Advanced Maya® Texturing and Lighting, Second Edition

Introduction

Texturing and lighting is a blast. There's nothing quite like turning a gray-shaded model into something that looks real—or that could be real.

I should stress that I am self-taught. In 1994, I sat down at a spare seat of Alias PowerAnimator 5.1 and started hacking away. After several years and various trials by fire, 3D became a livelihood, a love, and an obsession. Along the way, I was fortunate enough to work with many talented artists at Buena Vista Visual Effects and Pacific Data Images. In 2000, I switched from PowerAnimator to Maya and have since logged tens of thousands of hours with the subject of this book.

Due to the unusual combination of an informal and professional background, I do not profess to know everything there ...