The Java 2D™ API enhances the graphics, text, and imaging capabilities of the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT), enabling the development of richer user interfaces and new types of Java™ applications. Along with these richer graphics, font, and image APIs, the Java 2D API supports enhanced color definition and composition, hit detection on arbitrary geometric shapes and text, and a uniform rendering model for printers and display devices. The Java 2D API also enables the creation of advanced graphics libraries, such as CAD-CAM libraries and graphics or imaging special effects libraries, as well as the creation of image and graphic file read/write filters.
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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.
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In this beginners guide we discuss how to build a simple humanoid character and how to animate it. It was not our intention to give a step-by-step guide on how to build a character and how to animate it, because there is extensive amount of literature available on this. This guide can be used next to the “Learning Maya 5 Foundation” book as a source for more information and explanation. We found that although the book is very clear on what actions to do and what the actions will result in, it lacked somewhat in explaining the meaning of concepts and the reasons for performing actions.
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This document is intended to be a guide or a reference for those who, using Maya to create their characters, want to export them into the Quake III Arena engine. It’s based on our experience at the Virtual World of Art (VWA) where we wanted to create our own avatars for our environments, and reflects as well some particularities due to the specific needs of our project, that might not be the same of the average user willing to create boths for the game. We just use Quake III Arena as an engine for a very different context than what the game itself is about, but I think that it can be a useful reference nevertheless for those Quake III Arena enthusiasts that, using already Maya to model, texture and animate their characters, would like to see them fighting in Quake III Arena.
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