Maya is the world’s most popular professional 3D modelling, animation and rendering software. It’s used by film and video artists, game developers, multimedia artists, design visualisation professionals and amateur animators worldwide. With Maya, you can create lifelike liquids, cloth, hair, fur, smoke, dust and fire, as well as realistic muscle and skin movements. The Academy Award-winning software has been used in almost every movie featuring 3D computer-generated graphics, including ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Iron Man’.
Rawmarsh City Learning Centre uses Maya in its weekly 3D Computer Animation club for 14-16 year olds. We visited the centre earlier this year and asked Luke and Liam, a couple of its budding animators, what they think of Maya and the work they’ve been able to produce.
Luke and Liam, both 16, have been using Maya for over two years. Having mastered basic animation, they spend their time creating original characters and scenes.
“I really like using Maya,” says Liam. “I’ve created an alien: a little grey man with an extremely large head!” Animating is one of his favourites parts of school and he told us how easy Maya is to use. “The layout is pretty simple with its design areas. When you use it a lot, you just kind of pick up on things”. Luke told us that he’s always learning new modelling techniques and even challenging things soon become second nature.
Liam uses Maya for modelling cars: “You can create curves, so you create several of them and then make them into 3D…When you’re joining the curves they all have to be touching, otherwise it can completely mess up the mesh.” He finishes and ‘paints’ his designs in Photoshop or free software like GIMP. The process usually takes him a few weeks from start to finish, working for a couple of hours at a time.
Both Luke and Liam have tried other 3D software. Luke prefers 3ds Max for its focus on game design “purely because I’ve used it longer, but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy using Maya!” Liam experimented with Cinema 4D, but prefers Maya’s familiar layout.
We asked them if they’d make any changes to Maya if they had the chance. Luke would like to see “more clickable buttons,” which he’d find easier than a list of shortcuts that have to be memorised.
Liam suggested the addition of “tutorials for more advanced users,” for those who want to try more complex techniques.
Liam and Luke hope to use the skills they’ve learned when they leave school. “Game design would be my first port of call,” says Luke, “but I’d definitely have a look at film or some kind of animation job.” Liam wants to combine animation with real-life action on projects like Doctor Who – we could be seeing his alien creations come to life on the big screen in the future!
If you’d like to talk to our experts about using Maya in the classroom, call us on 03332 409 333 or email us at learning@jigsaw24.com.