Alien: Creating and Animating using Maya 2013

Week 1: Reference and building the mesh

Coming back over the summer it was difficult to get back into using Maya, but after a couple of sessions i managed to get into the hang of it. Initially having troubles with extruding the body from the head, i managed to grasp it and feel relatively happy with the shape and scale.

Week 2: UV Editing and Texturing

I learnt a new way of uv mapping, which involved cutting the edges and unfolding the map. It took a while to get to grips with the process in which you need to do it in, but by week three i was up to date with a textured alien. I had to make sure everything was mapped including the inside of his mouth, even if i was only going to darken it out, so you wouldn't see though it's head.

Week 3: Creating the skeleton; Joints & Rigging

I must have lost concentration in creating the joints as i didnt follow the process 100% correctly. i missed out on a few finger/thumb/hand joints, aswell as the forearm joint. This came to haunt me later in the binding process when i wanted to add rolling the forearm and clinching the hand movements.

Week 4: Creating controllers; Skinning & Binding

Every step of the tutorial was so important as if i'd missed one controller the animating would become a lot more challenging, as if it wasn't challenging enough. having the changes of colour on the controllers helped me achieve the correct process.

I entered a few troubles when binding the ik handles and parenting the joints. I got very confused during the tutorials and the process took a lot longer than i expected. Just one minor mistake like chosing a different type of constraint would affect the rest of the animating so i had to make sure it was 100% correct. One mistake i encounter on was when i was setting up the groups for the reverse foot lock, which i had done correct. i made the mistake of applying the set driven keys to the ik handles rather than the spacific groups i had made. This wouldn't allow me to have the feet animate in the way it should do.

Due to me having troubles with the ik handles i left the alien alone for a little bit whilst i got on with my environment. When it got to the deadline i had only just managed to make the alien walk and jump. The walk wasn't to a great standard.

If i could go back and start the alien again, i would make sure the joints were all correct, with none missing. And i would take more time out to animate the alien, and to have sorted out my ik handle troubles sooner. Overall i was pleased with the look and satisfied with how i animated it.