I tried my hand at some basic animation in Maya last week. I was not planning on posting this, but after showing it to my nieces and nephew and getting such a favorable response I figured I would put it up this week. The kid test is critical for a cartoon. A 4 year old has a better bullshit detector than most adults.
I found the windmill shapes on the internet but everything else was drawn by me. I created all the textures and shaders. Of course the lighting was all my design.
This was my first time trying my hand at animation since I was 12 years old doing stop motion with legos. My intent with this was to create a scene that would allow for several variations in lighting looks. The pacing is off, which is not surprising as I am wholly new to this technology, but barring it being a bit slow and clunky I enjoy the basic story of a little windmill traversing many difficulties and ultimately growing up.
I hope you enjoy!
You will need Quicktime 7 or higher to view the video. If you are still having trouble feel free to download the movie and watch it at your leisure.
Amazing accomplishment in such a short time. Congrats, Lucas!