Assignment #3: Bouncing Ball Animation (Part 2)

The third assignment was to finish the bouncing ball tutorial from the PDF that we began last week. All of the animation was completed during the previous class. This week's assignment helped me gain a better understanding of how textures, materials, lighting, and rendering work in Maya. Below is a screenshot from the material/lighting process as well as a render from the final animation.

A screenshot from the texturing/rendering process

The final render

Assignment #2: Bouncing Ball Animation (Part 1)

The second assignment was to complete half of the bouncing ball tutorial from the PDF. At this point, the ball, ring, and floor are in place. The movement of the ball is being exaggerated to give it the squash and stretch effect seen in traditional 2D animation. From here, textures will be applied to each of the objects, and fire will surround the ring. This will be implemented using a particle system.

Assignment #1.5: Primitives Model (Menger Sponge)

Much of my origami work deals with fractals, so I knew I wanted my first 3D project to be a fractal. In my opinion, one of the most fascinating fractals (made with origami) is the Menger Sponge. That being said, I decided to create a Menger Sponge simply using primitive shapes. Once I created the basic pattern, I created groups of objects, and simply relocated them to make the more complex fractal with more iterations. This model actually inspired my other (more complex) 3D Fractal model that I submitted for Assignment #1. Below is a frame from the final render.

Assignment #1: Create a Model Using Maya Primitives (Fractal)

The first assignment was to create a model using the primitive shapes in Maya 2015. Much of my origami work focuses on fractals, so I decided to create a fractal using polygonal cubes. I originally had the idea to create a Menger Sponge in Maya; however, while browsing through photos of 3D fractals, I decided to design something very different.

[In Progress] Stage-2 Fractal

[In Progress] Stage-4 Fractal

[In Progress] Stage-6 fractal before lighting, textures, etc.

Unlike the Menger Sponge, I started with the largest stage first and continued to add further iterations by adding smaller cubes while repeating the same general pattern. This particular model took several hours to complete because it required 2220+ cubes to be created, re-sized, positioned, etc. I am particularly pleased with the result, as seen here:

Completed Fractal with 6 Iterations