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MAYA Tutorial - Dynamics and Special Effects
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Dynamics
Dynamics in Maya can be applied to objects using rigid-body or soft-body settings. With
simple dynamics, also known as rigid-body dynamics. You can use NURBS or polygonal
objects in dynamics simulations, but you must consider the objects' surface
directions.Objects that interact can be active or passive. Passive objects, although they
can be keyframe-animated, remain stationary; they can cause collisions , but aren't
affected by them. Objects that are going to react to collisions must be set to active. You
can switch an active object to passive and vice versa by setting the Active attribute in the
Channel Box to on or off. You can also use Maya's Dynamics mode to simulate reality in
how objects behave—for example, animating the way bowling pins react when struck with
a bowling ball.
Soft Body Dynamics
Soft-body dynamics are handled in Maya by creating a set of particles that surround the
object and influence it. When these particles collide with something or are moved by
fields, the connected geometry moves with them. This is ideal for creating effects that
mimic cloth and organic flexible materials. To get a realistic response, you must add goals
or springs. Goals give the object a target shape to move toward, like a rubber squeeze toy
that un-squeezes back to its original shape. Alternatively, springs add a lattice of
tensioned springs throughout the geometry, like adding a box spring of rigidity to the
object.
Creating a Soft-Body System
Any polygonal or NURBS object can be made into a soft body .You usually make an object
soft with Bodies > Create Soft Body> option box, and then determine whether the object
simply becomes soft or is duplicated to keep the original object as a goal. Normally, you
choose the latter method so that the soft body tries to configure itself back to the shape
of the original object. In either case, the object is then soft, but doesn't collide with other
objects in the same manner as with rigid-body dynamics.
Soft /Rigid Bodies > Create Soft Body >
Sets the options when creating a soft body.
Make Soft
Converts the object to a soft body.
Adding Springs
When the object must be more resilient than a soft cloth, you can add the Springs
attribute to give the object a kind of support structure. This attribute creates a virtual
spring object between each particle. Wire Walk Length setting. parameter connects
springs not only between a particle and its neighbor, but also the neighbor's neighbor,
and so forth. The default setting is 2.
Active and Passive Bodies
Objects that interact can be active or passive. Passive objects, although they can be
keyframe-animated, remain stationary; they can cause collisions but aren't affected by
them. Objects that are going to react to collisions must be set to active. You can switch
an active object to passive and vice versa by setting the Active attribute in the Channel
Box to on or off.
You can set values for Initial Velocity and Initial Spin for active objects .
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Time Management Fields are localized or global forces that act on objects. You can simulate the motion of
Certification natural forces with dynamics fields.Fields have their own icons in a scene, so it's easier to
Health Club Management select them if you want to animate a field or change its attributes. These fields are
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Stand-alone fields influence objects from a stationary or moving position in the
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Object Field are owned by an object and exert influence from the object. You can add
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Volume Fields You can select a volume to define the region in space in which particles are
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affected.

All Online Courses The following fields are included with Maya:

Air An air field simulates the effects of moving air. The objects you connect to the
air field accelerate or decelerate so their velocities match that of the air as the
animation plays. A "push" type of field, it comes with presets for Wind, Wake, and
Fan.

Drag a field that slows the momentum over time of objects within its reach. A drag
field exerts a friction or braking force on an object that's animated with dynamic
motion.

Gravity The most commonly used field, it causes objects to move and accelerate in
a given direction. You can limit its reach to create localized gravity fields. It
simulates the Earth's gravitational force.

Newton Similar to gravity, but operates in a spherical manner. A newton field

pulls object towards it. Objects are attracted to Newton fields more strongly
depending on their mass and their distance from the Newton field.

Radial A radial field pushes objects away or pulls them toward itself, like a
magnet. Like the Newton field, but it doesn't take mass into account. It can be set
to diminish with distance, as with the Gravity and Air fields, and it can be set to
push or pull.

Turbulence Makes the object's motion or deformations more random. Turbulence is

usually applied to soft bodies or particles to create the impression of wind or
waves.

Uniform A field that pushes objects in a specified direction. Like the Gravity field,
but without the progressive acceleration that Gravity includes.

Vortex A kind of rotating gravity, the Vortex field pulls objects in a spiraling
motion that's centered on the field's icon. Often used to create galaxies, whirlpools,
or tornados with particle systems.

Volume Axis A complex field that lets you specify a volume shape (cube, sphere,
cylinder, cone, or torus) and then create effects that work within the shape. You
can use the Volume axis field to create effects such as particles flowing around
obstacles ,solar flares, mushroom clouds, explosions, tornadoes, and rocket
exhaust.

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MAYA Tutorial - Dynamics and Special Effects
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Constraints
Constraints are used to restrict an object's motion. After you apply constraints, they are
connected to the object they're associated with. Maya includes the following constraints:
Nail Ties an object to a point in the scene. The object behaves as though it's
tethered by a solid rod, but it can orbit anywhere around the tie point as it collides
with objects or is affected by fields. You can not use a Nail constraint on a passive
rigid body.
Pin This type of constraint requires two objects that are tied together to a separate
pivot point. You can use a pin constraint to create effects such as link in a chain or
robotic arm.
Hinge As the name implies, you get free rotation constrained to an axis. You can
make active objects hinge to a point in space, to another active object, or to a
passive object.
Spring This constraint is similar to the Nail constraint, but it also has a telescoping
characteristic that allows it to extend its length. As with the Hinge, you can use the
Spring to tie an active object to another active object, to a passive object, or to a
point in space.
Barrier Blocks objects from going beyond a planar boundary. You can assign this
constraint to only one object. Objects can deflect, but not bounce, from the Barrier
constraint, so it's recommended for objects that block other objects, such as walls
or floors
Partiles
Particles can be particularly helpful when you want to create and animate dozens,
hundreds, or thousands of similar objects that vary slightly in their geometry or
animation. You can also use Maya's Dynamics mode to simulate reality in how objects
behave—for example, animating the way bowling pins react when struck with a bowling
ball. Another feature in Maya's Dynamics mode is the ability to create "soft-body" effects,
in which objects deform as though they were made from rubber or gelatin. Dynamics and
particles—work together to create animation. With rigid-body dynamics, the idea is to
simulate physics so that objects collide with each other and deflect. With soft-body
dynamics, objects change (deform) as a result of their collisions. With particles, you can
easily control the animation of large numbers of objects.
What are Particles
A Particle object is a collection of particles that share the same attribute. In maya ,
Particles are points you display as dots, streaks, spheres, blobby, surfaces etc. You can
animate the display and movement of particles with various methods, for instance, Keys,
expressions, and field such as gravity. Particles are ideal for animating difficult effects,
such as explosions, swarms of bees, and galaxies of stars.In maya, we use particles for
creating special effects.
Creating Particles
To create particles in your scene, you can use drawn particles or particle emitters. To
paint particles in your scene, choose Particles > Particle Tool > option box. Another
method called Particle Grid is available, which you use to define the corners of a 2D
rectangle that's filled with particles. Particle grids can be helpful for visualizing the effect
of fields as you create them.
In Maya, the source that particles emanate from can be many things.
Point - omni An emitter that sprays particles from a point in all directions.
Point - directional An emitter that sprays particles in a linear or conical direction from a
point.
Volume Particles are created from multiple points within a defined volume, which can be
a cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, or torus.
Surface You can define one of your scene's NURBS or polygon objects to create particles
from its surface.
Curve Any NURBS curve can emit particles.
Animate the Particles
You can animate particle motion in several ways.
Set the position, velocity or acceleration attributes of particles. You can set keys to
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animate an entire particle object's translate, scale and rotate attributes.
Apply fields , such as gravity to particles.
Turn geometry into a collision object and bounce particles off it.
Make the particles follow a moving goal object.
Particle Types
In Maya, there are two types of particles: hardware rendered and software rendered.
Hardware particle render much faster using your graphics card's on-board hardware.
Hardware particle types must be rendered with the hardware-rendering system (Window>
Rendering Editors >Hardware Render Buffer), because the particles don't appear in the
normal software render.
The Hardware Render Buffer has an option for masking any particles that fall behind scene
objects. Another issue is that, by default, hardware rendering looks jagged . Maya handles
ant aliasing similarly by multisampling in the Hardware Render Buffer, which is enabled
by choosing Render>Attributes on the Hardware Render Buffer menu.
Hardware-Rendered Particles
Point The default particle type, designed to render as a spot. You use the render settings
in the Hardware Render Buffer, under Render> Attributes.After you add attributes for a
particle render type, you can change the render type and add its default Particle Render
Type attributes.
Multipoint Like the Point particle type, but creates clusters of points to get a denser,
clumpier appearance.You can use this render type to create dust, cluds,most or other
gaseous emissions.
Streak Similar to the Point, but creates a streaking line instead of a dot. This type does
not render until the particles are moving and you attempt to hardware-render a frame
with particle motion. The Streak length is based on the velocity of the particles, so if the
particles are stationary or moving slowly, you won't see the particles.
Multistreak Like the Streak particle type, but creates clusters of streaks to get a denser
look.
Sprites Render type lets you display a texture image or image sequence at each
particles.Each particle can display an identical or different image.Asprite appears as a
small rectangle until you map a texture image to it .
Spheres These are three-dimensional spheres and render type displays particles as
opaque spheres.
Numeric This particle type displays a number for each particle. It's particularly useful for
troubleshooting stray particles.By default, Maya displays particle ids for the numeric
render type.
Hardware-rendered particles cannot cast shadows or appear in reflections or refractions:
Software-Rendered Particles
The following particle types render as part of your scene when you render a frame. They
are able to reflect, refract, and cast shadows.
Blobby Surface A particle form of metaballs, the blobby surfaces look like spheres until
they approach another, at which point they reach for each other like drops of mercury.
They appear only in software rendered images.
To set Blobby Surface render type
Select the particle object. In the attribute editor ,set Particle Render Type to Blobby
Surface. Apply a shading group to the particle object and then add a light to the scene.
Software render the scene.
Cloud The cloud render type displays particles as blurred or cloudy metaballs. This particle
type works specifically with the Particle Cloud material type and doesn't render with
typical object "surface" materials.
Tube As the name implies, the source object type is a kind of uncapped cylinder. You can
define the radius at the two ends and renders only with volumetric material types .
Instanced Geometry If you want to have an object stand-in for the particles, you should
use Maya's Instancer, which enables you to use any kind of geometry or textures you like.
AddingReflctions, Refractions and shadows to Software - rendered particles
Select the particle object. In the attribute editor turn on---visible in reflections, visible in
refractions and cast shadows.
Collisions
Any particle system can collide with any scene geometry, but you have to set each
collision up separately. To do so, you select the particles, Shift-select the geometry they
will collide with, and choose Particles > Make Collide. The particles then collide if they hit
the object.
Goals
Particles can also be set to have goals, meaning that the particles try to move to a specific
configuration, shape, or location. You can create goals by selecting the particle object you
want to be affected by the goal. Shift-select the object you want to
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