Tutorials and Assets
Turntable Animations
Chapter One: 3-pt Lighting and 2-node Camera Motion
The most common way to present a model, to a client, supervisor or on a demo-reel, is to create a turntable animation. This tutorial demonstrates a simple, yet effective, solution for creating dynamic turntables. Utilizing Maya's two-node camera, motion path animation provides a flexible way to move the camera around the model. Precise and cycling rotations are combined with a moving camera, to allow for various views of the model in a single turntable. We begin the tutorial by creating a three-point lightrig using raytraced shadows and Mental Ray.
Post Date: May 29, 2007
Volume one of this set is a good start, for sure. I'm just not certain why Alex choose to animated the camera instead of simply rotating the head. You could still move the camera up and down the Y if you want. It just seems a bit odd to me to set up a rim light, for example, if it's only going to serve as a rim for a second or two during the turntable, after which it starts to become more of a key for the back of the head. I suppose you could always link the lights to the camera so the lighting stays in tact as well. Perhaps Alex's way creates more of a dynamic look. It's hard to say without juxtaposing them.
Posted June 19, 2007 - 07:57pm