The 20 day MAYA SUMMER COURSE is a leisurely paced low-cost 20 day course (with week-ends free) for those wishing to spend time in Tuscany while learning the intricacies of 3D animation. It is intended for beginners who wish to progress to an advanced level.

Essentially this course is a summation of the 3 shorter courses we run. Namely the MAYA BASICS, MAYA ADVANCED and MAYA PORTFOLIO courses.

The MAYA SUMMER course starts Monday 9th August and finishes Friday 2nd September.

DAYS 1 to 5

Day 1. Polygons. Every aspect of creating, cutting, shaping and extruding, using all the methods of shape creation (loft, extrude etc.)

Day 2. NURBs. All aspects of this type of geometry and why it is so useful to animators. In the afternoon we will do sub-division of surfaces for organic life forms.

Day 3. Deformers. Typically those used for shape creation and animation. They include lattices, non-linear, wires, blend shapes and bones. Animating with keyframes.

Day 4. Lighting and texturing. There are very different methods for texturing on polygons and NURBs. You need to know how to attach a texture to a surface precisely and you need to understand layered shaders, which can be complex.

Day 5. Physics using soft and rigid bodies and how to animate with them. Basic hierarchical animation using a simple table lamp (and inspired by PIXAR's 'Luxo Junior'.)

DAYS 6 to 10

Day 6. Cloth, hair, fur, fluids, oceans and ponds. These subjects are always interesting but be prepared for long waits while simulations are taking place. We will also discuss and implement the caching of data which is necessary when using Mental Ray or Pixar's RenderMan.

Day 7. 2D and 3D Paint Effects. Not so important but useful to know. We will also discuss texturing in PhotoShop, creating seamless textures. Also all aspects of lighting will covered in depth. More complex layered shaders.

Day 8. Creating a figure in smoothed polygons (sub-division), creating and skeleton 'rig' and animating it.

Day 9. Using advanced deformers for facial expression and lip-synch. (A continuation of the previous day.)

Day 10. Alpha channels and Z buffers and compositing layers.

DAYS 11 to 20

These days will be involved with the development and realisation of a short 3D animation project. The production can be character based (as described below) or can focus more on architecture or product design. (Just let us know and we will adapt your course.)

You will model, texture and animate a fully rigged character in an architectural environment. The face of this character will be connected to a series of deformers to give expression and life. The body of the character will be connected to a skeleton rig and the skin of the character properly weighted.

All aspects or character animation, lighting, texturing, clothing, hair, props and sound design will be covered.

If character animation is not your thing then we can explore the higher functions of Maya and develop your movie creating a production that is centred around architecture, product design interior design, medical or set design. You decide- then let us know.

The secret of Maya is not so much in knowing all the tools and their functions but  in combining them in creative and practical ways. Knowing what to do with what- and why and when- is the real key to knowing Maya. As you learn to combine the various Maya functions you will come to understand why Maya has become such a standard in every professional studio in the World.

You will be given the choice of Mental Ray or RenderMan as your rendering engine and you will be working on a highly specified multi-processor Apple Mac or BOXX PC..

Training starts at 10 in the morning and finishes at 6 in the evening. There is a one hour break for lunch.