Understanding Maya 3D Piston Tutorial

[Nedfrenzy]

A really helpful and informative tut. Clearly explained, great pacing and didn't leave out any steps. Old version of Maya but all the principles are still current and VERY useful for any project.

[Srishtiangel08]

ohh thnk god!!! I was struggling to get that done!! finally done it through this tutorial!! thnks a god!!!

[WestNinja]

This video was very informative. Thank-you!

[frostbitedude]

Very nice tutorial sir, thank you!

[ianjohnjeffery]

Thanks for the video, created my own version. Took me 30 mins based on this tutorial :)

[devinj898]

Hi, do you know how I could create a three piece telescope and have it so that I can move the one end (the other could be completely static) and the telescope would evenly slide out - so the two pieces closest to the point being moved would slide nicely out of the first tube. Thanks!

[tarrizzzzzzzzz]

Guys I've got a little problem, please help me out. I made some hydraulics for some landing gear, and around one of the hydraulic pistons, such as the one in this tutorial, there is a spring. I think it's called a helix polygon.

Anyway, I want the spring to squash/stretch and rotate along the hydraulic pistons as they move.

Is there any reasonable way to constrain them together? Please give a brief explanation.

Thanx in advance.

[DEFUSEDvIMAGE]

I understand you tut very well. Very useful. I recommend that you upload more tutorials on your work.

[Xerferic]

thats more hydraulics than a piston. i came across this looking for like an engine piston tutorial.

[ramesh40000]

could u plz tell me what is the use of annotation?

[KiyoshiKatu]

I found this tutorial very helpful. Thank you very much for your contribution. I would like to add my little discovery:

I found that I had a problem with the objects making up my piston rotating against my will as well, and I found that if you change the "World Up Vector" to match what you have set for your "Up Vector", this prevents the objects from twisting when you move the piston along the Z axis. (i.e. 0 0 1 for Up Vector, and 0 0 1 for World Up Vector in my case. YMMV)

[kokoilie]

thanks man that tut was the best i needed!!!

[mansh99]

can you please tell me how you added those description arrows i mean the arrow along with name of part of piston

[japunto]

Those are called "annotations". I don't have Maya in front of me right now, but the way it works is you select an object, then click Create >> Annotation ( I think ). It'll ask for you to type in a name. Hit enter, and it'll create some shape nodes and a locator parented under your object. Look in the attribute editor for other options.

[blendmode]

this was my first contact with this program, maya, and you made me wanna learn it. you explained everything so clearly and to the point! very good tutorial!

[volican]

i like to group and animate using the hierarchy..

[MillsyDT]

Hi there i tryed out what you told me too do regarding the piston but i decided to animate it using the combine tool it looks alright too check it out on my videos... cheers for the help though :)

Millsy

[japunto]

Looks very nice. I don't follow your combine tool comment, tell me more!

[MillsyDT]

hi there im currently working on a 3d car engine in maya but im stuck on the transitions and how too move the piston and conrod simultaneusly like a real car engine.can you help

[japunto]

Hi, I'll have to post a video to explain it better, but here's what I just did: a single bone with an IK handle for the connecting rod, point constrain the rod joint to another joint chain tor rotating the base. Parent the IK handle to your piston. Animated the piston up and down, drive the offset cam rotation with the rod translation.

[japunto]

Oops, I got that last part backward. Drive the piston translation with the cam rotation.

[Blinkwing]

how much is maya?

[japunto]

Around $1,800 USD for Maya Complete. You can get the free Personal Learning Edition if you're starting out, or Maya Unlimited for $350 if you're a student.

[Blinkwing]

nice prize xD Ok, i will start collecting money for the next 200 years, then i will be ready to buy maya complete xD

[japunto]

You should look into Blender, which is a free, open source alternative.

[Blinkwing]

yeah, actually i have been working with blender for 2 years xD

just vidit my channel, i posted some videos xD

[japunto]

Glad to help, Silmusashi.

[silmusashi]

thank you for your explanation. I have been confused about aim constraint for couple of months till now it's so much clear for me :D

[dererce]

Very interresting method, but what if you have a kind of cluster of those suspensions e.g. a mechanik like hood hinges? How would you connect all these systems together?

[japunto]

Generally I'd use parent constraints or point and aim constraints to gang up groups of these sorts of rigs.

[ramesh40000]

could u plz tell me what is the use of annotation?

[ladykalessia]

Great work, very concise and well thought out.  Would love to see more of these, maybe with a tipjar link?

[lllPliskin250lll]

Absolutely amazing man, throughly enjoyed watching it. By far one of the best tutorials! 5/5 no doubt. Keep 'em coming! ;)

[wonderboyfman]

Holy cow. Very nice. That was probably the most concise and well spoken tutorial for Maya I've seen. Not to mention that it's awesome. Thank you very much. Keep making tutorials!!!

[awjee]

how did you get the cross in the middle of the ring?

[japunto]

That's a selection handle. You can get there by picking an object and going to: Display > Transform Display > Selection Handles

[awjee]

Thanks =)

[and000n]

your tutorial helped me create my first piston sistem and i thought i would learn about this when i get 22 i am 20 now and i thank you from the bottom of my heart .

[1b0r90]

THX for this tutorial, it was really useful!

[japunto]

You're welcome!

[Mortalius89]

Really nice tutorial. Makes its very clear and easy. Thanks for posting it.

[japunto]

My pleasure, glad you found it helpful.

[jollypaperbag]

Hey i'm trying to animate a car cylinder. But these contraints and aim things aren't working at all. I understand your tutorial (it's awesome), for some reason it's just not working for me though. What i'm trying to do is have a rotor basically where your bottom ring is, and have the bottom tube move up and down as the rotor spins around. i can't get it to work though

[japunto]

I'd be happy to help you figure it out. Can you post a sketch of it, or a Maya scene file somewhere?

[dubotenorth]

Question... I was trying to use this basic principle to create a controller for a character's eye's (eyes point at controller), and for some reason the aim constraint will work for everything BUT the eye's I have created... can anyone think of a reason the aim constraint wouldn't work for a particular poly?

[japunto]

How are your eye's being constrained? You may want to group your eye geometry to itself and then aim constrain the group, just to make sure you don't have a strange offset in the tranform. Or, skin the eye geo to a joint, then constrain that.

[dubotenorth]

i actually ended up just parenting it to a locater, constraining the locater. works alright.

[donrodman3]

hey people im making video tutorials for free 100% there going to be published on march 30th please leave messages on my page stating what tutorial you need doing and ille do it for you. Subscribe to please.

[yosoremoy]

hi, what program used you for create this tutorial in video?, no for create the effects,

hola, que programa utilizaste para crear este tutorial en video?, no para crear os efectos sino el tutorial

[japunto]

I made the tutorial in Maya, and created the video capture using Camtasia.

[crasong]

Hi, question, i did this model where there are three pistons, each with their own ends on one side, but on the other end, they're connected to the same piece. how do i rig that? and i duplicated it a few times too. help! thanks

[FocusOnTheCause]

This is a fantastic tutorial John. Brilliantly explained. I only installed Maya a couple of days ago so I have a LONG way to go to understand all this. But your tutorial was great. I'm looking forward to seeing more from you. Thanks!

[japunto]

Yes, you could point and aim constrain joints to do what you want, or maybe use single joint IK solvers.

[bsetnaker]

i am such a noob at this seriously!!1 i dont know what i am doing i have maya 8.5 on my laptop and im not sure what all this means if you know could you please tell me and i could probably make something like that

[takethislife101]

lol same, i need to learn some basics aswell!

[Flybright]

Great tutorial, thanks a ton.

Looking forward to more =]

[buckshot10101]

how do u make the piston? shape, cant figure out for to make 3 stuff 3d and all

[japunto]

Most of those parts are cylinder primitives and torus (doughnut) primitives with some tweaking. The yellow tube has some faces removed from it.

[buckshot10101]

ok thanks alot! btw great tut

[basspig]

Excellent tutorial! Solves a number of animation problems that have plagued a project I am struggling with. Thank you for making that video.

[gorogon0]

how do you pronounce it?

[SpencerJonath]

Maya(May-uh)

[opmike343]

Just do a google search for Maya 3D and download the free PLE (Personal Learning Edition) edition from the corporate website. And no, of course it isn't going to have spyware.

[Zibbe2k]

I have found a special site only for such tutorials. Everyone is welcome to post his own tutorials. Look at:

My-Tutorial dot com

[keilani84]

thank you. There arent that many good tutorials on mechanical rigging :)

[monkeywork]

The software is Maya

[Lilboiie96]

what kind of software is this?

[HazzerJ]

Maya, now owed by Autodesk but originally created by a company called Alias. Current version is 8.5.

[hummelshoj]

Current version is Maya 2008...

[spider2021]

thank you so much ikarisfallen

[spider2021]

if anyone that read this post. I don't know how to get it to display the pivot points DOT and the name with arrow next to each model. If you know please add a comment on how to do it. I googled it but came up with nothing. thanks.

[ikarisfallen]

spider2021: Select the object... open the Attribute Editor... select the translate node... open the Display section and check "Display Handle".

[japunto]

Hi, yes, what ikarisfallen said. Also, the pivot points can be displayed permanently by picking an object and going to: Display > Transform Display > Rotate Pivots. If you just want to temporarily turn them on to move them, press the d key on your keyboard.

The little arrows and text are found in: Create > Annotation...

-JP

[spacemonkeyjim]

Talk about an arse about face way of doing it

[ikarisfallen]

spacemonkeyjim: if you have a better way of doing it, why not post it ?

[spider2021]

very easy to follow, but I can't figure out how to display the pivot points. I can move the pivot point and everything but I don't have that dot in the center, also how did you get the arrows with text next to each model.

[msndokaralho]

Wow! Thanks a lot, I learned few things, now is just buy a graphic card and take my maya DVD off my drawer and start learning more....

[euromk1s]

jesus. i didnt know maya was this complicated. fuck.

[Ryanfox1981]

Idiot... It's not meant to be easy. Buy a book, buy some DVDs and get animating

[nobitanobi]

awesome please do more, I will soon start manya, and this will help XP

[wajipreety]

how to download this tutorial to my folder

[JohannesMSR]

thanks for upoload this video!

[dylanmaxwell]

you need to constrain the rings' orientations back to the shafts otherwise you'll have issues with texture slipping as the piston moves, and any z translate will look bad in 3d.

[younghlee]

japunto, that was very helpful and easily understandable, thanks! i hope you can make more

[BlackHwk4]

Awesome video.

[ScreamingRage01]

Awesome man! I'm brand new to 3D animation and am diving in full-force... This is a very helpful tutorial! I look forward to seeing more from you.

Thanks!

[Kitsune81]

haha, awesome, great tutorial!

[Ozgur3d]

wow, amazing.

[ieatnachos]

Great voice! Enjoyed the tutorial.

[japunto]

Thanks very much. Once I hooked up my Shure SM58, instead of the cheap Logitech mic, I noticed the sound was a lot fuller. -JP

[Soldati]

Are you using a rendering plugin? It seems like youre editing a rendered piston.

[japunto]

I'm using Maya's "High Quality Rendering" setting that lives in the Shading menu of your current camera view. I've never needed to use it in real life, but it sure makes things look nice for demos.

[marianoh44]

awsome, im new to 3d programs, this tutorial was really good. thanks :)

[RMutt1]

Great tutorial...have actually been looking for a tutorial on this specific topic.

[japunto]

What are the odds?! Glad to have helped. I've got another on creating the spring coil around the piston that should be up soon. -JP

[kamilroxas]

Very nice! makes me want to go back learning Maya. =)

[japunto]

Thanks. Jump back in, man, what are you waitin for?! -JP