Maya vs AM Workflow

# 1 29-01-2003 , 11:12 AM

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Right, title a bit of a mouthful but I will attempt to explain. I have used A:M for a couple of years and have done my pet project in it. The program is buggy, version 9/9.5 especially, so I started to learn a bit of Maya.

Maya is far more complicated than AM but much more stable, however I like AM's workflow. My question is, for those out there who are familiar with both programs, in AM you have modelling, action and choreogrphy windows. This allows you to concertrate on a peice of modelling and texturing, a peice of animation and the choreo to assemble the whole lot.

Maya doesn't seem to have an equivalent. The nearest I can find is referencing models. So you create a series of models then create a new project and reference the models. If you change the model you can do it outside your project in the model file. Fine O.K. what about animation? Presumably you model, texture and rig your character then create animation clips, save them and then delete them from your master model thereby keeping it's default pose.

Then drop those clips onto your model in your project file? Seems o.k. but in AM you can modify all of your models at once create actions for them and apply them without having to open loads of files individually. It just seems a more awkward way of doing fings. Please anyone out there with project based experience enlighten me as to whether there is a better way to do this.

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
Gazzamataz
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# 2 29-01-2003 , 11:41 AM

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I woudlnt give AM the steam of my ****

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# 3 29-01-2003 , 11:42 AM

Kevin

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dam that wasnt very constructive was it mate lol

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# 4 29-01-2003 , 11:59 AM

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That was a fat lotta good Kevin! You're not much bloody good are you - LOL!!!

Well, I suppose steam is or was used to drive steam engines which was useful, but then again steam engines are now defunct...

There how about that, there's a bit of a cryptic message in that analogy. Unless AM buck there ideas up I think they might start to suffer - SHAME.

Thing is I am thinking of converting my existing models into Maya and then rigging them with the Anzovin Setup Machine to save time. Means I am gonna have to read my new bible too - 'Maya Character Animation' -AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG G

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
Gazzamataz
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# 5 29-01-2003 , 12:37 PM

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When I moved from 3dsmax to maya I first was constantly looking for similarities between the two. Finding workflow similarities was a struggle though. I soon realized that it wasn't going to get me anywhere. Then I just humbly accepted the fact that starting from scratch is the best way to learn Maya. I just forgot about max and brought myself down to newbie level. Maybe that could work for you too... worked for me at least. user added image

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# 6 29-01-2003 , 12:38 PM

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mate start all your models from scratch! that way you will learn so much along the ..ok It might take ages but so much good it will do!... then take that AM disk - grab a hammer and BANG user added image

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# 7 29-01-2003 , 02:33 PM

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So forget everything and bang everything with a hammer?:banana:

Might be dangerous!!!

Anyway I agree with you both. What I need is a job where I only work 4 days a week from 9 to 5 to pay the bills and spend the rest of my time doing 3D user added image

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
Gazzamataz
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# 8 29-01-2003 , 02:50 PM

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Originally posted by gazzamataz
What I need is a job where I only work 4 days a week from 9 to 5 to pay the bills and spend the rest of my time doing 3D

Originally Posted by

Hehe, same here. Working full time atm so there's not enough time or energy left for Maya user added image

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# 9 29-01-2003 , 05:13 PM

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animation master absolutely rocks!! i used it for a while years ago, only a lil play with it tho as it was on my friends computer, but it seems pretty easy to use, the differencfe between AM and Maya is maya has much more tools

- Simon

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# 10 29-01-2003 , 06:45 PM

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Originally posted by kbrown
Then I just humbly accepted the fact that starting from scratch is the best way to learn Maya. I just forgot about max and brought myself down to newbie level. Maybe that could work for you too... worked for me at least.

Originally Posted by

Totally agree with you - I came from softimage before using maya and basically tried to approach maya as a totally different concept ie not looking for similarities. Once you get familier with it you'll start to notice the comparable methods/workflows anyway, but initailly maya is such a different program that you gotta try and unlearn much of what you have taken on board from other apps.

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# 11 30-01-2003 , 04:36 AM

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The biggest shock for me was going from 3d Studio R4 to Max... My god!!! R4 was similar to A:M with different "modules" to the "do everything in the same windows with this new modifiers stack system" i Max.

I actually used A:M for about a year and did my first short movie together with my brother that didn't know anything about 3d. So while it was buggy it was really simple to use. Actually many "amazing" features on the high-end softwares have been in A:M long before that!

So while I wouldn't even touch A:M I can now say that it was a good beginners program.

And like kbrown said, don't try to find the similarities... Just forget about the old and adapt to the new as fast as you can, it should make things easier in the long run.

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# 12 30-01-2003 , 09:31 AM

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Thanks guys they are all interesting points. I suppose the nearest program I would find that had a similar approach would be Lightwave, since it hass a modelling enviroment and a scene one. I tried that a year ago could get on with the interface and crappy character animation tools (without Messiah btw).

I suppose what I would really like to see is a video, movie or DVD that shows you the kind of workflow that people use when producing a film with Maya. I know there is a pipline DVD on AW website but it is rather expensive. I am still in a dither over my applications, I wish something would fall on my head and help me make my mind up CLONCLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK............ .......

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# 13 30-01-2003 , 10:10 AM

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Nothing really new to add to everyone's comments above. I agree with everything. I guess I'll just share my experiences to add to the mix.

Myself, I went from Alias Sketch (3 months) to Ray Dream Studio (3 months) to Strata Studio Pro (8 months) to PixelPutty Animation System (1 year) to Animation Master (2 years) to Softimage 3D (1 year) to 3ds max (5 years and going) and finally now with Maya (less than a year). I've worked on Macs, PCs, and SGI workstations. Bottomline is all of the programs and all of the hardware do the same thing. It's all about the work that you create with the programs.

After working with all of those programs for the past decade, I have defined my own personal workflow that I can adapt to whatever program I need to use. It's all about the experience of discovering how you like to work, the kinds of tools you like to use, etc. You can watch videos, read reviews, and get people's opinions, but, in the end, you actually need to work through the programs yourself to determine whether or not they will work for what you need/want. This is something that will take time to do.

My suggestion is to just pick one program and run with it for a while. Put it through its paces to see what's good and what's bad. If it's Maya, great. If not, that's good too. Just use whatever works for you.

Danny Ngan
Animator | Amaze Entertainment
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# 14 30-01-2003 , 10:28 AM

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Dannygan

Thanks for that. Boy, you have tried 'em all it seems. I am kinda doing what you suggested. After finishing my first storyboard for my pet project in A:M I though I would try character animation in Maya from the book that I had bought (Learning Maya:Character Rigging & Animation). It didn't seem too bad, but I missed some of the tools I am used to in A:M.

I am just about to start doing another storyboard which will consist of sketches which I will then model, texture and possible animate - I might do it in Maya to see what it is really like converting my characters from splines to polys.

Trouble with me is I am like an old dog - will stick with my Master until the end...

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
Gazzamataz
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# 15 01-02-2003 , 02:53 AM

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One thing that I found out learning Maya is that you should do "baby steps". How much I would like to play with animation and Mental Ray I had to constraint myself to do one thing at a time. Seeing the free tutorials showing the UI was great. Just to see how that works. Then I looked at the extrude poly and edge tool tutorials. Learned some more. Then looked at the rest of the tutorials and although I haven't done any of the things in the tutorials you learn a lot by just seeing how people work, what shortcuts they use and even the workflow. So maybe you shouldn't start directly by saying how to do a whole movie but rather sit a couple of weeks to get familiar with everything, and then move on to bigger things.

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