2d Animation In Maya?

[mpstjohn]

Is it possible to do purely two-dimensional animation in Maya? I want to animate a 2d sequence and was wondering if I should just forego Maya entirely and go for something more like ToonBoom. The backgrounds themselves can be three-dimensional, but I prefer the characters be two-dimensional.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[gregs]

It would be do-able. "South Park" is done in Maya. (I've heard). But it's really not what Maya is made for. If you're a pencil and paper type of guy, there are probably better tools.

Actually, I've heard that a lot of the TV shows are using Flash.

[gdltd]

Flash would be the best software for you if you're looking at family guy type animation, check out the likes of cartoonsmart.com for some help if you're not to familiar with flash

[joojaa]

Actualy flash sucks, maya could do hand drawn pencil look stuff better than flash can (alos normal flashes tween blows bigtime). Its just that most people fdont realize it. Maya can easily do frame by frame animation just liek any ther app, Its juts not immmediately geared to do so. Thenegain mayas not immediately geared to do ANYTING. So whatever you choose maya fo its allwsy s build tools firstf.

[mpstjohn]

I was thinking more along the lines of, say, the Simpsons.

I've found tutorials online where you can use scanned images, sketches, to build characters in Maya (three-dimensionally), and was wondering if I could use the same techniques to build characters two-dimensionally. I have a graphic tablet but don't enjoy using it, its an Intuos and not an LCD type tablet like Cintiq.

I was wondering if I could scan the images in and then rig them like one would do with 3d characters. Is there a way to change the setup that allows we to work in 2d, at least with the foreground. I know its a 3d application but given just how expensive it is, consider the price of Maya Unlimited, it could do more things than say the lesser expensive 3d applications.

I was also looking into purchasing the Supertoon DVD Series for Maya, but wasn't sure if any of the tutorials were for 2d work or not.

[joojaa]

Tell you what untill you meke robot or hologram movies you allways deal with 2d

[user_deleted]

QUOTE
I was wondering if I could scan the images in and then rig them like one would do with 3d characters.

most 2d cel animation tries to emulate 3d anyway, so you'd be better off rigging your characters in 3d and then rendering them out with a toon-style renderer (like maya vector for starters). I mean all the Disney / Simpsons / Anime stuff is 3d imitation, you can't do it by rigging a bunch of 2d cutouts.

Unless you really want a really basic cutout-style 2d animation, but then why use Maya??? That's like using a Dell PowerEdge 2900 with a Mediavault 1000 to emulate nintendo 8-bit games.

QUOTE
Thenegain mayas not immediately geared to do ANYTING

so true the more I use this thing the more I feel like it's just an empty shell...

[mpstjohn]

In the same way that there's certain things that you can only do in 3d, the same goes for 2d animation. There's a lot of things done with profiles in these characters that cannot be done with 3d because its not achieveable with physical reality. Again I reference the Simpsons, consider that very few times if ever are these characters' faces actually facing the camera, most are in a sort of half-profile, you see three-quarters of the face, both eyes, the nose and the mouth. This sort of thing cannot be achieved completely in 3d without compromising certain physical characteristics. I would agree with you on stuff like Futurama for example. But notice that most of the time characters are just walking from the left side of the screen to the right or vice-versa. Besides rigging should be a whole lot simpler in 2d than 3d, not to mention it should take up less space on a hard drive.

The reason I'm asking is I'm going to buy Maya Unlimited anyway and am wondering if I should put a whole $400 extra into a 2d animation package or if I get 2d capability out of the Maya package.

[joojaa]

QUOTE(mpstjohn @ 10/19/06, 09:00 PM) [snapback]250383[/snapback]
The reason I'm asking is I'm going to buy Maya Unlimited anyway and am wondering if I should put a whole $400 extra into a 2d animation package or if I get 2d capability out of the Maya package.

Well get illustrator (because its good at inking and because you vcan easily finnish your animations in it) and get used to using the tablet

But yeas thing is even if i do 3d outlines in maya i touch thenm up later justsualy by erasing areas.

[duggz]

2d animation in maya is tricky...It will be easier for yourself to use an actual animation orientated program. You will be able to import into Maya and play around with extra visual effects. But as a traditionally trained animator myself, Maya is the long way round from a purely 2D animation perspective.

[joojaa]

Well if you compare maya to flash, mayas much better at this. You just need a few shards of expressions.

It much depends on how you wish to work. If your main workflow is to draw by hand on paper, than mayas not terribly much better than most other apps. I find that illustrator is actualy better than many real 2d cell animation software on this path (but again it nbeed some scriptglue just like maya).

For cutouts like southpark maya works like a charm, basicaly because maya can build a very userfiendly rig for the cutout animator.

Thing is howevre mayas not good at 2d animation uless you KNOW very intimately how to use it. Then again mayas not very good for 3D either in theese cases

Thing is maya has a very nifty way to do this so your backgrounds could easily be inkoutlined 3d, and you could paint on top of 3D mannequines to help you keep the propotions right.

Have yopu guys ever considered you can draw pfx frame by frame one the camera plene? have you tried it? I have it works very well it work as a complinet on cell animation stuff.

However mayas a bit bad for a just color it work.

Ps: just because its not immediately apparent does not make it unworkable.

[gdltd]

I know you know a hell of a lot about Maya and many other apps but I really think it sounds like you're underestimating Flash as a 2D animation package...it could pull off simpsons-like animation in no time....Ive even done some flame effects in it that look more realistic than the ones I have done so far in maya....Now im not saying Flash can create more realistic effects but it should definitely be given more thought when thinking of learning some 2D animation. Also maya's learning curve is much steeper and may even be too complex a program for this task...

If anyone would like any examples to the 2D stuff flash can create, please message me or alternatively check out cartoonsmart.com - I learn't most of the flash stuff i know from this guy anyway

[joojaa]

Well, thing is just becasue everybody does something dont make it right choise of tool. Im not uderestimating flash, i used to work on the damn thing for year.

The GUI of the damn thing is horrible. Try to simply key around the contoll points of your curve, then your suddenly have a hell of a time doing so. In maya you just move them about and key. Blim thats it. Its not that you realy need this sort of stuff as much in 2d animation but it sure as hell is very handy when doing some flowing objects like cloth outlines, hair , flags, waves and so on. Even the firgging tween eingene of flash is sometimes so unneccerily hard to operate. Now if you were to do the same things in maya youd be done by the time the flash user has time to start.

Then why the hell does flash not have a deecent graph editor for moving the keyframed stuff. This would make some of the everyday animation tasks so much quicker to do.

In the end im looking past what the program can do and achive with work, im looking at what kind of productuion pipe you could build on top of the thing. So yes it could do simpsons like stuff but remeber so can pencil and paper. The real quastion is how quickly you could work. so if i can use maya to speed up a a task by 10% i can sell the end results cheaper, or i could use the time to make the animation look beter. remeber many of the animations you see on tv today.

Try using maya frame by frame youd be supprised. Its just that its not wery often done and certainly theres no tutorials on how to do so. Its just one of thiose things people dont think about.

Problem is that flash is okay, its jut not fabulous. Mayas much closer to being that, altough mayas more painfull to get into many aspects of life. Flash is missing much of the essential toolsets maya users have. AND dont forget that being able to quicly fascuimilre bvackdrops and manequins for drawing helpers is actualy sometimes a real boon.

[gdltd]

You certainly know what you're talking about and make a good enough point - enough to convince to take a look into 2D animation through Maya....it may take me a while but i'll give it a go.

I'll be sure to post anything I come up with