.
 CV – Control Vertices
 The curve above was created with
five CVs and uniform knot spacing.
The beginning of the curve is at
U=0.0 and the end of the curve is
at U=2.0.The cone was animated
with path animation from time 1
to30.
 If the path animation for the cone is
created with the parametric
length method, the cone will
move evenly along the curve from
times 1 to 30.
 If the path animation for the cone
is created with the parametric
space method, the cone moves
quickly from the first to the second
CV ,then slowly through the second
to fourth CV, then quickly again
from the fourth to fifth CV.
 Turning off Parametric Length
selects the parametric space
method. Turning on Parametric
Length selects the parametric
length method
Advntages
 The advantage of using the parametric space method is
that if you have spent time adjusting the timing of the object’s
movement along the curve, CVs can be added to the beginning
or end of the curve without affecting the timing of the motion on
the existing part of the curve.
 The advantage of using the parametric length method is
that it is easy to obtain smooth timing of the object’s motion
without having to insert timing markers to refine the timing of the
object along the path curve.
Follow
 Maya computes the orientation of objects using

1. Front vector : aligns the object’s local axes with front vector
the front vector aligns with the tangent to the curve, pointing in the
direction of movement.
2. Up vector : aligns the object’s local axes with up vector
The up vector is perpendicular to the tangent must still tell Maya which
perpendicular direction from the tangent is the up direction that you
want
 To view the object’s local axes, select the object and select
Display > Component Display > Local Rotation Axes.

 Front Axis :
 Specifies which of the object’s local axes aligns with the front vector.
 Up Axis :
 Specifies which of the object’s local axes aligns with the up vector.
 This specifies the upwards orientation of the object as it travels
along the curve. The up vector aligns with the world up vector
specified by the World Up Type.
World Up Type

 Specifies the type of world up vector that the up vector aligns with.
 Scene Up
 Object Up
 Object Rotation Up
 Vector
 Normal.
 Scene Up
 Specifies that the up vector try to align with the scene’s up axis
instead of the world up vector.
 Object Up
 Specifies that the up vector try to aim at the origin of a specified
object instead of aligning with the world up vector.
 Object Rotation Up
 Specifies that the world up vector is defined relative to some object’s
local space instead of the scene’s world space.
 Vector
Specifies that the up vector tries to align with world up vector as closely
as possible.
SESSION 3: NORMAL

 A normal is a theoretical line, perpendicular to the surface of a polygon

Face Normal

 The front of a polygon’s face is graphically represented using a vector

called the polygon’s normal.
 The order of vertices around the face determine the direction of the face
(whether a side of the polygon is the front or the back).
Vertex Normals

 Vertex normals determine the visual smoothing between polygon faces.

 Unlike face normals, they are not intrinsic to the polygon,
 But rather reflect how Maya renders the polygons in smooth shaded mode.
 Vertex normals appear as lines projecting from the vertex, one for each face
that shares the vertex.
If the path curve is a curve-on- surface, then the normal to the curve is
the normal to the surface at that point on the curve. The
Normal option will give the most intuitive results when the path
curve is a curve-on-surface.
World Up Vector

 It specifies the direction of the world up vector relative to the scene’s world
space. Because Maya’s world space is “Y-up” by default, the default world
up vector points in the direction of the world space’s positive Y-axis
(0.0000, 1.0000, and 0.0000).
World Up Object

 It specifies the object the world up vector tries to align with if World
Up Type is set to ObjectUp or ObjectRotationUp.

Inverse Up
 If this option is on, Up Axis tries to align itself with the
inverse of up vector.
Inverse Front
 Reverses the frontwards direction an object is pointing along the
 curve.
 This is especially useful when you are trying to orient a camera so
that it points frontwards along a curve.

Bank
 Banking means the object will lean in towards the centre of the Curvature of the
curve that it travels along (like a motorcycle going around a corner).
 The bank option is only available if the Follow option is on, as banking also
affects the rotations of the object.
 You can adjust the banking using Bank Scale and Bank Limit.
SESSION 4: CREATING A PATH
ANIMATION
 A path animation controls the position and rotation of an object along a
curve.
 An object must first be attached to the curve for it to become a path curve.
 You can also generate motion paths by animating objects using motion path
keys.
 create a motion path animation

Animate > MotionPaths > SetMotion Path Key

Animate > MotionPaths > AttachtoMotionPath

 To create a path animation
1. Select the object you want to animate with the motion path and move it to its starting
position.
2. Set the current time to the start time of your path animation.
3. Select Animate > Motion Paths > Set Motion PathKey.
 Asingle-CV curve is created with a position marker at time specified starttime.
 Increase current time and move the object to a new position.
 Select Animate > Motion Paths > Set Motion Path Key again.
 A single-span curve is drawn from the marker at the start time to the current position
of the object, where a new marker is placed.
 Continue changing the time and position by selecting Animate >Motion Paths > Set
Motion Path Key for as long as you wish to animate the object’s position.
 The time at which the last motion path key is set is end time of your
motion path animation.