In one of our Maya tutorials Matt mentioned the term 'Topography' to us and since I didn't really know what it meant, I decided to do a bit of research on it, and see how it relates to my work and to Maya.
What looks like a really mysteriously hypnotising illustration, is actually a visual aid for most people who need to read a geographical map. It shows the high points and the flat points on the earth from an overhead point of view. This is especially good for people who are hiking/on some sort of adventure holiday.
However, this relates to Maya and my practice, because Topography shows the flow of a surface area, meaning that this is particularly important when I am going to be creating my animation in Maya, especially my own character.
I did actually struggle with this when we had to make our own replica of Matt's rigged model, and I could not get the surface of the leg to look natural. However by seeing the topographical line structure, I was able to see where my points were off and smooth them back into place.
This is actually a very useful concept, and allows you to see where you could potentially be going wrong and/or ways to go about fixing them.
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