The Principles of Physics in Action Scenes

Planning, Layout & Animation Techniques for Maya with Wolfgang Haas

Learn how physics principles affect animation, minus the tedious calculations. Wolfgang Haas covers the basics of cinematic principles that affect animators’ work, from camera angles and their meaning to cinematic rules that can help shots work better in the final cut.

In this 3.5-hour workshop, Wolfgang uses Maya to plan and animate an action scene, showing how understanding these principles can help artists improve their animations; with a grasp of the physics and basics, there is less need to rely on gut feelings when animating.  

Wolfgang’s teachings are supported by a collection of tips and best practices, drawn from his experience as an animator and rigger with over 20 years of industry experience. He aims for his lessons to reach every animator, from junior level upward.

His lessons cover shot layout, camera animation, and offer extensive tips on different types of spline animation, shot-level finaling of deformations, and even creating small rigs and expressions to help animators finish tedious tasks faster. Throughout the workshop, he also explains how to get more out of Maya's tools. 

Included with Wolfgang’s workshop is a small script for creating splines for animation paths (discussed in Lesson 5). 

Wolfgang also uses several rigs and models throughout the workshop, including Truong CG Artist’s Irex Dinosaur Maya Rig, Golukumar’s Full Gameready City Buildings [retextured] and Cyperpunk City, Wallon’s Cartoon Car, and Kenchoo’s Ostrich model (used as a reference). These assets are used as a guide; the techniques showcased can be applied to any assets.