Course details
Learn to rig a car model in Autodesk Maya for use in animation, games, design visualization, and visual effects. Author Adam Crespi starts with an overview of parenting and hierarchy, moving into separating the model into working components. From there, you'll learn about creating controllers, constructing functioning wheel assemblies, and constraining the suspension. Expressions are used to tie the rig components together and add a degree of autonomous motion and rotation. Last, a bonus chapter on materials shows how to add realistic shaders onto the car and tie the controls to functionality such as operable headlights and taillights.
Note: Some experience with polygonal modeling in Maya and beginning knowledge of rigging and constraints will help you get the most from this course.
Instructor
-
Adam Crespi
Senior Artist, Machine Learning at Unity Technologies
Adam Crespi is a renowned educator and trainer in 3D applications for computer-generated imagery.
He has been teaching at the university level since 2000, and has been working in design visualization and animation since 1993. He has taught at The Art Institute of California — Orange County and DigiPen Institute of Technology, and he is currently teaching at The Art Institute of Seattle. Adam has lectured at numerous conferences and schools, including Autodesk University, Montana State University, The University of Oklahoma, and SIGGRAPH. Adam is also an Autodesk Certification Evaluator, and an Autodesk Certified Instructor in 3ds Max.
Adam holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Southern California and a Master of Education from Argosy University. He wrote Achieving Invisibility: Architectural Visualization in 3ds Max (Fairchild Publishing) and the Autodesk Workbook for Design Visualization for the Solar Decathlon Competition. He has also helped design exams and training materials for Autodesk.
When he is not up to his eyebrows in any of the dozen applications he is fluent in, Adam enjoys baking bread, mountain biking, surfing, and chasing his three daughters and his two pets.
Skills covered in this course
Viewers of this course
Welcome
- [Voiceover] Hi, I'm Adam Crespi and welcome to Vehicle Rigging in Maya. In this course, we'll look at constructing a rig for a car. We'll start out getting the model in shape, checking for any geometry issues and making sure everything is scaled to the right size and right place. I'll show you how to do this by importing references and using the freeze transforms tool. Then I'll show you how to you use the align tool to get controllers you've created on the right parts of the car. I'll show you how to add non linear squash deformers onto the tires so they squeeze down onto the road correctly and the right parenting order for the tires and wheel assemblies. We'll see how to create steering and master car controllers and put extra attributes on, so we have control over the head lights, tail lights, and running lamps and turn signals. We'll be covering all these features, plus plenty of other tools and techniques. Now, let's get started with Vehicle Rigging in Maya.
Practice while you learn with exercise files
Download the files the instructor uses to teach the course. Follow along and learn by watching, listening and practicing.
Download courses and learn on the go
Watch courses on your mobile device without an internet connection. Download courses using your iOS or Android LinkedIn Learning app.