Development of Animation Project based on Maya Application

Jayridzuan bin Jaafar, Siti Nurfarahin Ferzana Binti Shaikh Malek

Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)

Abstract Maya is a powerful solution

for 3D modelling, animation visual
effects and rendering. In this paper, the
details of 3D animation design based on
Maya are described, which includes five
stages of modelling, material, map
design, light and camera, animation.
Before starts designing the animation, a
storyline and a storyboard are
developed to give a clear vision on the
flow of the animation. The moral-valued
animation Lebih Baik is the 3D
animation designed using Maya. The
design process and the key design steps
of the animation Lebih Baik are
detailed further in this paper.
Keywords- Maya; 3D animation; design;
storyline; storyboard
I.
INTRODUCTION
Maya is thought as the strongest 3D
developing software. Maya is the 3D
developing tool which the Adobe company
produces, including the majority function
of 3D animation design [1]. In the paper, a
moral-valued 3D animation is future. The
design process of animation by Maya
includes five stages, which are modelling,
material, map design, light and camera,
animation. These stages describe the main
task which needs to establish an animation
[2]. The creating processes of animation
by Maya are detailed in the paper. The
moral-valued animation Lebih Baik is
applied to explain more on the design
process in Maya. Above all the processes,
before using Maya application, a storyline
and a storyboard are developed to assist
the design steps of the animation and as to
complete the preproduction stage.

II.

STORYLINE AND
STORYBOARD
A storyline and a storyboard are developed
to assist the animation design steps.
Storyline is used to describe the story of
the animation as a whole. It helps in
designing the scene, play design and also
action design while the storyboard is used
as a translation of storyline to view the
story in a form of visual plan.
A. Storyline
Storyline for the moral-valued animation
Lebih Baik is written in Malay language.
It is also created based on the six splices
story structure which includes exposition,
inciting
incidents,
progressive
complications,
crisis,
climax
and
resolution. Below is the storyline of the
animation:
Di dasar laut yang jernih, tinggal
sepasang tiram, Ester dan Oyivs, bersaiz
sederhana besar bersama koloni mereka
yang tinggal berhampiran batu yang
besar. Batu itu menjadi habitat yang
sangat sesuai untuk koloni tiram kerana
makanan mudah didapati di situ. Suatu
hari, sedang mereka sibuk bermain, arus
tiba-tiba mengalir sangat deras sehingga
menerbangkan butir-butir pasir di dasar
laut tersebut. Ester dan Oyivs tidak
sempat menutup cengkerang dan mereka
terpaksa menelan beberapa butir pasir
yang telah masuk ke dalam cengkerang.
Masing-masing menyalahkan sesama
sendiri. Ester berfikir daripada mereka
sibuk saling salah menyalahkan, lebih
baik mereka cari jalan untuk keluarkan
butiran pasir daripada cengkerang.
Mereka cuba meludah butiran pasir itu
tetapi tidak berjaya. Kemudian, Ester dan
Oyivs
cuba
pula
mengangakan

cengkerang mereka luas-luas supaya pasir

dapat dikeluarkan. Malangnya butiran
pasir itu terus melekat malah lebih banyak
pasir yang masuk ke dalam cengkerang
mereka. Setelah sejenak memikirkan cara
untuk keluarkan pasir, Oyivs mendapat
satu idea. Dia mencadangkan kepada
Ester supaya biarkan butiran pasir terus
berada dalam cengkerang dan cuba
tukarkan kepada sesuatu yang lebih baik.
Ester bersetuju tanpa sebarang bantahan.
Setelah bertahun-tahun butiran pasir
berada dalam cengkerang mereka,
akhirnya terhasillah sesuatu yang
berharga. Warnanya putih bercahaya.
Sebutir mutiara yang asalnya hanya
daripada butiran pasir. Ester dan Oyivs
berasa sangat gembira.
The story is about two oysters leave under
the sea. While they are playing, a wave
wild wave strikes the ocean resulting sand
storm at the bottom of it. Because of the
incident, sand particles trapped in both of
the oysters shells and it cause irritation to
the oysters. They find some ways to
remove the sand from their inside shells
but they dont succeed. At last, they decide
to keep the trapped sand particles and after
years, they open up their shells and found
pearls in them.
B. Storyboard
Fig. 1 shows the storyboard for the
animation Lebih Baik.

III.

3D ANIMATION DESIGN
PROCESS
The design process of animation by Maya
includes five stages, which are modelling,
material, map design, light and camera,
animation. These stages describe the main
task which needs to establish an animation.
The followings are detailed creating
process of animation by Maya:
A. Modelling
The modelling can mainly include the
establishment of animation scene, the
establishment of animation shape and the
establishment of animation prop. As in
animation Lebih Baik, the modelling of
the scene which takes place under the sea
and also the characters of animation, the
oysters namely Ester and Oyivs. Modelling
is the foundation in Maya animation
creation.
B. Materials
Material is powerful to reflect the real
world. The environment, under the sea
environment is observed according to the
material type to produce a more realistic
and natural vision on the scene and
models.
C. Map Design
In the whole creation of animation, map
design may be the most challenging part.
The surface characteristics must be
described as detail as possible in the
process of creating the map. In Lebih
Baik animation, the oysters, the rocks and
also the sand surface are details to bring
more look-a-live or realistic look after
mapping.

Fig. 1 Storyboard for Lebih Baik

D. Light and Camera

A reasonable light decoration is important
because at different time and different
location, the ray is difference. For light
decoration in Lebih Baik, three types of
light are used which are ambient, point and
directional light. The ambient light is used
to light up the scene, while the other two
which are point and directional light are
used to make a focal highlight on the

oysters. The camera position is mostly

focus on the oysters throughout the
animation.
E. Animations
Animation can be done after all the steps
before are completed. The purpose of
animation is to change the action with the
combination of time and position.
Numerous elements can be use to create
the animation in Maya. The animation
speed is also need to be taken into account
so that the animation does not be too
speedy or too slow. In Lebih Baik, the
centre focus of animation is on the oysters
which the animation on how the eyes may
express feeling, the open and close of the
oysters shells, and also the movement of
the oysters. The animation may imitate the
real life action.
Fig. 3 Other scenes in animation
IV. PROJECT OUTCOME
Fig.2 , and Fig. 3 show the screen capture
from the animation project Lebih Baik.

V. CONCLUSION
The moral-valued animation Lebih Baik
is design based on Maya and the details of
creating processes are described in the
paper. The design process of animation by
Maya includes five stages, which are
modelling, material, map design, light and
camera, animation. Before starts designing
the animation, a storyline and storyboard
are developed to assist the process.
Storyline and storyboard are built as part
of the preproduction stage. Maya is very
suitable and effective in the creation of
model and animation.

Fig. 2 The introduction scene

REFERENCES
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Policarp Hortol, Generating3D and

3D-like animations of strongly uneven
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[2]

Xia San-ao, Application of Maya in

film 3D animation design, Computer
Research and Development (ICCRD),
2011, vol.2, no.3.

[3]

Ulrike Spierling, Setting the scene:

playing digital director in interactive
storytelling and creation, Computers
and Graphics, 2002, vol. 26, no. 1.