Intro to MAYA-Castle

  Recently in animation, my class has been learning to use MAYA a 3D modeling program. To help us hone our skills, we were instructed to build a castle. We used cylinders to build the towers, then selected certain sections of it and deleted them, creating something that actually looks like a castle watchtower. Next, we duplicated the tower until we had created four of them. We moved them to positions that we liked before moving on to the walls. I simply typed in X,Y, and Z coordinates to place each one at the exact corners of the plane.

  To make the walls we built a rectangular prism, then sized it to fit our needs. After creating divisions in the wall, we cut out every other section to create the battlements. After the first wall was complete, we duplicated it and positioned all four walls between the four towers. Personally, I positioned mine on the border lines of the plane. This made it a lot easier, and I could simply type in X,Y, and Z coordinates instead of moving each wall to the perfect place by hand.

   For the entrance, we formed a cylinder, combined it with a cube. Then in the Mesh Tab, we used the union tool to join the two items together. Then we inserted it into the wall. We then used the Difference tool in the Mesh tab. This erased the cylinder, cube, and the section of the wall that we put it in. This created a clean archway that serves as the entrance to the castle. Realistically, there would be a portcullis (the metal gate that is pulled up away from the entrance or dropped down to block invaders), but it wasn't a requirement and we hadn't learned a quick way to do that yet.

  Color is an important part of animation, so naturally it was one of the first things we learned. To add color to a shape, simply add a lambert or blinn. Giving each object's blinn or lambert the same title will allow you to change every similar object's color at the same time, and it will be the exact same. Giving objects' lambert/blinn will allow for individual color change. I put down a flat plane inside my castle and colored it green. I named its blinn "The Ground". The walls and towers all had a lambert named "lambert1", so they all changed color together. Initially, shapes will appear as a light grey, but you can change them all you want.

  My castle consisted of all the requirements. Four towers, four walls, a doorway, a flat plane, and color. Some of my classmates went a little further, adding extra towers, more walls, and much more detail. But I'm not the creative type. I do what needs to be done, and nothing more. You do have the option of adding extra detail, and many of the same techniques used here will help you do that. But I didn't have the time. So go ahead and explore MAYA, there's a lot you can do with it. 

How to Organize Clips in Adobe Premier Pro

  Making a video doesn't just include filming, it requires the ability to edit the footage. Editing your video is a key part of making it good, and this tutorial will show you how to do it in Adobe Premier Pro.

This is what the whole screen looks like. In the top left, you see the preview window. Here, you can preview and edit clips before you put them into your finished video. The top right is where the current video timeline plays. The timeline is at the bottom right/middle. Once you preview a clip, you can drag it into the timeline to add it to your video. Once it's in the timeline, you can drag it around to edit where in the video it appears.

 

  This is where the footage you imported will appear. From here, you can select individual shots before putting them into the final video. Double-clicking on the clips will open them in the preview window (top left in screenshot above). To organize clips before you put them in your video, you can put them into bins. Bins are like desktop folders, they allow you to put different clips in different places, so that you know where they are when you are ready to put them into your final video. Once you have edited clips in the preview tab, you go back to this area to click-and-drag the clips into the timeline.

  Above is the timeline itself. Using the timeline, you can organize video and audio to create your final video. Also, you can use options along the top of your window to add effects to the timeline, like transitions between shots. Using the timeline is key, because you literally can't make a video without it. You can also use the scroll bars on the far right to change what you see in the timeline. In this screenshot, it's just a few bars. But if you adjust the scroll bars, you can see frames of the video, and the audio levels as the video plays. 

  

  If you still have any questions about how to use anything in Adobe Premier Pro, you should go find other tutorials, because I'm still learning how to use this too. Good luck!