enter the lord of maya...

thats right, the LORD of Maya. Over the last couple of days we've had a guest lecturer Rob Jones come in and talk to us about rendering in layers in maya for compositing in after effects. 

I have to say I know very little about rendering/compositing but Robs lecture helped me understand the benefit of this process and also not depending soley on maya for all our lighting. 

Rob began by introducing himself and taking note of all the level 2 teams, their members and type of environment. From that he was able to suggest some further research we could look at and with the deadline fast approaching, the advise to everyone was to pre-visualize by start blocking out shots (this would help in terms of what needed texturing and what didn't and would again help save us time for getting the project complete. 

We then watched a shot animation by Blur Studios called A Gentleman's Duel. 

Rob then provided breakdown shots to explain the layering technique for basic 3 point lighting. It was so helpful to see how the layers added together created the final look of the piece and I was stunned to learn one shot consisted of 50 layers.

Rob has left us with a gentleman's duel film as well as the layers to play around with in after effect and practice adding different lighting effects. He also left us a pdf which he created on lighting as well as a phone box Maya model which we can practice different render passes on such as the occlusion layer we learnt about. 

After practicing with these different elements RObs came round and saw each individual group and offered his thoughts on what was the next stage to consider in the project. For us, Rob helped us consider the different layers we might need such as

• Buildings
• Spider - including further layers of - environment map, colour pass, occlusion pass, reflection/spec pass

This is just a general list of layers, the final list will need to be established soon if we are to begin making some test renders. 

As well as this Rob advised us on the following:

• consider what elements require further details for close up shots i.e pavements
• need to establish and start blocking off shots (pre vis)
• consider light linking (you can tell Maya to light certain objects and not have it affect others)

Overall it was a very helpful couple of sessions with Rob and it was nice to be shown these techniques in Maya. Rob was thoroughly prepared with examples, demonstrations and files for us to experiment with in our own time. I think its a bit of a relief to the group that we don't have to solely rely on Maya to get the project sorted and I think it will save us a lot of time when rendering in layers. I think Rob has given our group a lot to think about but by addressing these elements will allow us to best utilize the remaining time on the project. I hope the college will bring back Rob for further tuition as his knowledge and guidance was well received by all in level 2.