Could someone please advise?
I’d like to lay mosaics (pixelate) several animated objects, while preserving their outlines and not affecting other scene elements. The surface detail should be obscured. The effect should be as though the objects were pixelated in a paint program, keeping the general light/dark tones of light and shadow.
Any help greatly appreciated.

one word (or two)

post production


Maya doesn't do post production so you need to take your animation to a post production package and fiddle around there

also you'll want to render in layers if you want to fuzzy up some objects but not all


things like adobe after effects, toxik, and apple shake are post production tools

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

I think that will be the way to go. I can batch render out to psd with layers - but there'll be a lot of frames to edit manually!
Thanks for the reply.

that's...one way to do it... not the best way though

invest in an actual movie compositor, it'll save you the pain staking hours of boringly changing the layer effects...

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that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

Computer skills I should have:
Objective C, C#, Java, MEL. Python, C++, XML, JavaScript, XSLT, HTML, SQL, CSS, FXScript, Clips, SOAR, ActionScript, OpenGL, DirectX
Maya, XSI, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Motion, Illustrator, Flash, Swift3D

If you only have PS then look into creating a script, it should automate the process for you a bit, depending on what your doing.

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"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

Thanks! I'll be having a look at After Effects, which I know has a Mosaic effect. Never tried a PS script - now may be the time...