animation help

# 1 11-03-2008 , 04:32 PM

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Join Date: Oct 2006

Posts: 57

Hi I've started 3days ago to do 3D but I've done some before... but not seriously... just like trying the tools
so I've deceided to do my first model in 3D
and I've done an .. army snail (I've based my model on a movie that I saw but I dont remember the name)
there it is

so what I want to know... its how to animate his body
(it can curves in any sences... so I think its easier to do)
by his body... I mean the ... body+head and the eyes supports
the mouth will be later because it looks harder
I dont want to buy a video tutorial now because I have to save my money and its just a basic thing.. I will buy one to do a caracter rigging (I mean... a human or something like that)

so please if you can tell me how to animate a cilinder or a snail just to make it walk it will be really appreciated
thanks

Maya modeler - current project Avatar - purplemikey

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# 2 12-03-2008 , 06:10 AM

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Join Date: Jan 2008

Posts: 32

hi
to animate you have to rig ....go to joints and then set up your bone structure. this is hard to explain in shrt mail read the maya help and you will get the idea. then you have to skin the snail to the bone...you can chose rigid or smooth bind. again like i imetioned its hard to wrt the whole prcodeure in a shrt mail so reading the help will guide you. and the finally you have to animate.

thats how it works you dont need to buy a tutorial. you can also read up some tut on learning maya .com. they have some stuff.

hope that helps
cheers

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# 3 12-03-2008 , 07:49 AM

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Join Date: Oct 2006

Posts: 57

yeah thanks
but I've been looking at some... they all explain really badly...
Im visual and I can only find like... 6pages of text... with 2-3pictures that doesnt reprensent anything...

I've took a look at this video
https://www.digitaltutors.com/digital...ideo.php?v=790
and the fish mouvement is what im trying to get (I dont need to block the rotation or something like a wrist... just a simple... snail)

I dont know if there's a simple tutorial... that only show how to do a squeleton... transfert it to IK
assign it to... my caracter... (im able to do bones and IK... but thats the only thing...)
and then ... to animate it... just simple animation (I mean... its not a finger, a hand or something hard... its a snail)

so.. ill continue to watch tutorials to see if one can behelpful and simple

thanks for the answer

Maya modeler - current project Avatar - purplemikey

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# 4 12-03-2008 , 08:03 AM

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Join Date: Jun 2004

Location: Cleveland, Ohio (USA)

Posts: 1,542

well mostly when snails move they expand and then contract... i think you'd probably do best with a lattice on the body only (not on the shell) and then just scale the last few sections of the lattice (only the last few to preserve the shape of the face/head) in and out for the undulating movement.

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# 5 12-03-2008 , 09:44 AM

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Join Date: Oct 2006

Posts: 57

thanks i've tried but its not what I wanted to get
the pictures explain everything
if you can just explain me how to do that...
I simply want to drag the middle point down to make the last one go backward to keep the same size and make the body ... flat on the ground like a caterpillar...

so there is the picture and there is text (if its too big ill edit to do a simple link to the image like i've done before)

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Maya modeler - current project Avatar - purplemikey

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# 6 13-03-2008 , 11:17 PM

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Join Date: Jan 2008

Posts: 32

hi what you want is not something you can get out of a skeleton i think. for the squash effect try using

animation- non linear- and you get options of squash etc maybe that can help. try animating the parmaeters and see which one suits.

cheers

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