Maya tutorial: The Principles of Physics in Action Scenes
The Gnomon Workshop has released The Principles of Physics in Action Scenes, an animator’s guide to physics, recorded by former Scanline VFX Animation Supervisor Wolfgang Haas.
The intermediate-level workshop provides over three hours of video training in Maya.
Apply physics principles to animation for visual effects and game development
In the workshop, Haas sets out how to plan and animate an action scene in Maya, showing a massive kaiju-style creature wreaking havoc in a city.
The training focuses on how the principles of physics affect animators’ work, including how to demonstrate the creature’s weight and inertia through its movements.
Individual lessons cover shot layout, camera animation, spline animation, shot-level finaling of deformations, and creating small rigs and expressions to help finish tedious tasks faster.
As well as the training videos, viewers of the workshop can download Haas’s script for creating splines for animation paths.
The workshop uses free assets including Golukumar’s Full Gameready City Buildings and Cyperpunk City, Wallon’s Cartoon Car, and Kenchoo’s Ostrich model, plus Truong CG Artist’s inexpensive Irex Dinosaur Maya Rig, although the principles can be translated to any assets.
About the artist
Wolfgang Haas is a freelance Senior Animator, Rigger and Tool Developer.
He began working in animation and visual effects at Trixter, later joining Scanline VFX (now Eyeline), eventually becoming Animation Supervisor, also writing in-house productivity tools.
Price and availability
The Principles of Physics in Action Scenes is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.
Subscriptions cost $57/month or $499/year. Free trials are available.
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