3D World Disc 147 Oct 2011, Future Publishing
On this disc included a Fluid tutorial in Maya 2012. The guide creates some flowing water coming from a very impressive looking fountain.
The guide's approach to the tutorial is casual, and feels like he is talking naturally. He sometimes backtracks (e.g. "I need to do this first"), and shows us work he has done previously, but is still very informative. Also, because this is a Maya tutorial, this is quite accurate to what I am aiming for. However, I'm not very confident with fluid techniques, so I'm not sure whether I will include this in my tutorials, unless I do end up building something that involves fluids, such as fountains or waterfalls in my tutorials. It is useful that the guide goes through the tutorial step by step and that you can see how he is making the fluid effects in Maya.
3D World Disc 160, Oct 2012, Future Publishing
Texturing Game Props
On this DVD I found two video tutorials. The first video tutorial showed how to create a stereoscopic image using V Ray in 3DS Max, a program very similar to Maya, but since I will be using Maya in my tutorials, I may not include this in my tutorial. This video was 2 minutes long, so very to the point, but one thing that really bothered me about this video was that there was no sound, even though I turned my laptop and my laptop's video player onto maximum volume. Having no sound on a video tutorial was a major hindrance, and I feel that without somebody talking on the video, regardless of how their voice sounds, makes the video tutorial much easier to follow, and I feel that if I needed to use a tutorial with no audio, I would probably find myself watching it several times before fully understanding what it is I need to do.
The second video tutorial showed how to control feathering using a variable mask in After Effects, which again is a program I don't use and is a topic that I probably won't cover in my video tutorials, but it seems simple enough. This video did however have audio, with somebody talking through the tutorial, explaining what he was doing. This definitely made the tutorial much easier to follow, and I'm sure this is a very useful video tutorial if I ever use After Effects. He also broke down each step to make the video tutorial easy to understand, and the end result looked quite impressive.
However, the main focus of this DVD is to learn how to create impressive textures for game props, such as tanks, cannons, vehicles etc. The DVD divides how to create these textures using 3DS Max and Photoshop into 15 video tutorials, so it's all very nicely broken down. Since it's about texturing, I have had to texture my models many times before, so texturing may feature in my video tutorials. The guide also shows the end result at the start of the video tutorial, which can be a good thing, so that the audience will know what they will be working towards, and this can really help motivate people, which is certainly ideal for a tutorial. The guide is also very thorough, making five "lessons" (video tutorials) showing how to UV map each part of his model (a cannon for a game). He then discusses the UV Layout, bringing all of his UV Maps together. In part 8 the guide shows how to "render" the UV Maps ready to go into Photoshop, ready to edit, which is all something I've done before in Maya. However, his UV Maps look so much more professional than anything I've ever done, and he makes it look so easy and quick, whilst I find it really time consuming! He then just basically designs the textures for the UV Maps in Photoshop, and uses many different Photoshop skills to do so, and includes photographic images for certain details for his texture map. I think this video is even giving me tips on how to improve my texturing! Cannons also seem quite simple to model, so modelling a cannon could be an idea for my video tutorials! Finally, he applies the textures to his cannon model in 3DS Max! This is also a very good tutorial for newcomers to texturing, and this is the sort of level I'm thinking I would aim my tutorials at.
Maya Techniques: MELbot Wars: Virtual Fighting Robots, July 2004, Alias/Wavefront, Kolektiv
This DVD shows how to make a robot wars style fighting game, using two very simple robot models in Maya, so this is a really good idea to base my video tutorials on. The guide even shows you the simple basics, to build simple polygons, and has a bit of everything in this video tutorial. A very basic idea, very good for getting beginners used to Maya. However, I did find the pace of this video a bit slow, even for a beginner tutorial, so
Maya Seminars: Anatomy of a Maya Character, July 2004, Alias/Wavefront.
Very technical, so definitely not for beginners. However, speaks very clearly.
As title suggests, not an actual tutorial, but a recording of a seminar. This seminar teaches us many details of character rigging, so that your characters are ready to animate. Uses slides to help explain the seminar, but goes into great detail of the slides, even if it is in technical terms. Brief details on slides, but speaker expands on the slides, to give audience a better understanding of the seminar. The seminar is presented by Maya Developer Barbara Balents. The recording often switches from the slides to Barbara speaking herself. She sometimes shows signs of nerves, such as using the phrase "you know," and using her hands to speak, but I feel that presenting a seminar or being in a situation where you have to speak in front of a large group of people can be quite daunting and definitely does take a lot of courage.
My course leader, Neil said that he had actually used this DVD in his research in the past as well, and told me to look out in the DVD for something called the Component Editor, which he said was a different kind of rigging. I may look further into this, because I might find more detailed information about the Component Editor elsewhere.
I feel that this can be quite difficult to follow, because even though it is informative, the seminar doesn't really offer much in terms of a live demonstration of what is being explained, which I feel would have made the seminar a lot better and easier to understand. There are also lots of graphs and coding shown on the slides, which is visually unappealing and not fun, and I would like to try and make my tutorials as fun as possible. However, I feel that this tutorial applies more to people studying coding and programming than the creative side of Maya, and I am focusing more on the creative side of Maya.
Also, before the seminar, Barbara listed everything she would talk about in the seminar, something I feel would make my tutorials much clearer, if I can edit text into my video.
Art Attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F329Rxp7NjE
Something I remember from my childhood that could help
greatly in terms of presenting my video tutorials in this project is the
children’s TV programme Art Attack. The aim of this show is to get children
interested in arts and crafts and being creative by showing the audience how to
make art in a very fun kind of way.
One thing I find particularly interesting, which I could do in my own video tutorials, is how the guides were presented. What would happen is that Neil would show an example of how to achieve each step, but then, probably to keep the show at a reasonable length, and because some steps require preparation, he would show the completed step using another example he made earlier. I feel that this could be a possible method for me to use for my video tutorials, because a lot of things that are done in Maya can be quite time consuming, and it might not be very easy to follow if I am actually building everything as I go along. Even in the video tutorials of Maya I have watched, a lot of them have had quite a lot already built before the tutorial begins.
Also, one thing I noticed today that I didn't pay too much attention to when I was younger, was that a 3D animation is used for the title sequence, bringing many different art tools to life. Since this programme is quite old, the quality of the 3D, especially the textures aren't as good as the professional 3D of today, but I do really love the animation. Also, the quality of the 3D won't need to be worried about as much because it is a children's programme, so they might not pick up on the quality of 3D animation as much as older people.
This video is also relevant to one of my projects on my work placement, which is to design a monster based on what people find difficult. Up to now, I have just been drawing these monsters, but this video does give me ideas on ways I can improve this project, by making craft ideas as well.
The "Big Art Attacks" are really clever too. These just show you can make art from pretty much anything, and is always a good way of expressing yourself.
Neil even discussed ways you can improve on art, and also discusses how professionals work as well. Even areas such as animation is covered, as to how animators draw very simple shapes and "matchstick men," and this is also something which means a lot to me and my work. Also, in the show, to show possibilities of each project, Neil shows different results of each project, which shows that you can still follow these guidelines and still be imaginative with the project.
This show also does well with trying to relate to the younger target audience. This is shown by the language used by Neil during the show which would appeal to children, such as "bogey green" and "babyish" to help explain what he was doing.
The show also lets the audience submit some of their work, and Neil shows several highlights in each episode, which is another way the show is appealing.
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