With the powerful 3D modeling program Maya 5, users are limited only by their own imagination. In these pages, veteran animator Jim Lammers (who brought life to the Sony/Tristar film "Starship Troopers") takes readers from a review of 3D fundamentals to full-blown Maya 5 content creation. A companion CD includes video-captured movies that walk readers through every tutorial in the book.

Real-world solutions for real-world production environments! Luis Cataldi, BlueSky Studios Maya is a very powerful application. Before artists can create and share their ideas and visions, they must understand its complicated tools and learn to harness its power.Inside Maya 5can help develop a functional understanding of Maya's many tools through solid examples and production-proven methods. From the back cover Are you familiar with the basic Maya tools? Can you complete most tasks with little or no reliance on the help files? Do your questions about Maya center on how to put all the pieces together and use the software in a production setting? If so,Inside Maya 5is just what you want and need. Industry professionals who have worked for such houses as Digital Domain, ILM, PDI/DreamWorks, and Pixar provide insights into making great production decisions that take advantage of the power of Maya without compromising production quality - real-world solutions to real-world challenges! You'll get coverage of: Using Maya in the digital studio pipeline MEL and the Maya API Modeling techniques for NURBS, polygonal modeling, and subdivision surfaces Modeling characters, sets, and props Maya's node-based architecture Particles and dynamics Character animation and rigging Lighting, shading and rendering Bonus interviews with Scott Clark (Pixar) and Paul Thuriot (Tippett Studios) The companion CD includes the source files you need to complete the exercises in each chapter.

"...the best book out there for learning how to do MAYA rigging and animation." --Ian Cairns, Editor, MAYA Association Learning Maya 5: Character Rigging and Animation will teach you everything you need to achieve effective character set-up and animation in Maya. Learn what you need to become a true puppet master! New for Maya 5! Updated from the popular Learning Maya: Character Rigging and Animation, the book's latest edition will allow you to explore powerful new features in Maya 5 such as IK/FK Blending and Parent Constraints. We've also updated Melvin to a polygonal model from a NURBS path model to make him easier to manipulate. In addition, you'll take advantage of updated graphical selectors and controls that will make your rigs more customizable and easier for artists to work with. Features: This book will allow you to explore character rigging that is based on a human character - walking you through the process as you rig arms, legs, a face, and more. Learn the fundamentals of properly setting up a character to avoid pitfalls as you animate. Starting from an introductory level, this book covers advanced concepts in a comfortable format. Each topics is explored in both theory and practice so that you'll be able to complete easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorials. In addition, you'll take advantage of valuable chapter-by-chapter overviews provided in QuickTime format on DVD-ROM. Offered by one of the book's authors, Bill Dwelly, an Alias|Wavefront(TM) Certified Instructor, these helpful movies will allow you to gain additional insight as you work through the book. With this book you will: * Create Skeleton Chains and edit Joint Orientation. * Render particles with hardware graphics and software techniques. * Set up Single Chain, Rotation Plane, and Spline IK Solvers. * Use Set Driven Key to create powerful control systems. * Use of both Forward and Inverse Kinematics. * Simulated the deformation of clothing using Wire Deformers and Set Drivin Key. * Drive Joint Rotation with a Blendshapte Slider to help consolidate you control windows. * Understand the difference between Smooth and Rigid Binding. * Use Pole Vector constraints as a fast and easy way of achieving realistic motion in arms and legs. * Create a complex and subtle character deformations.

This guide to Maya 4.5 has been written by Maya beta testers and experienced trainers. It includes workflow and best practices for every user of this 3D graphics programme.

Maya is the first choice of digital content creators producing award-winning games, 3D animation and visual effects. Built on a procedural architecture called the Dependency Graph, Maya offers incredible power and flexibility for generating digital images of animated characters and scenes. Learning Maya 5: Foundation takes you through over twenty project-focused lessons that offer hands-on experience with key tools and techniques. This book introduces you to the following topics: * The Maya User Interface * Working in 3D space * NURBS (spline) Modeling * Polygonal Modeling * Keyframes and Motion Paths * Trax(TM) Non-linear animation * Forward and Inverse Kinematics * Surface Deformations * Cameras and Lights * Shaders and Techniques * Particles and Dynamics * MEL (Maya Embedded Language) What you need to use this book: * Maya Complete(TM), Maya Unlimited(TM), or Maya Personal Learning Edition(TM) version 5 software * A DVD-ROM or set-top player Project One: Bouncing Ball Quickly get your feet wet by animating a basic bouncing ball. Add a squash and stretch, create a ring of fire using a particle clip effect, then add sparks as the ball hits the flames. Project Two: Jack-in-the-box Learn the basics of modeling, animating, and rendering a scene. Use Maya Artisan(TM) tools to sculpt Jack's face and to paint a color texture in 3D. Refine the scene's rendering using IPR (Interactive Photorealistic Rendering). Project Three: Space Battle Starting with a more in-depth look at polygonal and NURBS modeling, this project sets up a motion path animation, complete with Opti-FX explosions. Use Maya Paint Effects(TM) to create a realistic starfield. Project Four: Primitive Man Using Maya's Trax non-linear animation, you cycle for a bi-ped Inverse Kinematic skeleton. This lesson will also explore basic character skinning and deformation. Project Five: Salty the Seal This project brings together the skills developed in earlier lessons into a more complex scene where you learn how Maya lets you fully integrate modeling, rendering, and animation tasks.

"This book...is long overdue, and something that Maya users will undoubtedly welcome with open text editors" --Joaquin Kino Gil, CreativeCOW.net Learning Maya 5: MEL Fundamentals is you key to harnessing the full power of Maya, and you don't have to be a programmer to learn. MEL (Maya Embedded Language) is the scripting language used by Maya and is the foundation of the Maya User Interface and of many of its tools. Knowing MEL will permit you to customize the Maya UI, automate repetitive tasks, modify existing tools, and even create your own tools. Learning Maya 5 | MEL Fundatmentals is your key to solving production challenges creatively and efficiently. This book is written for the artist, so don't be intimidated if you have no prior programming experience. Features: Starting from an introductory level, this book will allow you to explore advanced concepts in a comfortable format. Each topic is explored in both theory and practice so that you'll not only understand the concepts presented, you'll be able to complete easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorials to ensure that you master them. You'll benefit from sample scripts and examples that will prove invaluable to you as your Maya skills increase. In addition, you'll take advantage of valuable chapter-by-chapter overviews provided in QuickTime(r) format on CD-ROM. Offered by Glen Chang, and Alias|Wavefront(TM) Certified Instructor, these helpful movies will allow you to gain additional insight as you work through the book. With this book you will: * Explore MEL's role in Maya * Customize the Maya User Interface with MEL. * Understand Maya's architecture, Nodes, and Attributes * Learn MEL commands and syntax. * Explore variables and expressions. * Write conditional and looking statements. * Learn scripting and procedures. * Get advanced scripting examples. * Create UI windows, layouts and tools. And much more...

Photographs and simple text describe what daily life is like for Maya villagers, showing how they prepare meals, weave clothing, make roofs, and create art and music.

Many animators and designers would like to supplement their Maya learning with a less-technical, more helpful book. This self-study manual is both a general guide for understanding 3-D computer graphics and a specific guide for learning the fundamentals of Maya: workspace, modeling, animation, shading, lighting, and rendering. Understanding 3-D Animation Using Maya covers these fundamentals in each chapter so that readers gain increasingly detailed knowledge. After an initial 'concepts' section launches each chapter, hands-on tutorials are provided, as well as a chapter project that progressively adds newly learned material and culminates in the final animated short. This is the first book on Maya that teaches the subject using a sensible, proven methodology for both novices and intermediate users. Topics and features: - Proven method that emphasizes preliminaries to every chapter - Integrates the "why" concepts of 3-D simultaneously with the "how-to" techniques - Skills reinforced with tutorials and chapter projects - Real-world experience distilled into helpful hints and step-by-step guides for common tasks