Tips on Setting Motion to an Animated Ceiling Fan

Are you working on the first client specified CG project? If the project you are working requires that the blades of CG ceiling fan would rotate, things might appear intimidating for you. But you can always take the help of Maya Motion Blur technique to create the most realistic ceiling fan with rotating blades. Render farm or online render farm is the choice that you can abide by to help you fulfill what you want about this. Check the steps!

·        Step one:

Create the model of the ceiling fan in Maya before applying motion blur.  Develop the frame-wise look of the rotating blades before setting them in motion.

·        Step two:

When the frame-wise look of the rotating blades gets completed, set the frame range. This will determine the time till when the animation will be active. Choose the frame numbers as per your personal preference and press the ‘S’ key on your computer to mark the starting point of the animation.

·        Step three:

Go to the last frame when the animated blades of the CG ceiling fan will stop rotating. Press the ‘S’ key of your keyboard again in order to mark it as the last frame of animation. Rotate the blades of the fan on the Z-axis of Maya viewport. Remember, the speed of the blades of the CG fan will depend upon the number of times you rotate the blades at the last frame.

·        Step four:

If you wish to have a trial view, simply slide the time slider from the first frame to the last and the blades will rotate automatically! However, you will not be able to see this animation when you render the project at this stage. But you will always have the liberty to rectify any mistakes during this stage.

·        Step five:

Your CG model needs to be enabled with motion blur effect now to exhibit that the blades of the ceiling fan are rotating.  Go to the ‘Render Settings’ of your application software and enable the ‘Motion Blur’ option.  Next, select 3D option from the drop-down menu of the ‘Motion Blur’ tab. Also, set the blur rate. The ‘Use Shutter Open/Close” tab under this ‘Motion Blur’ option will help you in setting the blades of the fan at the right motion. Just remember that when you allow the shutter to remain opened for a longer span, it will make the image more blurry. So, set the values of the ‘Shutter Open’ and ‘Shutter Close’ as per the requirement of your project.

·        Step six:

You must render the frames repeatedly at this stage. If the outcome is unsatisfactory, change the ‘Shutter Value’ and Shutter Speed’ and render the CG project repeatedly before accepting the project finally. You can hasten up the task if you take the help of options like Fox Renderfarm.