Mastering Maya Complete 2

Mastering Maya Complete 2 gives you all the information you need to begin using this powerful tool for sophisticated modeling, animation, and a wide range of special effects. Whether you're a commercial animator or hobbyist who's moving to Maya or even a newcomer to 3D modeling and animation, this book answers all your questions. It shows you, step-by-step, how to realize your concepts in professional-quality models, characters, and settings. Beyond the basics, this book shows how to create and animate complex models, use dynamics effects like particles and soft and rigid bodies, and program Maya's interface with MEL scripting.

In-Depth Coverage of Maya's Powerful Features

• Get grounded in Maya fundamentals
  
• Create photorealistic character animations--for games, movies, broadcast, and more
  
• Harness the power of Paint Effects to create and animate stunning painterly effects
  
• Model in NURBS and polygons
  
• Animate using keyframing, expressions, and MEL
  
• Expand Maya's innate capabilities with MEL scripting
  
• Bind geometry to joints using rigid and smooth skinning
  
• Sculpt and weight objects with Artisan
  
• Create and use particles
  
• Create and use soft bodies to produce complex behavior in Maya objects

Get the Inside Story on Computer Graphics Trends and Developments
Don't miss Mastering Maya Complete 2's interviews with four of the industry's top visionaries and developers. Alias|Wavefront insiders discuss the next frontier for Maya, explain how Paint Effects was developed, and discuss the evolution of the Maya GUI. Habib Zargarpour, Artist at Industrial Light and Magic, describes the integration of Maya into ILM's work on Star Wars: Episode One, The Phantom Menace.

Featured on the CD
On the enclosed CD, you'll find files relating to all the projects discussed in the book, including models, animations, and color images that will help you follow the authors' step-by-step instructions. Also included are MEL scripts and bonus animations and illustrations.

Table of contents

Introduction

Part I: Maya Fundamentals

Chapter 1: Your First Maya Animation

Chapter 2: The Maya Interface

Chapter 3: Techniques for Speeding Up Workflow

Chapter 4: The Hypergraph: Your Roadmap to a Scene

Part II: Modeling

Chapter 5: Modeling Basics

Chapter 6: NURBS Modeling

Chapter 7: Polygon Modeling

Chapter 8: Organic Modeling

Chapter 9: Working with Artisan

Part III: Animation

Chapter 10: Animating in Maya

Chapter 11: Paths and Bones

Chapter 12: Deformers

Chapter 13: Skinning and Character Setup

Chapter 14: Character Animation: a Walk Cycle and More

Chapter 15: Working with Rigid Body Dynamics

Part IV: Working with Mel

Chapter 16: MEL Basics

Chapter 17: Programming with MEL

Part V: Rendering

Chapter 18: Rendering Basics

Chapter 19: Shading and Texturing Surfaces

Chapter 20: Lighting

Part VI: Advanced Maya Effects

Chapter 21: Particle Basics

Chapter 22: Particle Rendering

Chapter 23: Using Particle Expressions and Ramps

Chapter 24: Dynamics of Soft Bodies

Chapter 25: Paint Effects

Appendix: Interviews

Index