Synopses & Reviews
Featuring completely original material from a new team of Maya know-it-alls, this second edition of an award-winning book is sure to inform and inspire even the most seasoned Maya user. In this distinctive
Maya Press title, a cadre of professionals led by two acclaimed Maya pros, reveal the precious secrets they’ve learned using Maya on high-profile CG projects such as
The Matrix,
Shrek 2, and
X-Men.
In nine unique and compelling chapters, you’ll get detailed and sophisticated instruction on how to:
- Enhance fluidity and realism by generating complex motion with Maya Cloth
- Apply non-photorealistic rendering styles that mimic the look of comic books and impressionist paintings
- Emulate real-world camera motion, from dolly-and-pan movement to varying levels of camera shake
- Produce natural lighting effects using global illumination and image based lighting
- Ensure smooth and accurate transfer of character data from modeling to rigging to animation to lighting
- Control IK chains, deformers, and surfaces with Maya Hair's dynamic curves
- Use dynamics effectively to create flexible objects and add secondary effects to enhance your animation
- Use Maya’s built-in noise function to produce powerful effects similar to those used in “The Matrix” trilogy
- Create a human face from a conceptual sketch using subdivision surfaces
Synopsis
Topics covered in this book include modeling, motion capture, lip synching, crowd scenes, surfacing and rendering, written by authors who have worked on a variety of animated films.
Synopsis
* Writing software for a multi-platform renderfarm
Synopsis
In this unique full-color book, a cadre of professionals led by Maya expert and best-selling author, John Kundert-Gibbs, team up to share what they’ve learned using Maya in the CG trenches.
Contributing authors include veterans of such high-profiles projects as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Star Wars: Episode I, The Perfect Storm, as well as animations featured at SIGGRAPH.
Whether you’re new to the field or already have solid 3D experience, Maya: Secrets of the Pros offers insights and step-by-step instructions designed to help you build and sharpen a range of critical skills, including:
- Preparation techniques for modeling and animation
- Improving motion capture and lip synching
- Creating crowd scenes from a small number of base models
- Controlling dynamics in plot-driven sequences
- Developing massively complex particle systems for film effects, such as those in The Perfect Storm
- Modeling subdivision surfaces
- Creating a GUI animation set-up for animators
- Using effective natural lighting
- Writing software for a multi-platform renderfarm
About the Author
John Kundert-Gibbsis Director of Digital Production Arts at Clemson University and the co-author of
Maya 5 Savvyand
Maya: Secrets of the Pros.
Dariush Derakhshaniis an award-winning Digital Effects Supervisor. He’s the author of Maya 6: 3D for Beginners. The talented ensemble of contributing authors has worked on high-profile projects for trend-setting companies such as PDI Dreamworks, Sony Imageworks, Digital Domain, Rhythm and Hues, and Tippet Studio.
Table of Contents
Part One: Beginnings: Modeling.One: Accelerating the Preproduction Process.
Two: Modeling a SubDivision Surface Horse.
Three: Organixэodeling by Procedural Means.
Part Two: Putting Things in Motion: Animation.
Four: Animation and Motion Capture-Working Together.
Five: Lip-Synching Real-World Projects.
Part Three: The Numbers Game: Dealing with Complex Systems.
Six: Creating Crowd Scenes from a Small Number of Base Models.
Seven: Taming Chaos: Controlling Dynamics for Use in Plot-Driven Sequences.
Eight: Complex Particle Systems.
Nine: Creating a Graphic User Interface.
Part Four: Endings: Surfacing and Rendering.
Ten: Effective Natural Lighting.
Eleven: Distributed Rendering.
Index.