order of creating a movie
 

I recently started to do a movie in maya. I need to know the order in which a movie is made.

However it is understood that modelling must be done first and batch rendering must be done at last.

I am confused with the order of texturing,animation and clothing.

Should texturing be done first or should clothing be done first or should the animation be done first.

Please help me out. Thanks in advance.

Hi there.

I wouldn't even touch Maya to begin with if you are thinking of making a movie. Its more important to begin with that you get all of your ideas, plot, concept sketches, etc, etc down on paper first. That way, you are 100% clear on what it is exactly that you are trying to achieve.

LisaG :beer:

I agree with the above. After you have your concept and ideas you need to make astoryboard. I is THE reference thing you will always go back to. If you are sure your storyboard is fine and you are happy with it make an animatic of it to see how shots work together. You can just make it really simple using images of the internet or drawings of your own.
The second thing is I would never "make" the film in maya. I'd render shots or characters and composite it in something like aftereffects, inferno etc.
I am not an expert, but I would model my characters, put textures on, rig them, put them in the environment I want, put lights if needed, make test renders until I'm happy and then animate. I never used cloth so I don't know when that comes in. I suppose before or after you rig. I might be completely wrong so get a second opinion before you adapt the workflow I described.

good luck.

I liked the way u expressed the ideas of the film. The story board is there ,it is a comic book. To get the photos or images sometimes i scan the book or i will draw with my hand and then get it scanned. I have created different parts in different scenes. THE only thing i need to do is import them into one scene. With u r explanation i can go forward.

You mentioned something like compositing. I actually did not get that. Is it something like a moviemaker. Can sound also be added by that. Also mention the softwares u are using or softwares related to that.

To others, Please tell me the place of clothing.

for compositing I use adobe after effects. But there are various compositing programs, like "shake" , "combustion" , "inferno" and I am sure there are even more. I can only comment on after effects but in a way it is like a very advanced movie maker. I don't know how familiar you are with adobe software like photoshop for example. But you could imagine after effects like photoshop just for moving image. You work in layers which gives you a great deal of control over the different parts of your movie.
You could for example render your character and it's shaddow or shirt seperately. Now you have two layers. And say you wanted the shirt to change colour or the shaddow to disappear you can do it without influencing your character.
I hope I did not confuse you even more.:eek:
And yes you can add sound, I don't know about the other programs but I would not recommend doing that in after effects. I usually use final cut pro or premiere. But for simple sound editing something like Imovie might do it.
Also even though I have never used cloth I am quite sure it is as complicated as all the other parts that come with maya. I am new to maya as well and it is the most complex and complicated piece of software I have ever seen. Propably the most powerful as well. But what I am trying to say is unless you have a personal instructor, it will take up a lot of time to get a character ready for animation. ( I cannot recall how often I yelled at my computer) So if it is not absolutely imperative for your story that the clothes move, don't use cloth but just make a polygon jumper or something else. Also I think cloth simulation might be quite powerhungry.
If you still want to use it I am sure there is a cloth tutorial in the maya help, maybe it tells you at what point to get your characters dressed.

that`s great what u have said about cloth. I am familiar with adobe photoshop and what u told did not confuse me. I have a software by name sound forge where i can manipulate the sound. But in order to keep the dialogues or sound in a movie what else software should be used or can it be done in maya itself. u told that that in after effects it is a hard job to insert sound in a movie. Suggest me an easy way.

About the cloth u said that it is hard simulating cloth. Can u suggest me an another alternative of cloth i.e. how can i dress the character without using cloth.

As I said, I usually use Final Cut Pro, but since it's from apple I believe it is only available for mac. But you could use adobe premiere for example. It is quite similar. I am sure there are many more video editing programs, so it's up to you to figure out what suits you best.
About the easy way, i am not sure if there is one. Mastering maya compositing software and then editing your film will take time. But depending on what you want to make, you don't always have to use high end software. When I did my first short animation I used iMovie to add sound. That was really basic and you can learn it in some hours.
I don't know how hard it is to simulate cloth, what I meant was that depending on your hardware it might take your computer a while to calculate the simulation.
I am sure there are tutorials on how to get your character dressed. I could recommend the lowPoly character one, because it is a complete set. You build a character, you texture it, and most importantly for me was, you learn how to rig it, and later animate it. And the LP character has a shirt pants, shoes and stuff, so you would learn how to make clothes.
I think that would give you a good overall idea, of at least the maya part of making short films.