Maya 3

This week the work load was finally on and time management was essential.  With Maya sessions clashing with life drawing which would be more beneficial considering the 2D specialist option I have taken I have to make sure my time is spent wisely and that the Maya sessions I attend are worth my time.  This workshop was rigging and it was one of the more complicated workshops.  I did roughly get the hang of it by the end but lots of re-reading the manual and asking Claire had to be done before that was achieved.  Rigging is one of the most important part of CGI, without it characters movements are distorted and de-skeletonised.  It is certainly something I would not consider as a career, I did not enjoy it but again found it interesting and you really do need a good understanding of how the anatomy works, perhaps more so than 2D, although a good understanding of anatomy is of course needed for all mediums of animation.  Knowing this I was to question why second years have not got any life drawing sessions of our own?  Although this year we are exploring more abstract and independent ways of animation world I still think it is essential to know the realist aspects, especially the moving human body, lots of books I read from professional artists say that to use the fullest of your imagination and the abstract is to first have full understanding of the real, which I think this semester is lacking of.  My rigging wasn’t completely complete, I had not joined up the ankle to the leg yet.  Except for it uncompleted I do count my rigged foot as a success as the overall foot did move the way a real foot should and the joints put in the correct places. 

Although the overall lecture was interesting and I know have a much better understanding on how CGI characters are made, I would certainly not pursue this line of work, although in CGI it is a most important part of animation it is not actually animating as there is no moving process, therefore not exciting to me.