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How to Cheat in Maya 2014

How to Cheat in Maya 2014

by Kenny Roy
Publisher: Focal Press
Release Date: July 2013
ISBN: 9780415826594
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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 2014 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 2014 is an essential guide for amateur and professional 3D animators alike. Fully 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. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. How to Cheat and Why
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. How to use this book
  9. 1 Animation Principles
    1. Squash and Stretch
    2. Anticipation
    3. Staging
    4. Staight 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?
  10. 2 Splines
    1. How Splines Work
    2. Splines and Spacing
    3. Tangent Types
    4. Tangent Handles
    5. Spline Technique
    6. Spline Reference
    7. Interlude: If I Had to Start Over
  11. 3 Graph Editor
    1. Graph Editor Windup
    2. Visual Tools
    3. Working with Keys
    4. Value Operators
    5. Buffer Curves
    6. Speed Cheats
  12. 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. Grease Pencil Tool
    11. Grease Pencil and Trails
    12. Interlude: All In The Hips
  13. 5 Constraints
    1. Parenting
    2. Parent Constraints
    3. Constraining a Prop
    4. Constraint Weights
    5. Animating with Constraints
    6. Interlude: A Well Rounded Approach
  14. 6 Rigging Cheats
    1. Rig Testing
    2. Sprucing It Up
    3. Rigging Props
    4. Interlude: Listen Closely
  15. 7 Standing Out
    1. Adding BlendShapes
    2. Adding Clusters
    3. Wrap Deformer
    4. Adding Hair Et Cloth
    5. Interlude: Shoot Right
  16. 8 Workflow
    1. Planning/Reference
    2. Converting Cycles
    3. Stepped Keys
    4. Stepped Preview
    5. Moving Holds When Splining
    6. Moving Holds w/ Retime Tool
    7. Refining Arcs in Polish
    8. Final Texture
    9. Interview: Michael Cawood
  17. 9 Cycles
    1. Cycle Basics
    2. Stride Length
    3. Walk Cycle
    4. Flying Cycle
    5. Quad Cycle
  18. 10 Referencing
    1. Referencing Basics
    2. Offline Edits
    3. Saving Reference Edits
    4. Interlude: Planning Cartoony Shots
  19. 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: Is This A Business Worth Getting Into?
  20. 12 Animation Layers
    1. How Animation Layers Work
    2. Animation Layer Basics
    3. Cheating a Cycle
    4. Layers for Texture
    5. Interlude: The Final 5%
  21. Animator Interviews
  22. Index