a sneak peak :)

here's the first bit of my project. it took me about two days to get everything together, which isn't as bad as i thought and the only reason i stayed long on one scene is because i have being "nit-picky" abiout my robots movements.

originally though, i wanted to use the set driven key tool tutorial  http://lesterbanks.com/2012/01/introduction-to-set-driven-keys-in-maya/ but it wasn't working and i some parts of the scene required my robot to stop. so i scrapped that plan and just keyframed my wheels :)

in regards to wheels though, let me just say that i am glad that i had help with the wheel revolution from an actual physics student (and no, his name isn't wikipedia). the original wheel spins were a bit too slow so he calculated the actual rotations the wheels should have. here's the notes we shared in the afternoon :)

i learned that the rotation of wheels will depend on the radius and the circumference of the wheel. you have to use pi in the equation because wheels tend to be infinite and pi is an infinite number. you also have to remember to measure the distance the wheel will travel on to calculate the revolutions. :) that's a crash course in physics for you guys who are doing 3d and needs to manually find out how your wheel revolves :) hopefully, i've explained this correctly or sheldon will want my blood. LOL (thanks jackson!)

now, without further ado, here is the preview for "plumber"

i need to re-render some parts of the scene because i can see some unecessary rotations, shadows and movment that affect the whole thing. none the less, im quite happy with my progress. :)

now off to finish more stuff. stay tuned for more progress!

cheers!
trish x