THINKING ANIMATION TUTORIAL - PART TWO - (Simple with Plate) Light Your Playblast in Maya Viewport 2.0
This is Part Two of the "Lighting a Playblast in Maya's Viewport 2.0" series. 💥
If your character rigs, props, cameras, and sets haven't been cleaned up, I recommend starting with Part One of this tutorial to address shot hygiene - https://thinkinganimation.gumroad.com/l/shothygiene.
This is a video rental. You will have access to the video for 72 hours.
It's essential to tidy up your scene before proceeding with lighting, regardless of who created the clutter.
This 24-minute video comprehensively covers lighting a simple shot in Viewport 2.0 using a plate as the background. It's more than just a tutorial—it's a valuable resource designed to help you create a convincing playblast with depth for your demo reel, an essential skill for any CG artist.
This tutorial addresses basic lighting setups, color space, cameras, shadows, motion blur, depth of field (DOF), and specific Viewport 2.0 settings. Following this guide, you can create playblasts that stand up to fully rendered shots.
Simple Lighting with A Plate for Playblasts Topics Covered:
- Playblast, Viewport 2.0, and Render Settings: Specific settings that get you the highest resolution for your playblasts.
- Color Space Management:Â Learn how color space impacts your playblasts.
- Cameras:Â Configure aspect ratio, crops, lens settings, depth of field (DOF), and more.
- Explanations and Demos:Â Detailed demonstrations of lighting, shadows, colors, and shaders.
- Final Scene Setup:Â Prepare your final scene for playblasting with DOF, motion blur, and high-resolution output.
💥 Rig Used: Leo from Wonderwell - Well made and appealing rig! 🤡 I encourage all of my students to buy this rig and his female counterpart - Jin Eun.
💥 Props Used: Whiskey Glass
💥 Tools: The Key Machine
💥 Maya Versions: Most of the Viewport 2.0 functions will also work with Maya 2022 and later versions. This tutorial is created using Maya 2024.
💥 Audience: This webinar is for advanced Maya users and animators looking to learn how to set-up a shot for a character animation cleanly.
💥 Speaker: Angie Jones - Mentor | Author | Director - ThinkingAnimation.com
This session is ~24 minutes
MARKERS
00:01:03:11 START
00:01:17:18 SHOW VIEWPORT
00:01:22:20 PLAYBLAST DISPLAY
00:02:18:15 COLOR SPACE MANAGEMENT
00:04:00:08 VIEWPORT SETTINGS
00:05:09:22 CAMERA
00:06:30:13 ASPECT RATIO
00:07:31:08 OVERLAY
00:08:19:00 SHADERS
00:09:24:04 LIGHT
00:09:49:21 SPOT SETTINGS
00:09:54:22 TURN ON LIGHTS
00:10:20:09 MORE SPOT LIGHT SETTINGS
00:10:54:22 SHADOWS
00:11:34:10 LIGHT COLOR
00:12:01:13 ADJUST TABLE TEXTURES
00:12:34:14 FIX HERO TEXTURES
00:13:23:06 GEO CAST SHADOWS
00:13:43:02 DELEYE CAST SHADOWS ON GEO
00:14:03:20 ADJUST EYE SHADER
00:15:00:04 MORE DEPTH FOR SKIN
00:15:46:18 AMBIENT TO SHADERS
00:16:48:20 REPLACE REFERENCE
00:17:29:22 SCALE LIGHT
00:17:45:22 DUPLICATE LIGHT
00:18:19:05 EYE ADJUSTMENT
00:18:39:18 ANOTHER BOUNCE LIGHT
00:19:09:20 OVERHEAD
00:19:31:08 HOTSPOT
00:20:04:00 TWEAKS
00:21:34:21 ANOTHER OVERHEAD LIGHT
00:21:59:02 MOTION BLUR
00:22:27:07 PLAYBLAST
00:22:43:15 PLAYBLAST SETTINGS
00:23:23:03 MATCH PERSPECTIVE
00:24:14:06 KEYFRAME PRO
00:24:16:16 FINAL PLAYBLAST
To create a strong demo reel, lighting your shots in Viewport 2.0 is a great approach. It's much simpler than implementing shots in Unreal. After watching this 24-minute video, you will understand the basics of creating a shot with depth that competes with other reels using rendered content. This video explains why specific lighting choices are made and how to adjust lights to create depth and drama. This tutorial, "Lighting a Playblast in Viewport 2.0: Shot Hygiene," is Part Two of the series. If you need to clean up your scene before lighting it, I recommend starting with the "Shot Hygiene" session.