1. Open Maya

2. Create 3 sphere polygon primitive

Cool tip : use the key when you move the sphere to snap their center to the grid. It will make everything easierlater

X

3. To add colors, go to Window

Saved Layout

Hypershade/Persp

I. Create the scene

then go to Create

Materials

Lambert

Create one lambert for each object : sun, earth and moon

You can change the color and the name of the Lambertsin the Attribut editor on the right.

To apply the lambert to an object, simply drag the lambert with THE MIDDLE BUTTON of the mouse.

4. Group the objects

First go to

Window

Outliner

Give a name to your 3 sphere, and group them as on the picture by select them and pressing + .

Earth and moon in a group.

Moon in a group (yes, alone).

Ctrl G

moon - earth

moon

5. Now, let’s move the pivot points !

Press the key.

Now drag them to the center of the object they aresupposed to turn arround :

* Earth-Moon group around the Sun* Earth around itself (put the pivot in the center of the Earth)* Moon group around the Earth* Moon around itself

II. Animate everything

1. Preparation

The Earth turn around itself once every 24h. But wesure are not going to make an endless animation.

So we have to decide how many time it takes to the earth to make one turn arount itself.Or let’s decide how many frames represent one day.

Let’s say 1day = 3frames.(you can choose another value if you want)

Then we do the math :

* The earth turn around the sun once every 356 days = 1turn every 356 x 3 = 1068 frames

* The earth turn around itself once evry days = 1turn every 3 frames

* The moon turn around the earth once every 29 days = 1turn every 29 x 3 = 87 frames

*The moon turn around itself once every 29 days(Yes, the same as previously, this is why we can only see one side of the moon from the earth) = 1turn every 29 x 3 = 87 frames

Inser

2. Configure the timeline

Our animation is going to be one years long, or 1068 frameslong. (Don’t worry, big numbers make only the computer towork harder, not you).

This number is the first frame of the animation.Don’t touch, 1 is good.

This number is the last frame of the animation.Our animation is 1068 frames long, so put 1068.

These two numbers are the frames between which the animation show itself. Put 1 and 1068.

This number is the frame you are currently working on.

You can play with it.

3. The animation itself

Select the Earth-moon group on the Outliner.Be sure you are working on the frame 1.Be sure you are on Animation mode :

Then go to Animate

Set Key

After this, go to the frame 1068 (the last one)

Change the Rotate Y in the channel box. It tell how manydegrees the earth-moon group will make around the sun for one year, or 1068 frames.

It obviously make one turn, which is 360 degrees.

So put 360 on the Rotate Y box.

It will set the initial position of the Earth-moon group.

Then go to

again.

It will set the final position of the earth-moon group.

Never forget to clic Set Key every time you change something in the channel box, or it won’t save the changes you juste made.

Animate

Set Key

You can play your animation !

If something is wrong, check the value of Rotate Y in frame 1 and 1068, and don’t forget to Set Key

4. The Graph Editor

As you can see, the movement got an acceleration anda deceleration. To remove this we are going to use thegraph editor.

Go to Window

Aniamtion Editor

Graph Editor

Check that the Earth-moon group is still selected in theOutliner (always check you are working on the right thing).

clic on then pressRotate Y A

Select both of the two extremity of the line by drawing asquare with the left button of the mouse or by holding theShift key and clic on each of the point with the left button of the mouse.

Then got to Tangent

Linear

You can now close the graph editor and play your animation again. It’s working !

5. The other movements

You can now do the other movements by doing exactlythe same things : Set the position on frame 1 and 1068, then clean in the graph editor.

* The earth must make 365 turn per year/1068frames = 365 x 360degrees = 131400 degrees on frame 1068

* The moon group must make one turn every 29 days = 365/29=12 turn per year = 12x360 degrees = 4320 degrees on frame 1068

*The moon must also have made 4320 degrees on thelast frame.