For the past few years, I have been teaching Modeling and Animation with Maya at the Cyprus University of Technology, in the Multimedia and Graphic Arts Department. Multimedia students take two Maya classes (with a possible option of an elective third Maya class in their final semester), making it an essential tool in creating animation, games and interactive projects. Graphic designers take only one introductory Maya class, incorporating the software in their design pipeline. My goal is to make the students embrace Maya, love it and create great art with it, even if they come from different disciplines and with different interests.
Here are some examples of the work produced so far. All the students are represented with at least one project each.
Class description: PGT 310, 3D Modeling and Animation I, Fall Semester 2014, 3 hours per week lectures and lab.
This is a collection of works done by 3rd year Graphic Design and Multimedia students, introduced to Maya for the first time. The Graphic Designers are coming from the 2D world, so I tried to incorporate their familiar graphic design concepts into the 3D realm. It was challenging for all of us, since we only had a total of 13 lab sessions for the completion of 5 projects. My goal was to introduce Maya into their daily routine, whether that's a logo design, a product design, motion graphics etc. We developed designs for posters and websites using 3D elements, produced an animation of a product design/packshot for a TV ad, created the design and animation of a TV station ident and finally worked on the animation of a festival announcement (music festival, ice crealm festival, film festival etc). The Multimedia students usually prefer a less abstract/more realistic approach. They love game design, so in their projects I introduced more modeling with the lego character project. They were also asked to design a mobile application button and homepage for their festival animation, since in their careers as multimedia designerrs they will be asked to work on similar projects.
Class description: PGT 315, 3D Modeling and Animation II, Spring Semester 2014, 3 hours per week lectures and lab.
This is a mandatory course in Maya for the 3rd year Multimedia Design students. They have already taken Modeling and Animation I and come in with the basic knowledge of Maya. My goal is to take them one step further with more polygonal and NURBS modeling, lighting and rendering and also animation. We start with the introduction of more advanced modeling techniques and move onto the basic animation principles that are applied throughout the course. This semester's students were surprisingly very keen on rigging and rendering, so we took it to the next level with some rewarding results. I was also happy to welcome a graphic designer to this course, who took it as an elective and produced some wonderful work!
This is a mandatory course in Maya for the 3rd year Multimedia Design students. They have already taken Modeling and Animation I and come in with the basic knowledge of Maya. My goal is to take them one step further with more polygonal and NURBS modeling, lighting and rendering and also animation. We start with the introduction of more advanced modeling techniques and move onto the basic animation principles that are applied throughout the course. This semester's students were surprisingly very keen on rigging and rendering, so we took it to the next level with some rewarding results. I was also happy to welcome a graphic designer to this course, who took it as an elective and produced some wonderful work!