Modeling

NURBS, polygons and subdivision surfaces (or SubDivs) are available in Maya.

Polygons are a widely used model medium due to its relative stability and functionality. Polygons are also the bridge between NURBS and SubDivs. NURBS are used mainly for their ready-smooth appearance and they are used in Dynamics because they respond well to deformations. SubDivs are a combination of both NURBS and polygons. They are ready-smooth and can be manipulated like polygons, providing the artist with an instant representation of a smoothed polygon. Maya's hair cannot be applied to Sub division polygons.

[edit] General overview of animation in Maya

Keyframe Animation

The model is placed in a starting pose or position, and a keyframe is set. Some frames later, another keyframe is set, and the model is moved as desired. This process is repeated as many times as needed. The animation software interpolates the motion needed to move the model smoothly between the keyframes. What this means is that if the animator keys a box, and moves the box across the room in the next keyframe, when the scene is scrubbed or viewed, the box will glide across the floor instead of jumping from frame to frame. This applies to anything in the scene - moving fingers, eyelids, moving lips, etc.

Nonlinear Animation

After animating a character with keyframes or motion capture, its animation data can be collected into a single, editable sequence. This animation sequence is called an animation clip.

In Maya, there are two types of clip: source clips and regular clips. Maya preserves and protects a character's original animation curves by storing them in source clips. Source clips are not used to animate the characters. Instead, copies or instances of source clips called regular clips are used to animate the characters nonlinearly.

Moving, manipulating, and blending regular clips to produce a smooth series of motions for a character is the basis of nonlinear animation. The tool with which all these aspects of a character's nonlinear animation can be managed is the Trax Editor.

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. Motion paths can be generated by animating objects using motion path keys.

Motion Capture Animation

Skeletons

Skeletons are hierarchical, articulated structures that let the animator pose and animate bound models. A skeleton provides a deformable model with a similar underlying structure as the human skeleton gives the human body.

Just like in the human body, the location of joints and the number of joints you add to a skeleton determine how the skeleton's bound model or `body' moves. The process of binding a character to its skeleton is called "Skinning". The process of making a skeleton or bones, refining the joints, using IK or FK, putting handles on the joints so animators can manipulate them, and over all making the model ready for animation is called "Rigging"

Forward Kinematics

Forward Kinematics (FK) is an animation method that involves moving each joint without the restriction of an expected final position. Thus, the 'goal' is to move a joint (or series of joints) as desired, and the final pose is a consequence of those movements. Forward Kinematics is often used for finely-tuned joint movement (such as hands & fingers), as it allows for more complete control over posing. For more information, see Forward kinematic animation.

Inverse Kinematics

The reverse of Forward Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics is a method that involves defining a final pose, and generating joint movement as needed to reach that pose. Thus, the 'goal' is for all joints to be in a final pose, and the individual joint movements are a consequence of getting to that final pose. Joints must have carefully defined limits to their possible motion for Inverse Kinematics to work well, or the joints can end up 'flopping' before reaching the goal pose. Inverse Kinematics is often used for large limb movement (such as walking, reaching, etc.). For more information, see Inverse kinematic animation and Inverse kinematics.The inverse kinematics in Maya are directly evolved from Wavefront Kinemation

Full Body IK Solver

When Alias bought Kaydara, Maya got an upgrade, from Kaydara MotionBuilder, with a full body IK solver (FBIK Solver) which simulates real body kinematics. The package comes with a biped and a quadruped FBIK sample.

Skinning

‘‘Skinning’’ is the process of setting up a character's model so that it can be deformed by a skeleton. You skin a model by binding a skeleton to the model. A model can be bound to a skeleton by a variety of skinning methods, including smooth skinning and rigid skinning. Smooth skinning and rigid skinning are direct skinning methods. Indirect skinning methods can also be used, which combine the use of lattice or wrap deformers with either smooth or rigid skinning.

Constraints

‘‘Constraints’’ enable the animator to constrain the position, orientation, or scale of an object to other objects. Further, with constraints specific limits on objects and automate animation processes can be imposed.

Character Sets

In Maya, a character set is a node that brings together into a set all the attributes of any collection of objects that you want to animate together. The character set could be anything: a well-armed robot, an automobile, or even some seemingly unrelated collection of objects. Maya enables you to bring together all the attributes together in a character node, so you only have to select one node, the character node, when you want to animate all the various attributes.

Deformers

‘‘Deformers’’ are high-level tools that you can use to manipulate (when modeling) or drive (when animating) the low-level components of a target geometry. In other software packages, the terms modifiers and space warps are used to refer to what Maya calls deformers. The following are the many types of deformers: Blend Shape deformer, Lattice deformer, Cluster deformer, Nonlinear deformers, Sculpt deformer, Soft Modification deformer, Jiggle deformer, Wire deformer, Wrinkle deformer, Wrap deformer, Point On Curve deformer.