How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator

by Eric Luhta

Overview

Take your animations to the next level with this essential guide to Maya 2010. Packed with character animation techniques and the secrets of professional animators, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 provides the tips and tools to help you create high quality animation in the most efficient way possible. This comprehensive guide to animating with Maya contains gold-mine coverage, including animation techniques, using Maya's tools with the 12 animation principles, working with constraints, and even foolproof lighting tricks to show off your work.

With this essential handbook, learn which circumstances call for which techniques, and how to get quality results fast. You will not only learn how to be productive in Maya, but also be given access under the hood to the actual scene files of a professional animator. Covering such topics such as pose to pose blocking, layered animation, fixing gimbal lock, facial animation, and much more, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 is an invaluable resource for artists and animators alike.

-- See "under the hood" of a professional animator's workflow with beginning and ending scene files for every technique and workflow example in the book.

--Complete, step-by-step walkthroughs of essential techniques every animator needs to know such as walk cycles, pose-to-pose blocking, lip syncing to dialogue, and much, much more.

-- Proven "How to Cheat" series - Learn to create impressive, appealing animations using the fastest techniques possible, containing everything you need to know about Maya as a character animator.

--Includes rarely discussed topics, such as reading spline curves, avoiding gimbal lock, animation layers, creating appealing lighting for demo reels, and features interviews with some of the most experienced animation leads and TDs working in the industry

-- Learn to apply these professional techniques to your own animations with the accompanying downloadable resources which include all scene files to follow along with, as well as final versions to study in the Graph Editor

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136136771
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	03/20/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	177 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Eric Luhta is a professional animator whose recent credits include "Bioshock 2", "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs", "Horton Hears A Who!", and numerous television commercials. Eric has extensive experience with Autodesk's Maya, including teaching it, as an instructor for the Maya Training Program at AnimationMentor.com. He currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and 3 computers.

Table of Contents

How to Cheat In Maya Topics Outline Section 1: Character Animation in Maya Essential Maya Concepts in Character Animation Setting up Projects Panel Layouts Navigation Camera Setup Parenting Constraints Grouping Using Scripts Animating Posing Characters Effectively Properly posing the spine IK vs. FK and blending between them Keyframing techniques Character Sets Using the timeline Gimbal lock and how to minimize it The Graph Editor Tools Spline Curves and how they really work Tangents Good spline technique Editing splines Applying animation principles Timing and Spacing Ease In/Out Anticipation Overlapping Action Squash and Stretch Tracking Arcs Dope Sheet Tools Using in blocking Making big changes in the middle of an animation Pose to Pose Blocking Having enough breakdowns The dreaded moment of "going to spline" Layered Animation Creating a cycle Starting with the root Calculating an in-place cycle to translate correctly in world space More Animation Techniques Creating "settle" Moving holds Polishing Hitting walls Facial animation and lip sync Section 2: Adding to your animation Modeling Props for Your Characters Polygon Modeling Concepts Primitives Box Modeling Creating models that deform well Rigging Props and Scenery Deciding on the functionality needed Creating joint skeletons Skinning Painting Weights IK Deformers Advanced Constraints Blend Shapes Creating controls for your props Using wrap deformers to create the look of clothing Creating hair that can be easily animated Shading Hypergraph Essentials Material Types Material Attributes Applying file textures 3d Paint Tool Paint Effects Foolproof Lighting Solutions Flat shaded with shadows Final Gather Technique Physical Sun and Sky Rendering Setting up render passes for compositing Batch Rendering Command line rendering