The Minimally Viable Penguin…
OPENING MAYA
I never thought I’d be able to use what I learned in an elective course over a decade ago, Engineering Graphics & Design. But manipulating basic shapes in a digital 3D environment is truly novel. It’s helped me in game design (Shout out to Brackey’s Unity tutorials) and kept me from hitting Alt + F4 after opening Maya for the fist time.
There are scores of incredibly talented artists who have picked up Maya as their brush, and I did my best to best to climb on to their shoulders that first day. I booted up a tutorial and did my best to follow along. I was so excited to be using the tool that I hardly made it through.
And as a point of fact, I never did make it through the tutorial. Loading a new scene file I began to sculp my first asset. A cylinder, a sphere, a few bits and bobs, and the first (rudimentary) penguin took shape.
YOU’VE GOT MAIL
The shapes all crashed into each other, another tutorial was needed to apply colours (textures), but there was my bird. Now how do I make him move??
Key fames and the graph editor (but know that I typed that with unearned confidence). Because this was a tricky bit for me. I get key framing position, rotation, and transformation, but Maya was putting me on. To keep blasting the poor virtual penguin through that solid white floor was unintended cruelty!
Populating the world a bit: It was given a home, and a mailbox, and even some mail! I wrestled with the camera and keyframes, and I was able to tell my first animated story. My minimum viable product. Except, rendering was impossible for a noob like me. It felt like everything was too broken to set up - which is when I learned what a “playblast” was. My new best friend AND minimally viable!
INSPIRATION
Immensely chuffed by my minimally viable penguin I showed it off as fast as I could. And very much like a child’s first time colouring within the lines, I got plenty of applause. But lord help me, even knowing that it is crude and without style, I am still very proud.
Making something from nothing is a cathartic experience. You’re simultaneously looking forward to seeing the final product and to moving on. And moving on to me didn’t mean more of the same (yet), big picture it meant developing the look and feel of the show.
My sibling Rigel breathed even more fire into this project in short order. Knowing they were a talented artist, I asked them if they would be interested in drawing some penguins (not just my cylinder-sphere special). And they delivered something amazing. A myriad of penguins, and one which I could only describe as INSPIRING.
One so cool, so cute, I couldn’t not keep pressing forward…
