A Tutorial on How to Create Ocean Waves in Maya
Maya from Autodesk is 3D animation software that offers a complete package for animations, visual effects, simulations, rendering and composites. Maya can be used for multimedia solutions in graphic design, television, film and video games. The modeling and visualization features of Maya are also used by architects and designers of automobiles and consumer products. Maya contains design and production elements that you can use for every step of almost any design process.
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Instructions
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Open Maya. To turn on the Dynamics module, simply hold down the "H" key and left-click anywhere on the screen. This will bring up a menu. Drag the mouse arrow into the word "Dynamics" on the menu to enter the Dynamics Interface module.
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Navigate to the top panel of the screen. Select "Fluid Effects." Next, select "Ocean." Finally, choose "Create Ocean." Then select the option box beside "Create Ocean" to open an attributes window.
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Select the "Attach to Camera" option and then the "Create Preview Plane" option. It is now time to select the size of the preview plane. Select the size of the preview plane carefully, as large planes will slow down some computers.
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Hold the "Ctrl" and "A" keys down to see the attributes menu while the preview plane is selected. Once the menu is open, select the "Ocean Preview Plane1" option. The only value to adjust in this screen is the resolution. The resolution controls the number of segments in the preview plane. Keep in mind, increasing resolution will slow down computers with older specs.
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Select the "Ocean Shader" option after setting the resolution value. This is the option that will provide the overall shape of the ocean. In the "Ocean Shader" menu, you can select values for wave height, smoothness, turbulence, peaking and foam.
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Add a polygonal object to the grid of your ocean. This will provide for the placement of your camera. From the "Create" menu, select "Cameras" and then "Camera" from the drop-down menu. Use the movement tool on the left panel to place the object in your grid. While the camera is still in movement mode, press the "Shift" key to select the polygonal object that you created earlier in this step, along with the camera. In the "Edit" menu, select "Parent." This will allow you to move the camera and the object around together.
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From the "Fluid Effect" menu at the top of the screen, select "Ocean." Then select "Make Motor Boats." By selecting this option, the object and the camera will move as if floating on the water surface.
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Render the scene from the angle of the camera by selecting "Window" from the top menu. Next, select "Rendering," "Editors" and "Render View." This will open the "Render View" menu. Select "Render" from the top menu. From the "Render" menu, select "Render" and "camera1."
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To add fog to your ocean, select "Rendering Editor" from the "Window" menu. Now select "Render Settings." From the "Render Settings" options, select "Maya Software" and choose the "Maya Software" option. Choose "Render Options." Now select the box at the right of the text field. This will produce fog in the rendering according to the settings selected in the options dialogue box that opens.
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Render the ocean. To create and export the animation, go to the "Window" menu and choose "Rendering Editors" and "Render Settings." Choose a new file name. Ensure the format of the image is set to .AVI. Put a time on the animation by choosing the start frame and end frame. Lastly, camera selection is found under the "Renderable Camera" options. It is now time to enter "Render" mode. Press "H" on your keyboard and left-click on the screen. This will open up the "Render" option in the top panel. Select "Render" and "Batch Render." While this will take a little while, your final movie is now being rendered.
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References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
