Final

Here is the script for my final. It will take a maya scene, batch render the animation, and composite it over a background image. You can scale the background image however you want, color adjust the foreground animation, and position the animation where you want. The read-me goes into a little more detail. The tools required for the script are Maya (to batch render an animation), Imagemagick (to composite animation over background, plus additional options), and FFMPEG (to compile frames into a movie).

Overall I'm pretty happy with the script. Unfortunately I didn't have time to render out something really impressive with it, but it certainly has the potential to make cool stuff. The script should work with any maya scene or background image you give it, but to make the composite look really good you need to do more work in Maya, such as lighting and rendering. If I had time I would have liked to allow the script to use the background image to automatically create any reflections or color correction in the animation. For example, if there was a shiny robot walking around in a red room, it would be cool to have the red spill onto the robot. This is why I included the option to color adjust the animation, so people could mimic this in way.

I also would have liked to have visited Joe and see what I could have done to make my script better, but my schedule was too crazy (I have Haley postproduction to thank for that). However, I was able to solve my problems and issues without much help, thankfully. I did get some tips from classmates over the past couple weeks though.

Attached is everything you should need. It has the script plus a sample maya file, a sample background image, a read-me, and an example of what the output should look like.

http://www.mediafire.com/?oyw910kpgbjl4f7