Particular

I watched a tutorial on creating simple particle effects in Maya, using Soft/Rigid Bodies. I could write out the step-by-step, but would really just be doing that for myself, so I'll spare you. Enjoy!

The Joys of Rigging

This little animation was playblasted from Maya - everyone's favorite program. I found this tutorial online on how to rig a piston using constraints. So, I built a simple piston, rigged it, then created a quick animation, just to test my handy work. If you're unfamiliar with constraints, they involve "constraining" one piece of a model to another, so that when the parent piece moves, the child moves with it; however, if the child moves independently of the parent, the parent will stay stationary.
My animation moves a little slowly for my liking, but I'll fix it up in a few days. I don't feel like looking at it anymore. Meanwhile, stay tuned for some more Shut up Sean stuff, and glimpses of a Darth Vader rig. Nerdtastic. Yowza.