Maya: Rigging and Animating a Turret

These are a set of screenshots showing how to rig and animate our complete turrets. 

This is the turret I am going to animate. We have been working with this turret since the start of this course as a base to work off of.

First as an example I used a square and animated it to rotate counter clockwise. Using key frames (s key) and the rotate tool I turned the cube and at certain points (while turning the cube) I placed a key frame. I then set the frames to 30 fps, this meant it would turn around on the spot and not move too quickly or slowly.

I deleted the cube and started to work on the turret. The first thing I did was to freeze the transformations of all the components in the scene. This means when you import your model into a game engine all of the transforms are set at zero making it much easier to animate. Its easier to animate something if its position is 0 instead of -80 for example.  

I then began to create a hierarchy of game objects by grouping them together. This means I can control different parts of an object without breaking it apart or making it one solid object. This gives me the freedom to make changes later to certain parts of my object without breaking it down into separate models.

I grouped the objects together that make up the head of the turret. This will allow me to make it turn independently of the body. 

I repeated this process with the barrels of the gun. I grouped each barrel together as separate groups so I can move each barrel independently. I then put both of the barrels in a group together so both barrels will move together when animated.

I then centered the pivot of both barrels to the center of the turret head. I also locked the transforms of the barrels to the X axis. This means when the barrels turn and elevate they move up and down without turning through the turret head. They are also locked to the turret threads which in turn is connected to the turret head meaning when something happens to the turret head it also happens to the connected barrels. 

I then made some changes to my hierarchy and groups. 

I locked the transforms on the end of the barrel so I could animate the guns recoiling when they fire. They were locked to the Y axis meaning they could only move along that axis. This meant the muzzles wouldn't move through the barrel when animated.

I then began the process of animating my now rigged turret, I animated the head of the turret turning to its left and lowering the guns. The guns then fired together and recoiled together. This was done in the same way as my cube animation I gave an example of earlier. I rotated each object and placed key frames in so Maya knows where and when to turn the turret and how quickly it should do it.

After I had finished animating my turret I smoothed out the animation curves so that the turret when moving and firing doesn't have jerky sudden movements. It is a smooth transition from each key frame.

Here is my finished turret halfway through its animation.

Here is a short video of the finished animation.

By animating this turret I have learnt how to Freeze Transformations and the benefits that can have when animating. I have learnt how to create a hierarchy through the use of groups and create an efficient rig. And finally I learnt how to animate in Maya using key frames and how changing the frame rate affects the animation process.

However I think I will have to repeat this process multiple times before I have a full understanding of how to animate an object off by heart. If I could of done things differently I would of made a more complex animation by adding more life to the turret. It would of fired more like a machine gun as apposed to my approach which made the turret look as if it was the main battery on a battleship, a slow heavy hitting weapon which wasn't complex to animate. A machine gun would turn quickly and fire at multiple targets creating almost erratic animation curves. I think I would of had more difficulty animating that over my slow firing cannon.