Welcome to Intro to CG Animation! Your instructor, Ben Rische, is a master at animating and modeling in CG and has worked with many of the top tier studios in animation. He is here to teach you the basics of Maya, the industry standard program used for animating in CG. The possibilities are endless with Maya but Ben will guide you through the basics from start to finish. He will break down the array of icons, functions, and tools available so you navigate like a pro. By using a basic sphere shape, Ben will teach you how to manipulate and move it around in space. He will show you how to customize your interface and settings and will share some methods he uses that help him maintain a smooth and efficient workflow. By the end of this lesson, you will know how to navigate the basics of Maya so that you can start having fun experimenting in CG.

Knowing how to build a basic rig in Maya is a crucial first step as it is the foundation of having your animation work properly. In this lesson, Ben will walk you through how to build and set controls for a basic ball and tail rig. You will see just how simple it is to create a basic rig and how to control all of its parts both individually and as a whole. Ben will show you his own approach to rig building so the foundation you are building upon will be based on good technique and functional skills. As a bonus, you will also get a glimpse of how you can transform your shapes when you add squash and stretch to your animations for the next lesson!

Similar to our basic 2D animation exercise for squash and stretch, Ben is going to show you how to animate a bouncing ball in CG by importing the rig you built in the last lesson. You'll see how Ben begins by planning out his animation in 2D and then translates it into a CG ball bounce. He will walk you through how to use your 2D reference and implement proper planning before you begin animating. Ben will also share some time saving tips and additional tools that you can use in conjunction with Maya to streamline your animation process.

In this lesson Ben will take you on a deep dive into the intricacies of the graph editor and how to use the tools it offers to polish and refine your animation. Specifically, you will learn how to use spline mode, a tool that lets you fine tune the arcs and in-betweens of your animation to give it the smoothness and personality you want. Here is where you can really infuse your own personality and style into your character’s movement. This part of CG animation can be tedious, but your hard work will be rewarded as you watch your character come to life!

Just like with 2D animation, having good timing and spacing between your key frames is crucial to creating life like movement in your animation. But how do we approach timing and spacing in CG? You will learn how in this lesson as Ben introduces you to the spacing techniques he uses in Maya. By revisiting the usage of timing charts in 2D animation, Ben will demonstrate how you can achieve a range of movement effects by utilizing various types of spacing. You will also learn how to use Tween Machine, a free script available online. This is one of the main tools Ben uses along with Maya to manage his spacing in the most effective and efficient way.

We’ve learned how to animate a single object, but what about secondary actions like clothing or hair? That is where the principles of overlapping action and follow-through come in. Using the bouncing ball animation that we created in a previous lesson, Ben will attach a tail to the bouncing ball and walk you through the process of adding secondary actions to the tail. You will see how he uses a 2D animation program to create a rough pencil test to serve as reference for his CG animation. Then, he will take you frame by frame through the process of animating the overlapping actions of the tail and its follow-through as it goes through the arcs of motion. As a bonus, you will also pick up a few new time saving tips in Maya along the way!

In this free bonus lesson, Ben will show you his animation setup and his preferred tools of trade. These tools and equipment will help you be more efficient and optimize your skills when navigating the software. Animation is a time-consuming process, so streamlining the operation with proper tools will help you to remain productive. Each artist is unique, we hope that this overview will give you a point of reference of where to start in this process so you can begin with excitement and confidence. Now let’s get started!