Rendering in Maya and in Shotcut.

The final stage of the big process I have just been through with creating my own model and bringing it into life, was rendering. Firstly, in Maya to capture all the frames, and next in Shotcut where the sequence of images generated in Maya was turned into an animation (mp4 file). 

I had several attempts to render my project in Maya. They all took endless hours, but thanks to Kelvin’s kindness I did not have to look for my notes on rendering as he prepared a little guide for us.  

I added an animated camera to the scene and rendered it. Unfortunately, as I had not checked the perspective of my camera before rendering (Panels – Perspective – Camera I animated), there were some shakes and odd camera movements there. The video was ready though. 

I did another render in Maya, this time with the perspective view, without adding any extra camera animations. It does not have any close-ups to Sanaa, but it shows the whole animation in a simple but clever way.  

Next, I used Shotcut (a free software) to render sequences and export them as mp4 files. To navigate through Shotcut is straightforward, and to render a sequence I just needed to click on Properties and check the Image sequence box. 

I had an idea of adding an audio track to my animation. The way how Sanaa moves in the clip, and all her characteristics reminded me of a “Dancing in The Dark ” song by Rihanna from the Home soundtrack (this is my favourtie animated movie!). I had to purchase an mp3 file for that purpose, but I believe that attaching this song to my animation adds to its mood and completes it.  

Both ready clips are posted on my YouTube channel and can be found here: Sanaa with Camera Animated and Sanaa Animated with Audio.