~Cinematic Main Menu Mods - Finished: 1

[Statyk]

Haha, it's not a hard process, really. The hardest part is re-mapping an area in Maya and finding workarounds to things like particle systems and fog.

Sometimes you will need to include new textures and such. For example, to simulate fog areas, not global fog, would require you to make stacked planes of translucent color for a gradual look. Since Fog Areas cannot be attached to the model nor rotated, you could not apply a fog area to the model, nor would it look correct if you could. These small technicalities need to be thought out before you begin mapping the area in Maya.

Another Example would be something like Rain. A particle system will always go in a specific direction, or spawn in a specific location. So... If you attached a rain particle to the model, and the animation "rotated" the camera, the rain would essentially precipitate to the side, and become unrealistic and unnatural. While the world spins, the rain always appears to go straight down to the camera, not straight down to the world. To fix this, you'd have to make a texture that puts rain in spots, then have that material use a UV pan animation to make the large cluster of planes added into the model to simulate rain. Or with a torch, if the animation of the map plays, the flames will follow behind, making the world appear to move, not the camera move about the area. IT'S HARD TO EXPLAIN... Which is why I will give visual examples in a tutorial.

The rest is just taking care in a clean model, having organized materials, animation, and using the Graph Editor to make things smooth. If I get around to doing another, I'll surely find a way to turn it into a tutorial.