OUAN 504 - Character and Narrative: Briefing & Moom test

This brief is called 'Acting Up' where we will be using Maya 2015 to create a 3D animation of a chosen song verse/chorus that will be recorded by ourselves. The audio - spoken or sung- must be exported as a .WAV format and so it is compatible with Maya. We are also required to demonstrate an understanding of lip syncing and the general animation elements that are required in Maya. We were shown the character that we will be using, Moom; which is a basic pre-rigged/modelled character used for beginners to the software. 
We were given him to have a little play with and gather our bearings with Maya a little. At first, the look of Moom really threw me off, he was nothing like I expected - with his large yellow and brown eyes and huge teeth I thought he was downright ugly and I was dreading looking at him constantly while animating him.
We were told however, that his look can be modified so that is definitely something I'm going to look into before I start animating.

Notes
When you create a file, your project will automatically be saved to a folder.
Key folders that apply to this project:

> SOUND (Audio file storage)
> SCENES (Main project)
> SOURCE IMAGES (using textures etc. you bring it in through this folder where it will be stored in ‘PICTURES’)

FILE > SET PROJECT > ‘project folder name'

FILE > OPEN SCENE (to retrieve scene dropped in folder)

FORWARD KINEMATICS - 
Movement goes forward down the line, any movement below the line becomes children.
Singular muscle movements i.e the fingers, the elbow etc.

INVERSE KINEMATICS - 
Controls a wider section of movement i.e. moving the hand could control the entire movement of the arm. This method is better for positioning or striking a pose of the character.

PANELS > Facial Control Panel (allows control of the facial movements in character)

Tools list:

Select button (arrow)
TRANSLATE
ROTATE
SCALE

Press ‘Q’ gets rid of any manipulator
E- Rotate
R - Scale
T - Provides another manipulator i.e. moving the light source
W - Translate tool

ALT > Left mouse Button: Orbit
ALT > Middle Mouse Button: Track 
ALT > Right Mouse Button: Zoom

Press ‘A’ to reset your scene view (incase of loosing everything)
Press ‘F’ to track back to selected object

Hold down ‘SPACE BAR’ to bring quick access to the menus
Custom menu - Shift + Ctrl to add things to your menu

Main Menu sets:

POLYGONS - set for when modelling 
ANIMATION - for animating

Channel Box - Attributes of selected object

When you are animating in maya it is best that you key frame all the attributes.
You want to be able to select all the controls all at once.

Marquee select (left click, drag around the area)

CREATE > SETS > QUICK SELECT SETS
NAME > ADD TO SHELF

’S’ - set a key frame (red line on timeline means key)

Select all after movement changes then click S 

Activating Autokey -key in bottom right corner


Turning assets on and off ‘0’ is off ‘1’ is on


Maya in general is a daunting software to look at when you don't have a clue how to use it so we were given the afternoon to just get a little used to it.
We were asked to just make a short sequence of Moom moving to just show that we understood how some of the animating tools worked.

Apparently the use of a mouse is crucial in Maya to pan the camera around so it's something I'm going to have to invest in should I want to do the animating on my own laptop.
We were old how to set keyframes to make the sequence and that seemed pretty straightforward. To move Moom's limbs, he had to be put into object mode (which is achieved by holding down right click) and then I mostly used the rotate tool to move his body.

I can see myself struggling with Maya, I'm not great at picking up new software quickly but I think with practice I should be fine.
Here is my short test of Moom moving.