Animating Body Mechanics in Maya

Animation can be hard, but it should also be fun. Kelly Vawter joins The Gnomon Workshop library with his full shot walkthrough in Maya, which focuses on body mechanics. Animating a skateboarder performing tricks, Kelly explains how he approaches a technical shot and offers up his entire animation process from start to finish. He divulges his industry workflow tips and shares the tools he uses when tackling complex performance and action animation shots in Maya.

The workshop opens up with an Introduction chapter covering how Kelly sets up his shots and where he explains the tools he will use throughout the tutorial. Kelly teaches this workshop in a way that animators of any skill level should be able to get something out of it. That said, the focus of the content is created primarily for an intermediate skillset since there is less emphasis on the basics of Maya. Rather, Kelly jumps right into Maya to begin his demonstration, starting with the blocking before working through the Spline process and onto the final polish.

Kelly’s career in animation started at Blizzard, where he worked on Overwatch cinematics before he moved to Respawn to work on Stars Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. From there, he went to Disney, where he worked on feature animations before later joining DreamWorks. Needless to say, his career experience is exactly what you need to see and hear if you’re looking to work as an animator on feature films or AAA games.