Free Tutorial: Learning Dynamics in Maya

It’s been awhile since I last did a tutorial, but I made up for the long absence by preparing a little gem for you. It’s the ideal tutorial for people who have been dabbling with Maya but need to start delving deeper into all of its features.  More importantly, it will give you a skill that all aspiring CG artists should demonstrate on their demo reel.

Why don’t I teach you to use Dynamics in Maya? Yep, you read it correctly. In this month’s free tutorial I am using dynamics to set-up a simple rigid-body system and driving a car model up a ramp and into some blocks. Well, lets face it, we all like the idea of blowing things up and crashing cars, so you should like this one!  By setting up constraints on the car and using force fields to manipulate it, I’ll show you how to add gravity and then make it fall to the ground. This is exactly what we teach on our VFX Courses because it's such an integral part of the VFX pipeline.

Next up, you'll learn to link objects kinematically; using a hinge constraint to pin the car wheels to the chassis, you'll be able to rotate it about on one axis. Finally, I’ll show you how to apply forces to give an initial push and spin to the car wheels.

How to Access the Free Tutorial
To access the free tutorial, you need to register on our website.  Or if you have already done so, you’ll just need to login. Once you are registered, you can access the tutorial here.

If you have any questions or comments about my tutorials, or want to make suggestions about future ones drop me a line here. I always enjoy reading your feedback.