Animating with dynamics
 
 
 

Particle objects, soft bodies, and rigid bodies are dynamic objects. You typically animate the motion of dynamic objects with dynamic animation—fields, collisions, springs, emission, goals, or particle expressions.

Maya calculates dynamics from frame to frame. The position of an object in each frame is derived from the position in the previous frame. This differs from keyframe animation, where the position of an object at any frame is derived from key values set at different frames in the animation. Because Maya handles dynamics differently than keyframe animation, you must use different techniques to adjust playback.

You can interact with your dynamic simulations as it plays by selecting Solvers > Interactive Playback.

NoteSee Control execution time of particle dynamics for details on altering playback of particle dynamics.