Free Animation Tutorials

TEKHNIX COLLEGE OF DESIGN & MEDIA :-

1st Design and Creativity College in Vadodara.
To provide variety of creative courses with M.Sc. and B.Sc. degree along with advance diploma in
Jewellery Design, Advertising Design, Journalism, Animation and Visual Effects, Game Programming and Game Design, Interior designing etc.

We have many facilities in college:-i5 work station,lab-cum lecture halls,wi-fi campus,industry expart faculties,chroma studios,library with good collections,canteen,bus service,separate hostels for boys and girls,audio-visual rooms,excellent placement ratio,campus interviews,
scholarship,Iso certified,educational loans,university certified,update modules,brain storming & interactive sessions,guest lectures,communication lab for english,best audio visuals and cd roms,etc…….

Here at tekhnix, we share our experience working with leading production houses.
By providing advance resources online and offline we always try to improve student’s knowledge.

Campus:-
Tekhnix College Of Design and Media
Waghodiya-dabhoi Road
Kapurai Chokdi,
Somatalav,
Vadodara,Gujarat.

Current Openings -:

1.Job Title: CG Generalist/Animator/Modeling and Texturing Lecturer
Position : 2
Min. Experience: 2 to 5 years+
Requirements:1)Full working knowledge of Maya and Max
2)Good Communication Skill.

2.Job Title: Visual Effects Lecturer
Position : 1
Min. Experience: 2 to 5 years+
Requirements: 1)Full Working knowledge of compositing softwares (layed and node based),
2)Good Communication Skill.

3.Job Title: Fashion Designing Lecturer
Position :- 1
Min. Experience: 2 to 5 years+
Requirements: 1)Full Working knowledge of Fashion Technology and Designing.
2)Good Communication Skill.

4.Job Title: Web & Graphics Design Lecturer
Position :- 1
Min. Experience: 2 to 5 years+
Requirements: 1)Full Working knowledge of Web devolopment and Graphic Designing.
2)Good Communication Skill.

5.Job Title: Game Programming Lecturer
Position :- 1
Min. Experience: 2 to 5 years+
Requirements: 1)Full Working knowledge of game Language,(c,c++,Java,Mel,Python,Etc.)
2)Good Communication Skill.

Send your cv with demoreel link to: jobs@tekhnix.comor call us- 08733003227

We all know how to make a frame in flash,in this tutorial you see how to edit a multiple frames of animation.
Have you ever finished animating something only to decide that you need to change it’s placement on the stage or size on the screen? You may have tried selecting all of the frames on that layer and moved the first frame, hoping that the remaining frames in the layer would also move with it, only to find out that you have only moved the first key frame and nothing else.

The good news is that yes, you can move all of the frames at the same time, you just need to use the “Edit Multiple Frames” feature so that Flash will understand that you want to alter more than just one frame.

Let’s take a look at a sample project where we want to scale up the animation on the character layer:

Look at the onion skinning features and you’ll see on the far right of them two boxes that are both colored in. This is the “Edit Multiple Frames” feature and is what you want click on to activate.

This feature operates just like the “Onion Skinning” feature. Place your timeline marker in the middle of your animated frames and pull the handles out so that they encompass all of the animation that you wish to alter.

Once the handles are pulled out in the timeline, you should be able to see all of your key frames at once on the stage.

It is important to lock any layers that you do not want to alter or change. In this case, we will lock the ‘background’ layer so that it doesn’t accidentally get selected.

Next you have to select all of the art on the stage. You can do this by either ‘selecting all’ (hotkey “Control”+”A”) or by dragging over all of the art with the Arrow (V) tool. DON’T FORGET THIS STEP!

With all of the art selected, we’ll use the “Free Transform” tool by pressing the “Q” keyboard shortcut, and pull on the corner handles to scale all of the art up at the same time.

You can do more than just scale or move the art, you can also apply filters to all of the symbols at the same time.

In this example we will also select “Tint” from the “Properties Bar” and choose a color to tint all of the symbols at the same time.

When you are finished, simply turn off the “Edit Multiple Frames” feature by clicking on it. You have now successfully edited multiple frames of animation!

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Join us and unleash your creativity…………..

VP- Marketing
Minimum 10 years of frontline marketing experience in the animation industry and well connected with prominent Producers & Agencies, both within India & abroad. Should be a go-getter having strong leadership & entrepreneur skills and a name synonymous in the industry. Someone who has the determination & ambition to meet the challenging growth plans of the Company during the next two years.

Graphic Designer – Minimum 3-6 yrs of experience
Individual with strong creative flair, innovative and international design aesthetics; having interest in graphics and typography; excellent computer skills; should be able to work independently and confident to present and explain ideas; ability to illustrate concept by designing rough layout of art and copy; should be deadline oriented; Should have experience in handling packaging, branding, print advertisements & Web sites; knowledge of 3D Software is desirable; experience in web designing is preferable. Education: Preferably having a degree or diploma. This may be in graphic design, illustration, fine art or a related subject.

Set Texturing Artist – Minimum 3-10 yrs of experience
Knowledge of UV unwrapping / strong color theory / Strong lighting knowledge / Should be able to develop surface materials, normal mapping concept/creating mental ray shaders / knowledge in Z-brush is preferred. Creating and strong understanding of blue prints and scene scale/knowledge in Z-brush and Auto CAD is preferred.

Rigging Artist – Minimum 2 – 15 yrs of experience
Strong understanding of creating advanced biped and quadruped skeletal rigs/strong understanding of human anatomy and creating efficient skinning with accurate deformation/partner with animation team to trouble shoot creative and technical issues.

Animator – Minimum 2 – 15 yrs of experience
Strong understanding of animation principles with excellent acting skills and basic rigging knowledge.

3D Pipeline – Minimum 3 – 15 yrs of experience
Highly experienced in the 3D Graphics/Animation/Gaming industry and have a strong understanding of 3d software from both artistic/usage and development point of view. Very good overall working knowledge of Maya and 3dsMax and the ability to develop/manage CG pipelines using Mel script, Python and maxscript. Experience in Episodic Animated Series desirable. Should be able to design, develop, and implement new tools and processes for a particular show or department.

Fx Artist – Minimum 3 – 15 yrs of experience
Creating effects using Maya particle systems,dynamics,fluids & fluid dynamics using Real flow.Customozing Maya using MEL scripting,Automization of Repetative tasks & effects using expressions.

Lighting Artist – Minimum 3 – 15 yrs of experience
Strong color sense and theory / strong shading knowledge/understanding and creating mood lighting which suits the scene or shot.

Compositor – Minimum 3 – 15 yrs of experience
Highly organized with strong color theory / sense of frame composition / strong knowledge in software like fusion, combustion, after effects etc., / ability to trouble shoot technical and creative issues.

Matte Painter – Minimum 3 – 15 yrs of experience
Should possess good creative knowledge and drawing skill, having knowledge of anatomy is a must, strong understanding of perspectives, good color sense and theory.

Mail your CVs and showreels (links only) today to careers@sanraamedia.com specifying the post applied in the subject line. E.g.,
Head of Marketing, 10+ Years,  or send hardcopies to Block A, Plot No. 51/52, Developed Plots Estate, Perungudi, Chennai – 600 096.

In this Tutorial you learn how to animate a paper roll using masking in Adobe Flash.

Let’s get started!

Open a  new flash document with action script 2.0.

Step 1: Setting Up Document Properties

Now Select Modify from the menu bar and select Document or You directly can press ctrl + J to open the document properties.

Now change the stage dimensions as 700×438, FPS = 30, and Background Color = Black as shown in the Figure below. To start with the tutorials download the source.zip file that will provide you with the necessary files to be used in the tutorial.

Step 2: Importing necessary images

First import the downloaded used images from the source. To do that, Go to the File menu > Select Import > Select Import to Library.

Step 3: Positioning images on to the stage

Before starting we already have layer 1, now name the layer as 1. Drag the img1 image from the library on to the stage.

Align the image to the center of the stage using the align panel. Keep in mind that to align any item to the center of the stage, check on the “Align to stage” check box.

Step 4: Creating Transition1

Press Ctrl + F8 to create a new symbol. Type the name Transition1 and select type to Movie Clip.

You will enter the Transition1 movie clip and rename the layer as img1. Then select the image and Press F8.

Drag image img2 from library and Press F8 to create a new symbol. Name this symbol as img2. But do not retain this symbol on the stage as of now. Keep this in library.

Step 5: Creating Transition1 – Arranging elements

Insert a new layer and name it as img1_mask.

Now create a rectangle with the dimension are as follow.

Open the propertied panel. To open the properties panel, Go to the Window menu > Select the properties.
W = 40
H = 450
X = -390
Y = -225

Now insert a new layer again and name it as img1_flip.

Now copy img1 image by pressing ctrl + C and Paste on img1_flip layer using ctrl + shift + V. Then go to the modify menu > Transform > Flip horizontal.

Now move the flipped image to left till it comes out from the stage. Do not leave single pixel space between both the images as given in the reference image below.

Now insert a new layer and name it as img1_flip_mask.

Now create a rectangle with the dimension are as follow.

Open the propertied panel. To open the properties panel, Go to the Window menu > Select the properties.
W = 61
H = 438
X = -411
Y = -219

Now copy this rectangle by pressing ctrl + C and insert a new layer and name it as gradient_effect. Then paste the copied image by pressing ctrl + shift + V.

Now apply gradient color to the rectangle. To do that, go to the window menu > color or press alt + shift + F9 to open the color panel.

After applying gradient, select the left color bucket and type 7E7E7E in the color code box highlighted in the color panel as given below.

Now press between the both buckets and type #FFFFFF in the color code box highlighted in the color panel. Then set alpha to 0%.

Step 6: Creating Transition1 – Applying Shape and Classic Tween

Now select frame 99 of all the layers except of img1 layer as given in the reference below. Then press f6 to insert key frame. After that select frame 100 of img1 layer only and press f5 to insert frame.

Now apply animation. To do that, select any frame between frames 1 to 99 and do right click and select Create Shape Tween.Apply shape tween on; gradient_effect layer, img1_flip_mask layer, and img1_mask layer.

Now select any frame between the frame 1 and 99 of img1_flip layer and create Classic Tween. To do that, right click > select Create Classic Tween.

Step 7: Creating Transition1 – Creating animation

Now Select the gradient_effect layer, img1_flip_mask layer, and img1_flip layer elements and left alight each of them by pressing the highlighted button given in the reference image below.

Then move them to the right till it comes out from the stage as given in the reference image below.

Select the rectangle placed on img1_mask layer and then increase the width of the rectangle using free transform tool to cover the image.

Step 8: Creating Transition1 – Applying Mask

Now Select the img1_mask layer and do Right click, then select mask. Do the same with img1_flip_mask layer.

Step 9: Preparing transition on main timeline

Click on the Scene to come out from the transition1 movie clip.

Now go to the properties panel and select the Graphic as given in the reference image below.

Then come down in the properties panel and select the Play Once from the LOOPING as given in the reference image below.

Now insert a new layer and name it as 2. Then select the frame 225 of both layers and press F5 to insert frame.

Now copy the transition1 from layer1 by pressing ctrl + C. Insert a new keyframe by pressing F6 and then paste the copied transition1 by pressing ctrl + shift + V. Select the clip and do right click and then select Duplicate Symbol…

Type name Transition2.

Now double click on the transition2 to enter into the clip.

Now go to the properties panel and select the image on the first frame and then press swap.

A swap symbol box will appear then select img2 and press ok. It will replace the img1 symbol to img2 symbol.

Do this Method on each img1 symbol to replace that with img2.

Press ctrl + enter. You will see the effect something like this.

If you have the zeal in you and the passion to grab up a storyline, then be a part of the TIMS team! TurtleinMotion Animation studios based in Kolkata is seeking artists for their next project on a contractual basis.
Interested candidates can mail their resumes and a link of their showreel to -: sreemoyee@turtleinmotionstudios.com or
call @ 0336616-9704

Current Openings -:

Job Title: PROJECT SUPERVISORS/ TECHNICAL DIRECTORS Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

o Model, rig, texture, light and render 3D CG vehicles and props and create related effects.
o Work effectively with 3D teammates, compositors and production for timely and creative results.
o Troubleshoot model and scene issues, lighting and rendering problems.
o Maintain a high level of quality while working on multiple projects under aggressive deadlines.
o Manage time effectively and give accurate assessments of a project’s projected timeline, staffing needs, and current status.

Requirements:

o Full working knowledge of Maya is a must.
o At least 5 years of professional experience as a Technical Director or Supervisor

Desired Skills:

o Experience with Maya, Mudbox, Maxwell, ZBrush and other 3D applications is encouraged.
o Familiarity with The Foundry’s Nuke or Fusion is a plus.
o Experience with effects-related tools and techniques a plus (cloth/ hair/ fur/ fume FX/ Real Flow/ Particle Flow).
o Experience managing commercial projects and training staff.

Snr.Pre-Production Artists – Minimum 2-10 yrs of experience
Should be well-proficient in understanding 2D animation and able to deliver well. Experience in creating animatics is a must .A good knowledge of painting is must with strong anatomical understanding as well.

Matte Painter – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Should possess good creative knowledge and drawing skill, having knowledge of anatomy is a must, strong understanding of perspectives, good color sense and theory.

3D Sr. Generalists (MODELING & TEXTURING)- Minimum 2-10 yrs of experience
Strong sense of anatomy and also proficient skills in cartoon modeling. Must have high-level photo real painting experience and have the ability to replicate details of objects in painting. Strong skill base in UV and V ray shaders. Strong skill base and experience in Photoshop. Must have strong observation skills to create realistic shaders in Maya. Ability to create high quality texture maps, including supporting maps (specular, displacement, etc)and possess a full understanding of map properties in relation to surfaces and lighting. Experience working on international projects is a plus. Experience with Maya, Mudbox, Maxwell, and other 3D applications is a plus. Added knowledge of 2d is an advantage.

Set Texturing Artist – Minimum 5-10 yrs of experience
Knowledge of UV unwrapping / strong color theory / Strong lighting knowledge / Should be able to develop surface materials, normal mapping concept/creating mental ray shaders / knowledge in Z-brush is preferred. Creating and strong understanding of blue prints and scene scale/knowledge in Z-brush and Auto CAD is preferred.

Rigging Artist – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Strong understanding of creating advanced biped and quadruped skeletal rigs/strong understanding of human anatomy and creating efficient skinning with accurate deformation/partner with animation team to trouble shoot creative and technical issues.

Animator – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Strong understanding of animation principles with excellent acting skills and basic rigging knowledge.
Lighting Artist – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Strong color sense and theory / strong shading knowledge/understanding and creating mood lighting which suits the scene or shot.

3D Pipeline – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Highly experienced in the 3D Graphics/Animation/Gaming industry and have a strong understanding of 3d software from both artistic/usage and development point of view. Very good overall working knowledge of Maya and 3dsMax and the ability to develop/manage CG pipelines using Mel script, Python and maxscript. Experience in Episodic Animated Series desirable. Should be able to design, develop, and implement new tools and processes for a particular show or department.

Fx Artist – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
creating effects using Maya particle systems, dynamics, fluids & fluid dynamics using Real flow. Customizing Maya using MEL scripting, Atomization of Repetitive tasks & effects using expressions.
Simulation Artist – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Proficient in Cloth , Hair and Fur simulations

Rendering Artist – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Rendering artists should be able to bring the final output in Renderman.

Compositor – Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Highly organized with strong color theory / sense of frame composition / strong knowledge in software like fusion, combustion, after effects etc., / ability to trouble shoot technical and creative issues.

Production Coordinators- Minimum 2 – 10 yrs of experience
Experience of working in a 3D and VFX environment. Excellent communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills required. Superior skills in MS Excel. Ability to cope with extreme deadlines a must.

Join the creative and exciting journey with Big Block LA, the media division of SLK Group. Big Block LA has its VFX set up based in Los Angeles and Bangalore. Big Block production studio is specialized in digital automotive content, VFX designing for Hollywood feature films and television commercials (web site www.bigblockla.com).

Currently we are seeking following positions for our studio in Bangalore, India.

1.     Job Title:     PRODUCTION COORDINATORS

Principle Duties and Responsibilities

• Project Scheduling
• Communicate clearly and regularly Technical and Creative Team on the production status
• Help to plan and troubleshoot the pipeline for the production
• Plan with the available resources to optimize the efficiency of each department in line with the schedule
• Create and maintain a detailed report for the production
• Ensure the production team understands the goals and deadlines of each assignment and key milestones
• Manage the asset delivery to overseas animation vendor/s and in turn their deliveries back
• Manage the weekly asset deliveries to the network and follow through on notes and responses

Requirements:

• Minimum of 3 years Experience in managing Vfx and short turnaround Commercial productions
• Strong experience in scheduling and managing Production teams across multiple departments
• Excellent organizational and communication skills
• Strong troubleshooting skills
• Capable of motivating and leading teams with enthusiasm
• Comfortable in working to tight deadlines
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office, in particularly Excel (required)
• Knowledge of asset tracking and data base software

2. Job Title:     3D Sr. GENERALISTS (MODELING & TEXTURING)

Overview:
The candidate must show sense in 3d design and attention to details through their works in digital models. As the majority of our works deals with recreating live details/footage through computer graphics, the level of details of your work should match the photo realistic complexity

Requirements:

• Strong skill based experience to create models in 3ds MAX
• Must have high-level photo real painting experience and have the ability to replicate details of objects in painting.
• Strong skill base in UV and V ray shaders
• Strong skill base and experience in Photoshop.
• Must have strong observation skills to create realistic shaders in 3ds Max.
• Ability to create high quality texture maps, including supporting maps (specular, displacement, etc)and possess a full understanding of map properties in relation to surfaces and lighting
• Experience working on international projects is a plus.
• Must have high level production experience ( 5 yrs and above.)
• Experience with Maya, Mudbox, Maxwell, and other 3D applications is a plus.

3.     Job Title:     3D Sr. LIGHTING ARTISTS

Overview
Light and render CG elements to match live-action footage/ references. As the majority of our works deals with recreating live details/footage through computer graphics, the level of details of work should match the photo realistic complexity. Manage render scenes, elements and assets. Develop shots in collaboration with the shot Compositor.

Requirements:

• Strong skill based experience in 3ds MAX and V-Ray engine
• Artist must demonstrate a solid understanding of how to set a mood and direct the eye through the use of various types of contrast (especially value, color, and depth of field) within a highly photo-realistic style.
• Artist must have an understanding of pipeline based productions and multi-pass rendering methods
• Compositing experience is a plus
• Experience with Maya, Mudbox, Maxwell, and other 3D applications is a plus.

• Artist should have at least 5 yrs of experience working on commercials and  feature films

Please send updated C.V. and demo reels to careers@slk-soft.com

DEMO REELS REQUIRED!

job Location: Vashi, mumbai, India
Job Description:

Deliver mock-ups as needed in a time frame that meets project goals.
Create and deliver elegant visual user interfaces.
Deliver well-organized design files that are easily consumable for web application development.
On the product side, work collaboratively with the Engineering Team to evolve the design to support new features and enhancements.
On the business side, work collaboratively with the Marketing and PR Team to develop visuals & layouts for campaigns, product related communication and marketing collateral.

Job Requirements:

4+ years designing highly usable, elegant interfaces for web and mobile applications.
Portfolio of websites and applications
Good visual design skills – layout, composition, typography, color palette, iconography.
Ability to solve interface issues via design and not just come up with pretty pictures.
Proficiency in design software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, and InDesign is a must.
Prototyping skills in HTML and CSS a huge plus.

Job Start Date: As Soon As Possible
Job Type: Full Time
Job Duration: Permanent
Number of Jobs: 1

Company Name: Xerago
About Company:
Xerago’s mission is to help its Customers do their business better. Xerago is founded on the philosophy that any business transaction that has a direct or indirect customer impact can be isolated, evaluated, defined, optimized and eventually automated.

Xerago represents an amalgam of knowledge professionals from a variety of domain and functional backgrounds. By fusing skill-sets, experience and creativity across diverse functions like finance, marketing, operations, compliance and technology. For more details kindly visit www.xerago.com.
Company Address: Mumbai Plot #41/9, Sector 30, Vashi, Navi Mumbai- 05. Phone: 022-27811852
E-mail: arulselvam@xerago.com
Website: www.xerago.com

Flash Preloader

Create a Simple Flash Preloader using basic actionscript

A Flash preloader is useful in preventing partial loading of a movie while it plays. The preloader is usually made attractive to the viewer to keep him/her occupied while the full flash movie or some external data is loaded in the background. We are going to learn how to create a very simple preloader while concentrating on the actionscript that makes it work.

Create the Simple Flash Preloader

Once you understand the basics behind the Flash preloader you will be able to create more advanced preloaders with moviclips and additional actionscripting. Follow the steps given below:

2. Preloader Loop: Now we need to make a loop that executes till the last frame is loaded. To make use of a very basic animation we will display three dots after the loading text to show that loading is taking place. To do this insert three key frames after the first frame in the actions layer. Now place one dot, two dots and three dots in the three frames respectively (as shown below).
frame 2 (actions layer)

frame 3 (actions layer)

frame 4 (actions layer)

• Now we need a frame to return to the first frame as the condition is being checked there. For this double click the fifth frame in the actions layer and give the following action script.

  gotoAndPlay (1);

  Logic: We just return the control to the first frame to complete a loop.

  

• Now click on the sixth frame in the Preloader layer and give it the label start. That’s it your simple preloader is ready. Just make sure that all the stuff that you want to be displayed in your movie starts from the 6th frame and that you label the last frame of your completed movie as “end”. Alternatively for Flash 5 and above you can use the following code instead of the code given in the first frame:

  ifFrameLoaded (_totalframes) {
  gotoAndPlay (“start”);
  }

  Here, we have just replace the “end” frame with the inbuilt variable _totalframes which contains the total number of frames in the main movie timeline.

• We recommend you create an attractive movie clip and place it in frame 1 to make your preloader look more interesting then the plain loading text used here

Finished Flash Preloader Interface

Check if your preloader timeline matches our figure above.

Test your movie for a 64KB modem by pressing Ctrl+Enter twice. You will be able to see how the preloader progresses and then starts playing at frame “start”.

That’s it, your simple Flash preloader is ready! Now continue with the rest of your animation.

TIP: Keep a new document with your favorite preloader (with nothing else in it) so you can start on your next project with a copy of it (preloader ready).

You have dozens of ways to create a “painterly” effect in Photoshop. Here is one illustrated.

Blur shadows, sharpen highlights, and add texture for a “painterly” effect.

1. Open a copy of your image as a Smart Object.
   Choose File => Open as Smart Object or, if the image is already open, choose Layer => Smart Objects => Convert to Smart Object. When working with Smart Filters, you can later – if necessary – reopen the filter and change the settings.
2. Select the shadows and blur. Open the Channels palette and Ctrl+click the channel at the top (RGB or CMYK or Lab) to make a selection according to the brightness of each pixel. Use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection (select shadows rather than highlights). Apply a slight Gaussian Blur, perhaps 1 or 2 pixels, to blur detail in the darker areas. (Remember that you can use the shortcut Ctrl+H to hide the “marching ants” and make the selection border disappear)
3. Select the highlights and sharpen. You need to reselect the highlights, so again Ctrl+click the channel at the top (RGB or CMYK or Lab). Apply the Sharpen => Smart Sharpen filter with initial settings of Amount: 200% and Radius: 2 pixels. (Adjust the values to match the content of your image and your artistic vision.)
4. Add a canvas texture to the image. Do not deselect (so that the texture will be applied a bit more prominently to the image’s highlights than to the shadows). Use the Texture => Texturizer filter to add a slight canvas texture, enhancing the painterly effect.

for all of the following make sure Interactive Creation is turned off

1. Create a polygon cube and scale it by 300.

2. Name this Cube “photonBoundry”.

3. Create a Polygon Plane and scale it by 60.

4. Name this Plane “seaBed”.

5. Create another Polygon Plane, scale it by 20 and this time translate it by x=10 , y= 17, z=10.

6. Name this Plane “waterSurface”.

7. Create a Spot Light and rotate it by x=-75, y=50, z=0 and translate by x=15, y=36, z=15.

8. Name this Spotlight “photonEmmitter”.

9. Create a new “dielectric_material” by selecting and Right Clicking on the “waterSurface” polygon plane and choosing “Assign New Material” from the menu. You’ll find the “dielectric_material” in the Mental Ray nodes in the window that has popped up..

10. Open up the shading group for the “dielectric_material” by clicking on the “go to output connections” button in the attribute editor

11. Click the chequered box next to “Displacement mat.” and select the “Ocean” texture from the “2D Textures” Category. the attributes for the texture should now show up.

12. Use the settings as shown in the image below.

13. If you want to animate the ocean attribute then Right Click on the “Time” attribute of the ocean and select “Create new expression” and type the following in to the MEL Expression area at the bottom:

ocean1.time = time/2;

Thats it for the water surface. On the next page we will be dealing with the Spot Light Attributes…

14. The first thing to note for this situation is we will not be using visible light. we will be using only photons that are emitted from the light. Therefore the first thing we need to do is uncheck “Emit Diffuse” and “Emit Specular” in the light attributes. See figure 3.1

15. So that the light covers the area of the “waterSurface” Plane we need to increase the size of the “Cone Angle”. if you have followed these instructions correctly you will need to change this value to “74″. See figure 3.1

To confirm that this has worked you can select the light and in the viewport select “Panels > Look Through Selected”. the circle that you see is the cone angle.

16. Now is time to setup the photon emission. open up the attributes for the light again and open up the “Mental Ray” and scroll down to the “Caustic and Global Illumination” Section.

17. Check the box next to “Emit Photons” and you’ll see the section light up. Now set the “Exponent to “1.5″.
You’ll notice that the “Caustic Photons” option is still greyed out. this is not a problem. we just haven’t told maya that we want Caustics yet.

18. Open up the Render Options Diologue box and make sure the renderer is set to “Mental Ray” then open up the tab “Indirect Lighting”. Open up the “Caustics” Section and check the box next to “Caustics”.

19. if you now close the attributes for the light and open them again the option for caustic photons will be available. Set this value to 500000.

Thats it for the light. in the next section we will be setting up the “parti_volume” node…

Setting up the photonBoundry

1. select the photonBoundry Cube and right click and select “Assign New Material”. Select “Transmat” from the Mental Ray nodes section.

2. Open up the Shading Group Attrributes by clicking on the “Go to Output Connections” button  and open up the “Mental Ray” section.

3. Scroll down to the “Custom Shaders” section and click the chequered box next to the “Volume Shader” attribute. load into there the “parti_volume” found under the “volumetric Materials” section under the Mental Ray nodes. leave the settings for the “parti_volume” alone for now.

Setting up the waterSurface

4. Select the waterSurface plane and open up the attribute editor for it.

5. Select the “dielectric_material1″ tab and click the “Go to Output Connections” button .

6. Scroll down to the “Custom Shaders” section and where it says “Volume Shader” type: parti_volume1

7. Now where it says “Phot Volume Shader” click the chequered box and select “parti_volume_photon” from the “Photonic Volumetric Materials” section under the Mental Ray nodes. Again leave the settings alone for the node as we’ll set them up later.

Setting up the Camera

1. open up the attributes for the camera by clicking on the “camera Attributes” button in the viewport (it’s the second button in on the “mini shelf” in the perspective viewport.)

2. Scroll down and open up the “Mental Ray” section.

3. In the “Volume Shader” box type: parti_volume1

Almost done now!

Setting up the parti_volume nodes

1. open up the hyper shade and select the “parti_volume1″ material that you created earlier and use the following settings.

2. Back in the Hypershade open up the “Utilities” tab and open the attributes for the “parti_volume_photon1″ node you created earlier. Use the following settings.

uick note: a few people struggled with the tutorial and it would seem the problems are witht he parti_volume and parti_volume_photon setup. when setting the scatter attribute make sure it is a dark grey and not a black colour.

The end result

if you want to change the colour of the light coming in then all you need to do is change the “Col” and “Outside Color” of the “dielectric_material1″ shader to the colour of your choice. example below.

Written By
Callum Ridley