Thanks Rob Jones

Yesterday and today we had Rob Jones come in and teach us how to render layers and passes in maya. He was very helpful and did his best to come round each individual group and give advice on the most suitable way to render our projects. He explained the various layers and technqiues such as ambient occlusion, shadows, rim lighting, Z depth, ambient colour, alpha channels, character and background layers etc. It was a bit much to take in all at once but definately an eye opener. We learnt the basics of how to render these layers and then even more importantly how to composite and adjust them in after effects. I really enjoyed the session and has helped me to gain a better understanding of how big companies achieve the beutiful vsiuals they do. We watched a great film called Duel of the Gentlemen which Rob later used as an example, and broke it down into its individual passes. I hope I can learn enough about after effects and compostiing in time to be able to apply it to our project. He later came round and not only advised the best way for us to render our own films but helped out on alot of technical maya issues I had been having!