VFX animation in Maya? How can I create effects/visual feedback animations?

[Anonymous]

Hello!

I was wondering about this for a while now but couldn't find any solution yet. How am I able to make an animation of something like slaying a sword, or a cartoony explosion.

Am I just creating meshes of the effect and then deform it in my animation? But what I want to "spawn" things mid animation?

Thanks in advance!

[mspeer]

Hi!

You can use any solution that works for you, there is no wrong or right.

To spawn a certain object you can key the attribute visibility, first set to "off" and then to "on" .

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the respond, my problem is that I don't even have a point to start with it at all.

I only yet animated characters with a rig, but never a mesh without one. How is the process of it?

[mspeer]

Hi!

There is  no difference what type of object you animate

Select object, set key --> move object, set key.

For further help i recommend to check some online tutorials or ask one specific question only.

Something like the questions of your header will result in an amount of text that can fill up a complete book.

[t_chanma]

At the very basest level, all 3D animation boils down to moving vertices around, so in that sense you're right.

However, how you move those vertices around is what 3D programs try to make easy for you.  So yes, for something like animating a sword you would set keyframes between poses.  Or to "spawn" an object into the scene, you can keyframe its "Visibility" from off to on.

VFX can be a little different / more complex.  In situations where you want to replicate real world physics, usually you create a solver, feed it a bunch of parameters, then let the solver do the animation for you (according to mathematics).  For example, for an explosion you'd create a solver (like an Aero node in Bifrost), feed it air, fuel, and temperature, then let Maya simulate the explosion for you (for an example, you can open the Bifrost Browser and load an example explosion into your scene).

If you want to get your feet wet in Maya FX, I'd recommend this video series: