Inside Maya 5

.1d Discover industrial-strength techniques for Maya 4.5 while building a complete animated project.

• Written by a cutting edge authoring team with ties to PDI, ILM, Pixar, and Digital Domain and other leading animation shops.
• This is the only book on Maya that covers the entire production process from concept to completion -- in the real world of production.
• Inside Maya 5 covers the newest tools and upgrades to the program.
• Previously announced in the June 2003 PTG catalog.

I. MAYA AND THE PRODUCTION PIPELINE. 1. Using Maya Well. What Maya Can Do. Maya's Development. Your Development. Summary. 2. Project Overview. Beginnings. Plan B. The Killer B Plan. Summary. 3. Digital Studio Pipeline. Preproduction. Production Setup. Production Flow. Summary. 4. Technical Considerations. Getting Cozy. Commands. The User Interface. Viewing. Managing Files. Summary. 5. MEL. What Is MEL? What Can MEL Do and How Is It Used? Maya's Embedded Language: Some Specific Essentials. The MEL Command Line and Script Editor. Summary. II. MODELING. 6. Formats. What's Not Available. Format: The Big Choices. Polygons. NURBS. Subdivision Surfaces. Surfacing Decisions. Other Modeling Possibilities. Summary. 7. Methods. Set Your Sights. Plan Your Journey. Handle the Details. Handle the Ups and Downs. Summary. 8. Sets. Roughing It In. Building Blocks. Building Buildings. Pass It On. Summary. 9. Props. Basic Prop Guidelines. Simple Prop Models. The Car: A Complex Prop Model. Summary. 10. Characters. Functional and Aesthetic Criteria. Additional Criteria. Creating Spot and The Jerk. Summary. III. TECHNICAL DIRECTION. 11. Layout. What Is Layout? Visual Clarity. Summary. 12. Node-Based Architecture. Transformations: Parent/Child Relationships. Objects, Shapes, and Components. Maya Node-Based Basics. Node Types. Non-DAG Nodes. Viewing the Maya Scene Graph and Node History. Connecting Attributes Between Nodes. Summary. 13. Making Advanced Connections. Understanding Node Connections. Some Practical Uses for Constraints. Quick Review: Overlapping Action. Using History to Your Advantage: Modifying Geometry After It Is. Smooth-Skinned. Summary. 14. Particles and Dynamics. Emission. Rendering. Summary. IV. ANIMATION. 15. Character Animation in Maya. Maya Animation. First Steps: Planning Your Animation. The Principles of Animation. The Pose. Final Plan. Setting the Poses. Last Tips for Motion. Summary. 16. Character Setup Pipeline for Animation. Five Golden Rules of Character Setup. The Character Setup Pipeline. Summary. 17. Rigging Characters for Animation. Setting Up a Character for Animation. Creating Clean Joint Hierarchies for Animation. Rigging a Simple Quadruped Character: The Dog. Creating Advanced Bipedal Character Controls. Advanced Stretchy IK Legs and Classic Reverse Foot. Advanced IK Arms and Clavicular Triangle. Hooking Up the Head Skeletal Hierarchy. The Hair of the Jerk. Summary. 18. Shading. Seeing the World in Shaders. Achieving a Look. Considerations before Shading. Shading Process and Tools. Creating Texture Maps. Projection Mapping. Summary. 19. Lighting. The World in Lights. Defining GI, Radiosity, FG, IBL, and HDRI. Color Scripts. Summary. 20. Rendering. Rendering Efficiently with Maya's Standard Renderer. Command-Line Rendering. Rendering with Mental Ray. Multipass Rendering. Render Farms. Preparing for Final Output. Summary. V. APPENDIX. Appendix A: Intermediate and Advanced MEL. What Is a Script Node? Advanced MEL. Intro to the API: Writing a Deformer. Summary. Index.