Create a Spectacular Crash Animation With Maya Dynamics – Day 1

Alex Engelmann on Jun 19th 2009 with 53 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Maya
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Completion Time: 1-2 hours

It is always great to learn new animation tools and techniques that can help you to bring your creations to life. In this tutorial we will learn how to use Maya’s powerful animation, dynamics, and camera tools to create an explosive crash effect between two vehicles.

This is Day 1 of a multi-day training series on Maya Dynamics.

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Video 1

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By Alex Engelmann

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I am a 23 year old 3D artist based in Seattle, WA. I have always had a passion for video games, but it wasn’t until high school that I realized that I could make video games as a career. I have immersed myself in 3D ever since. After graduation I was hired by Microsoft as a 3D environment artist and am still working there today. When I am not sitting behind a computer, I love to spend time camping, skiing, and biking around Redmond.  

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Discussion 53 Comments

  1. Craigsnedeker says:
    June 19, 2009 at 6:20 am

    Preview not loading ……

    Reply
  2. Tomas Sinkunas says:
    June 19, 2009 at 6:39 am

    yeah, pretty cool.
    Love the tut. Great work.

    Reply
  3. miikkke says:
    June 19, 2009 at 6:43 am

    patience!

    Reply
  4. Joe says:
    June 19, 2009 at 6:45 am

    This sounds exciting but I want to see a preview! It looks like a crashing lego car from the picture :D

    Reply
  5. Øyvind Nordhagen says:
    June 19, 2009 at 7:02 am

    I understand that stuff like this needs to be somewhat compressed in time because of the sheer number of operations involved. But perhaps you could start with a separate tutorial on modeling these bricks in maya, because I learned nothing from this tutorial by watching stuff happening in fast forward motion and listen to you mumbling along.

    Reply
    • suBi says:
      June 21, 2009 at 9:09 pm

      hey…eventho i feel the same way… i’m trying to … most of it is really practise… get “Introducing Maya 2008 or 2009″ by Dariush Derakhshani … it has helped me a lot on the basics.. and I’m still learning… it teaches you a lot about the basic modeling in maya…

      also, check out fxphd.com.. they have maya tutorial classes and supply video tutorials… but a little expensive comparatively, but surely worth it.. hope that helps.

      and if you have a bg in anyother 3d programs like c4d or 3dsmax… then it much more easier to grasp … :)

      Reply
  6. gilahd says:
    June 19, 2009 at 7:10 am

    LEGO SMAAAAAASHHHH!!!!

    Reply
  7. klaus says:
    June 19, 2009 at 7:22 am

    nice one. waiting for part 2…

    Reply
  8. kozyadam says:
    June 19, 2009 at 7:30 am

    Could You provide us with the link for the website about LEGO block sizes?

    btw the final effect can be seen in the beginning of the screencast.

    Reply
  9. rishteria says:
    June 19, 2009 at 7:38 am

    so nice, and very good tutorial, thanx for inspiration ;)

    Reply
  10. Alvaro says:
    June 19, 2009 at 10:51 am

    awesome!!! gonna try it

    Reply
  11. Kenneth Paulino says:
    June 19, 2009 at 10:53 am

    Wow, I’m very impressed with the quickness and level of tutorials here on CG tuts. I’ve been a tuts plus member for a while and can’t wait to see this site on the network take off and hopefully become part of the plus members program. Keep up the good work guys.

    Reply
  12. Dave says:
    June 19, 2009 at 2:58 pm

    I was excited about the preview but it’s now working. This looks like it could be awesome but I want to check out the result first

    Reply
  13. charlie says:
    June 19, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    its a sick tut but the compression settings could use some work because the background grid is flickering on and off like crazy.

    Reply
  14. Dj says:
    June 19, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    Don’t use Maya – but the technique and creative enterprise was worth watching.

    I waited for over a minute for the “preview” to begin playing. It looks as though you are going to load the entire file before it plays (ie no streaming) – if that is the case, you probably should give us some hint about how large the file is (ie how long should we wait), unfortunately tonight I didn’t have the patience. Also: it seems that the play is either ALL or NOTHING on the sound (ie. mute only) – how about a volume control?

    Reply
  15. Markus Gustafsson says:
    June 20, 2009 at 3:06 am

    Great tutorial!

    Reply
  16. D.V. says:
    June 20, 2009 at 3:33 am

    Nice preview, but I sure hope we’ll be seeing some Newtek Lightwave tutorials here soon seeing as they are the standard for most television programming….oh yeah, and more blender….maya and xsi and 3dmax is way to expensive in any case for most single freelance artists…..

    Keep up the great tuts though…..

    Reply
  17. Ross says:
    June 20, 2009 at 5:28 am

    Can you please change the video to streaming :(

    Reply
  18. Sirwan says:
    June 20, 2009 at 7:11 am

    the video takes too long to load…. why did you even change it?

    blip.tv was the best.

    Reply
  19. Dario Gutierrez says:
    June 20, 2009 at 9:32 am

    Great tut dude, this feature is good.

    Reply
  20. John H. says:
    June 20, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    very nice.

    Reply
  21. Brett says:
    June 20, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    Oh wow, that’s a great looking crash…I want to try this!

    Reply
  22. Diego SA says:
    June 20, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    LEEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGOOOOOO!

    Reply
  23. elinix says:
    June 20, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    Great tut looks amazing

    Reply
  24. james says:
    June 21, 2009 at 3:41 am

    its awesome cos its lego! thanks heaps

    Reply
  25. Satya Meka says:
    June 21, 2009 at 7:23 am

    Great! All I suggest is to use something like KeyCastr to display the keys you are pressing so that it will be much clear.

    Reply
  26. Bensaad Mohammed says:
    June 21, 2009 at 3:24 pm

    Great !!!!!!!

    Reply
  27. suBi says:
    June 21, 2009 at 8:45 pm

    gr8 stuff alex… haven’t watched the tutorial yet… just the preview… i’m learning maya from scratch… and so far its been an interesting tool…. this tutorial will be an icing on the cake… after i finish modelling my first car :) thanx so much

    Reply
  28. udon says:
    June 21, 2009 at 9:10 pm

    thanks for the videotutorial

    Reply
  29. azril says:
    June 22, 2009 at 12:31 am

    make the tutorial downloadable please :(

    Reply
  30. Tyler says:
    June 22, 2009 at 3:33 pm

    FYI: You spelled Premiere wrong on your resume.

    Reply
  31. Cesar says:
    June 23, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    I love legos, I love Maya and I love 3D. That’s all I need in my life.

    Reply
  32. chaos_theory says:
    June 23, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    OMG!! this tut owns. Im going to get strait on to trying this. Thanks.

    Reply
  33. sander says:
    July 7, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    What is the link for the bricks plz email me @ sanda2k2@gmail.com

    Reply
  34. Bilal says:
    July 8, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    Lego Dimensions

    http://www.robertcailliau.eu/Lego/Dimensions/zMeasurements-en.xhtml

    Reply
    • Bilal says:
      July 8, 2009 at 12:17 pm

      Oh also, when talking, please dont whisper the measurements to yourself, compulsive people like me really want to make it EXACTLY like you do :/

      Otherwise thanks ;)

      Reply
  35. shubhangi says:
    July 23, 2009 at 1:27 am

    d video totally very good i liked the d idea of animation the crash is owsome

    Reply
  36. prashanth says:
    July 23, 2009 at 8:19 pm

    the tutorials r weary good I love Maya and I love 3D. That’s all I need in my life.

    Reply
  37. Ruchit says:
    July 30, 2009 at 1:39 am

    waste of time in modeling part,if u want to give tutorial on dynamics then plz start from ready made scene with complete modeling.Thank you.

    Reply
  38. Joao says:
    July 31, 2009 at 9:40 am

    Thanks man, great tutorial

    Reply
  39. Kuya Miharu Haris says:
    September 9, 2009 at 9:57 pm

    best tutorial 4 me. thanx a lot!

    Reply
  40. khuyagaa says:
    October 8, 2009 at 11:30 am

    where is part2.

    Reply
  41. Mohnish says:
    January 2, 2010 at 9:30 am

    can we download this tutorial, If yes then how????
    reply me as soon as possibel plsssssssssss……

    Reply
  42. Asif Hosain Khan says:
    January 12, 2010 at 5:19 am

    video not previewing…….

    Reply
  43. Sachchidanand Raghubansi says:
    February 10, 2010 at 9:07 am

    Hai I am also a Muntimedia student. So I reqired your tutorial . It is the best way to learn any topic.

    Reply
  44. SlightlyChaotic says:
    July 16, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    Would appreciate this being downloadable. My production computer isn’t connected to the internet. Thanks for all the hard work!

    Reply
  45. Tony says:
    August 19, 2010 at 10:02 am

    Y que paso con el Día 2?

    Reply
  46. Marzell says:
    May 29, 2011 at 10:13 am

    Great demonstration, but it is suppose to be a tutorial please consider slowing down in your lesson it would really benefit those of us learning your great method of modeling and animating.

    Thanks
    Marzell

    Reply
  47. 3D'ario says:
    October 15, 2011 at 5:10 am

    I’m Waitin For The Day 2… Pleeeeeeease, I Need It!!

    Reply
  48. Shaikh says:
    February 1, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    Wow! This is a great tutorial.

    To crash objects into water with dynamic splashes, try oceansplash plugin for Maya. It is user friendly and very flexible. You just need to animate your object and let oceansplash take care of the splashes.To download the plugin visit:

    http://www.oceansplash.in

    The plugin is Free and the site also offers free video tutorials for the beginners.

    Make splash effects the easy way!!

    Reply

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