This tutorial is intended to teach new animation students a few basic animation techniques and workflow based on fundamental animation principles using Maya and a free character setup named walkingBall_v2.3 created by the author. This character setup or “rig” has many useful features without being overwhelming to newer students. This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of how to navigate the Maya interface, find menu commands, and other basic computer file management skills.

Powerful 3D applications such as Maya require a predefined location to save data and files while you are working. Large studio animation production lines typically create custom software for managing project file structures, to control naming conventions, and to track revisions. Absent such large studio resources we will use the method of organizing files and data that the developers of Maya created called a “Project”. The beauty of this is that you can have multiple projects simultaneously, each with its own set of resources

This tutorial also assumes you are somewhat new to 3D software and animation concepts. We will be using a basic pose-to-pose approach of animation. Pose-to-pose animation is what its name implies, creating character movement by establishing primary positions, or poses, and methodically moving the character from one pose to the next. Different, but just as valid methods such as straight-ahead or layered animation are not described in this tutorial.

Download pdf Basic Walk-Cycle Tutorial Maya