Animate a Logo Forming from Particles in Maya
Particles are one of the most powerful and versatile tools that you can use to make your CG art more interesting, and many would agree that no one does particles better than Autodesk Maya. In this tutorial Abed Ibrahim will walk you through the process of creating an animated logo using particles in Maya, and then reverse the rendered animation in any video editing software of your choice.
Final Effect Preview
Step 1
Open new scene, go to “Create” and open the option box for
“Text”.
Step 2
Adjust the following options then press “create”.
Step 3
Hide the text curves in the “Outliner” by pressing (Ctrl + h).
Step 4
Select all the letters, then go to “Mesh > Combine”.
Step 5
Delete the history for the shape, then go to “Modify > Make Live”.
Step 6
Switch to “Dynamics Menu” by pressing “F5”, then go to “Particles > Particle Tool (option box)”.
Step 7
Press on “Reset Tool”, then adjust the settings as shown.
Step 8
Hide your grid, switch to the front view, and start to draw on the letters. Make sure to fill from the inside and on the edges as shown.
Step 9
Press “Enter” then, in the “Attributes Editor” for the particle shape, go to “Render Attributes > Particle Render Type > Cloud (s/w)”. Note: When you press “Enter” you have to wait for the program to calculate the particles.
Step 10
Press on “Current Render Type”, and set the radius to “0.025”.
Step 11
Hide the original text surface in the outliner, then open “Hypershade” and select the Volumetric Node “particlecloud1”.
Step 12
Modify the following attributes for the particle cloud:
Step 13
Extend the playback range time to “200 frames”, then select the particles, and go to “Fields > Volume Axis”.
Step 14
Modify the following attributes for the volume axis field:
Step 15
Modify the “Transform Attributes” for the volume field as shown:
Step 16
On frame “1″, set a key for the volume axis field at “Translate X” with a value of ‘20′.
Step 17
Go to frame “100″ then set another key for volume axis field “Translate X” with a value of “-3.000″.
Step 18
Go to “Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences”.
Step 19
Select the “particlecloud1” material, set its transparency to “0”, then set a key on the current frame (200).
Step 20
Go to “Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences”.
Step 21
Go to “Solvers > “Create Particle Disk Cache (option box)”.
Step 22
Make sure that the options look like following image (except for the scene directory), then press create. Note: Wait for the particles cache to be generated, and until it stops at frame 200.
Step 23
Select the “particlecloud1” material, set its transparency to “0” or a “White” color, and then set a key on the current frame (200).
Step 24
Set the current time in the time slider to “160”, change the transparency to “1” or a “Black” color, and then set another key.
Step 25
Repeat the last 2 steps. Set a key for “Transparency” on frame “20” with a “white” color or a value of “0″, then set a key with a value of “1” or “black” on frame “1”. Now show the original hidden text shape in the “Outliner”. Go to “Display > Show > Show Selection”, or press “Shift + h”.
Step 26
Switch to Edge Mode by pressing “Ctrl + F10”, then press delete.
Step 27
Extrude the text shape to about “0.250” on the “Z axis”.
Step 28
Center the text shape to the particles.
Step 29
Select the text, then separate the letters by going to “Mesh > Separate”.
Step 30
Create 6 new “Blinn” materials with the following settings:
Step 31
Name the 6 Blinn materials as the text letters (Blinn1 = M, Blinn2 = A etc..), and then assign the first one to the letter “M”.
Step 32
Go to frame “66″ and set a key for the “M” material “Transparency” with the color set to “White” or “0″, then go to frame “64″ and set another key whith the color set to “Black” or “1″.
Step 33
Assign the “A” material for the second letter, then go to frame “54″ and set a key for the “Transparency” with the color set to “White” or “0″, then go to frame “52″ and set another key with the color set to “Black” or “1″.
Step 34
Repeat these steps for the rest of the letters simply by using the following chart:
Step 35
Make sure that the default light is turned on from the “Render Settings” and no other light source exists in your scene.
Step 36
You can now render the scene to video (AVI) or sequenced images (TIFF) from any camera view, and then reverse your animation in any video editing software (Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Sony Vegas, etc).
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By Abed Ibrahim
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am I the first one ? very good toturial !
Im always super exited to see a Maya Tutorial… thank you.
Its a cool looking effect you have there Mr. Author sir
Awesome!! Thank you so much Abed
Step 19 has the wrong picture, otherwise nice tutorial! Thanks!
Looks fantastic, thanks
Good outcome! It is a pity that maya hasn`t something like Krakatoa like MAX. This would improve this much more!
Thank you very much
“Joseph”
“Modisana”
“Markus Gustafsson”
“Chris”
“Proflax”
“Stefan Frank”
I’m happy that you find it useful, sorry for the wrong picture at “19″, i will fix that soon…Bye
Thanks for a mograph themed Maya tutorial!!! We need more like this!!!
You welcome
Nice tutorial. I use Lightwave but I can can extrapolate the changes from this one. I can also see how it could be used with Particular in AE with modifications perhaps. There is always more than one way to do it and a good tutorial covers the general effects so those of us with different packages can still accomplish the effect. Thanks.
I really don’t know if you can apply this on other 3d software but good luck : )
Great effect!! but is always maya with awsome effects. Please place one for 3ds max!!!
In the meantime (till it is out here) ask uncle google:
“Krakatoa pflow 3ds max tutorial”
or without plugin: “Pflow 3dsmax tutorial”
This effect is easy to learn in any 3D software.
There are a lot of tuts out there.
Ive done about 4 versions of this in Max on my website. I think there is 3 different tutorials, one even deals with krakatoa.
particleflow (dot) net
check out the pflow training course.
Hm very interesting things because i didnt use Particals befor.
But sry for saying that this isnt a good Tutorial.
Im not a friend of Tutorials like this “click here. type this their, click over their and so on”. Thats not good. If u spend Time on a Tutorial u should’ve learned something not wich button to press to get the result seen in this Tut. But how wich button works. To know what each command means and is used for. So u can make ur own creativ things after making the tutorial because u understand what u are doing and not doing it because the tut says so.
Yes…good point but this was the style or the brief for the tutorial (step + image), and i don’t mind making an explanation for every step but the editor or the owners should agree on this first. Thanks for the note.
awesome, just the technique I’ve been looking for. thank you
You welcome…thank u
Nice! Are you really good at all those programs?!!!
Yes Jake, when u learn and understand Maya everything else (programs) become very easy…; )
Nice tutorial. thanks a lot
keep writing maya tutorials
Hope so dude…thanks
Hello, thank you for sharing this….
I have a question: In step 20 ans 18 you have opened the preference window, what for? You mention to open it but dont do anything with it. I am wandering if you forgot or there is actually some step i am missing…
Thank you, gracias…
Hi
in 18..to show where preferences located…in 20 it’s obvious but i missed “Time Slider > make sure the playback speed is on “play every frame”…sorry 4 this…
Peace
Really, really nice!!
Thank you so much.
Greetings from Brasil.
U most welcome Antonio…
Happy New Year 2 all…
you could do this with after effects, faster and easier, but this is nice to see..
while trying to attempt the tutorial i got to step 30 and kinda got lost. see i was looking at your images of steps 31 – 36 and i see the particles moving as you brushed through the time line. i went back to my maya document and didn’t have the same effect. i was wondering if you can help me to see what went wrong. thanks
amazing tutorial, thanks
Hi, i downloaded maya yesterday, so i am a newbie … I want to do this amazing animation, but I have a problem, i stucked in step 4 (Mesh>Combine) because I haven´t a mesh tab there, so pls help me, where can i find the Mesh, thanks a lot
hi this is vijay from india ……….really u did fantastic work and realy good play with maya particles……. your tutorial amazing
Спасибо большое… Уроки СУПЕР
thnx!!! your lessons is beautiful…
Please write further….
Same problem as Jacob. Something is missing there. What’s supposed to be done in the preferences?
very nice tutorial……..thnx a lotttt.:)
For Thomas Strejcek,
Mesh can be found when taking Polygons mode on the left top of the screen.
The person who does this tutorials uses dynamics tough, but that doesn’t work for me. I don’t understand neither, but it works.
Nice tutorial. thanks a lot
Thank you very much
I love this tutorial!!! Good job;)
Here’s a thought… fix the screw ups in your tutorial. That would be very helpful.
Here’s a thought… be grateful for what he has gave you and work around the screw ups.
Great tutorial thanks
Thanks verymach!!
great tutorial! i just had one issue, when it came to rendering it gave me a warning about particle shape1 requiring a particle volume, everything renders but the particles? what am i missing here
This is Awesome Tutorial. You Have Any Partical tutorial ?
omg!.. dis is pretty damn awesome.. i hav been using maya for a while.. but i was jus into modelling.. but seeing dis tut.. i realised i havnt really explored it dat wel.. till now, particles jus seemed sumthin fancy add-on to me but following dis tut i understand dat some really good “controlled” results (emphasis on controlled) can be obtained.. thanks man!!..
..’m really looking forward for to more tuts from u..
U seem to know wat u doin.. :p
..thanks again..
thank you very much sir
its very good tutor
good simulation for text…………..nice……try something different….
any lava tutorial
NICE! but i gat a difficulty in aligning the particles with the text..
Thank you all…you welcome ^^
i will find some time to write new one…
happy to read your comments.
Peace.