How to Cheat in Maya 2013

How to Cheat in Maya 2013

by
Released September 2013
Publisher(s): Focal Press
ISBN: 9781136146213

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Book description

All professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands! Learn time and energy saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam-packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly.

From menus to modeling, lipsync to lighting, How to Cheat in Maya 2013 covers all of the methods available in the latest version of Maya. Get up to speed quickly and produce stellar results with these insider workflows. With new, updated cheats for the latest version of Maya, "How to Cheat in Maya" is an essential guide for amateur and professional 3D animators alike. Fulyl updated with gold-mine coverage including: expanded sections on production workflow, all new chapters covering rigging cheats and Maya's referencing tools,  and brand new project files demonstrating production-proven techniques.

The companion website includes complete scene files for exercises and techniques, extra rigs, Quicktime movies of full projects, and video tutorials.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. How to Cheat and Why
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. How to Use This Book
  8. 1 Animation Principles
    1. Squash and Stretch
    2. Anticipation
    3. Staging
    4. Straight Ahead/Pose to Pose
    5. Overlapping Action/Follow-through
    6. Slow In/Slow Out
    7. Arcs
    8. Secondary Action
    9. Timing
    10. Exaggeration
    11. Solid Drawing
    12. Appeal
    13. Interlude: What Is “Workflow”?
  9. 2 Splines
    1. How Splines Work
    2. Splines and Spacing
    3. Tangent Types
    4. Tangent Handles
    5. Spline Technique
    6. Spline Reference
    7. Interlude: To School or Not to School?
  10. 3 Graph Editor
    1. Graph Editor Windup
    2. Visual Tools
    3. Working with Keys
    4. Value Operators
    5. Buffer Curves
    6. Speed Cheats
  11. 4 Techniques
    1. Auto Key
    2. Timeline Techniques
    3. Cartoony Motion
    4. Trax Editor
    5. Copying Curves
    6. Editable Motion Trails
    7. IK and FK
    8. IK/FK Switching
    9. Character Sets
    10. Multiple Pivot Points
    11. Reblocking
    12. Interlude: Office Etiquette
  12. 5 Constraints
    1. Parenting
    2. Parent Constraints
    3. Constraining a Prop
    4. Constraint Weights
    5. Animating with Constraints
    6. Interlude: The Right Stuff
  13. 6 Rigging Cheats
    1. Rig Testing
    2. Sprucing It Up
    3. Visual Switches
    4. Interlude: Holding Your Own
  14. 7 Cameras and Layout
    1. Framing and Lenses
    2. Camera Sequencer
    3. UberCam
    4. Animating Cameras
    5. Interlude: Finding Inspiration
  15. 8 Workflow
    1. Planning/Reference
    2. FCheck Trick
    3. Stepped Keys
    4. Checking Silhouette
    5. Moving Holds When Splining
    6. Moving Holds w/ Retime Tool
    7. Refining Arcs in Polish
    8. Final Texture
    9. Spotlight-Özgür Aydogdu
  16. 9 Cycles
    1. Cycle Basics
    2. Stride Length
    3. Walk Cycle
    4. Flying Cycle
    5. Quad Cycles
  17. 10 Referencing
    1. Referencing Basics
    2. Offline Edits
    3. Saving Reference Edits
    4. Interlude: Giving Feedback
  18. 11 Facial Animation
    1. Planning and Prep
    2. Core Poses
    3. Lip Sync 1 - Jaw Motion
    4. Lip Sync 2 - Mouth Corners
    5. Lip Sync 3 - Mouth Shapes
    6. Lip Sync 4 - Tongue
    7. Blinks
    8. Blink and Brows
    9. Eye Darts
    10. Final Touches
    11. Interlude: Repetitive Stress Injury
  19. 12 Animation Layers
    1. How Animation Layers Work
    2. Animation Layer Basics
    3. Creating Variations
    4. Creating Variations 2
    5. Layers for Texture
    6. Interlude: Your Demo Reel
  20. Animator Interviews
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: How to Cheat in Maya 2013
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2013
  • Publisher(s): Focal Press
  • ISBN: 9781136146213