Mastering Autodesk Maya 2014

Mastering Autodesk Maya 2014

by Todd Palamar
Released July 2013
Publisher(s): Sybex
ISBN: 9781118574966

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Book description

Hands-on intermediate-to-advanced coverage of the leading 3D software

Autodesk Maya is the industry-leading 3D animation and effects software used in movies, visual effects, games, and other genres. If you already know the basics of Maya and are ready to elevate your skills, then this book is for you. Nearly 1,000 pages are packed with organized, professional, and valuable insight on the leading 3D application on the market, enabling you to unlock the software's more complex features. Ideal as both a tutorial and study guide for the Autodesk Maya exam, this Autodesk Official Press book gets you up to speed on Maya's latest features and expands your skills with advanced instruction on cloth, fur, and fluids.

  • Features challenging tutorials and real-world scenarios from some of the leading professionals in the industry

  • Provides you with valuable insight into the entire CG production pipeline

  • Covers the very latest Maya 2014 tools and features, including updates to dynamics, Maya muscle, stereo cameras, assets, rendering with mental ray, and more

  • Helps you gain proficiency in high-level techniques for film, television, game development, and more

If you've been looking for a complete, professional quality Maya resource to turn to again and again, look no further than Mastering Autodesk Maya 2104.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Introduction
    1. Who Should Buy This Book
    2. What’s Inside
    3. Conventions
    4. How to Contact the Author
  3. Chapter 1: Working in Autodesk Maya
    1. Creating and Editing Nodes
    2. Creating Maya Projects
    3. Organizing Complex Node Structures with Assets
    4. File References
    5. The Bottom Line
  4. Chapter 2: Virtual Filmmaking
    1. Determining the Image Size and Film Speed of the Camera
    2. Creating and Animating Cameras
    3. Creating Custom Camera Rigs
    4. Applying Depth of Field and Motion Blur
    5. Using Orthographic and Stereo Cameras
    6. Using the Camera Sequencer
    7. The Bottom Line
  5. Chapter 3: Modeling I
    1. Understanding Polygon Geometry
    2. Using Subdivision Surfaces
    3. Understanding NURBS
    4. Employing Image Planes
    5. Modeling NURBS Surfaces
    6. NURBS Tessellation
    7. Modeling with Polygons
    8. The Bottom Line
  6. Chapter 4: Modeling II
    1. Modeling with Deformers
    2. Combining Meshes
    3. Using Bevel Plus
    4. Using Curves
    5. Converting NURBS Surfaces to Polygons
    6. Boolean Operations
    7. Sculpting Polygons Using Artisan
    8. Advanced Polygon-Editing Tools
    9. The Bottom Line
  7. Chapter 5: Animation Techniques
    1. Using Joints and Constraints
    2. Inverse Kinematics
    3. Keyframe Animation
    4. The Graph Editor
    5. Playblast and FCheck
    6. Driven Keys
    7. Motion-Path Animation
    8. Motion Trails
    9. Animating Constraints
    10. Animation Layers
    11. Grease Pencil
    12. The Bottom Line
  8. Chapter 6: Animating with Deformers
    1. Animating Facial Expressions Using Blend Shapes
    2. Animating Blend Shapes Sequentially
    3. Animating with Lattices
    4. Animating Object Components with Clusters
    5. Animating a Scene Using Nonlinear Deformers
    6. Creating a Jiggle Effect
    7. Optimizing Animations with the Geometry Cache
    8. The Bottom Line
  9. Chapter 7: Rigging and Muscle Systems
    1. Understanding Rigging
    2. Creating and Organizing Joint Hierarchies
    3. Rigging the Giraffe
    4. Human Inverse Kinematics
    5. Skinning Geometry
    6. The Maya Muscle System
    7. The Bottom Line
  10. Chapter 8: Paint Effects
    1. Using the Paint Effects Canvas
    2. Painting on 3D Objects
    3. Understanding Strokes
    4. Designing Brushes
    5. Create Complexity by Adding Strokes to a Curve
    6. Shaping Strokes with Behavior Controls
    7. Animating Strokes
    8. Rendering Paint Effects
    9. The Bottom Line
  11. Chapter 9: Lighting with mental ray
    1. Shadow-Casting Lights
    2. Indirect Lighting: Global Illumination
    3. Indirect Illumination: Final Gathering
    4. Image-Based Lighting
    5. Physical Sun and Sky
    6. mental ray Area Lights
    7. Light Shaders
    8. The Bottom Line
  12. Chapter 10: mental ray Shading Techniques
    1. Shading Concepts
    2. Creating Blurred Reflections and Refractions Using Standard Maya Shaders
    3. Basic mental ray Shaders
    4. Car Paint Materials
    5. The mia Material
    6. Controlling Exposure with Tone Mapping
    7. Rendering Contours
    8. The Bottom Line
  13. Chapter 11: Texture Mapping
    1. UV Texture Layout
    2. Bump and Normal Mapping
    3. Displacement Mapping
    4. Subsurface Scattering
    5. Viewport 2.0
    6. The Bottom Line
  14. Chapter 12: Rendering for Compositing
    1. Render Layers
    2. Render Passes
    3. Render Pass Contribution Maps
    4. Setting Up a Render with mental ray
    5. mental ray Quality Settings
    6. The Bottom Line
  15. Chapter 13: Introducing nParticles
    1. Creating nParticles
    2. Making nParticles Collide with nRigids
    3. Using nParticles to Simulate Liquids
    4. Emit nParticles Using a Texture
    5. Using Wind
    6. Shading nParticles and Using Hardware Rendering to Create Flame Effects
    7. nParticles and Fields
    8. Rendering Particles with mental ray
    9. The Bottom Line
  16. Chapter 14: Dynamic Effects
    1. Creating nCloth Objects
    2. Creating nCloth and nParticle Interactions
    3. Rigid Body Dynamics
    4. Soft Body Dynamics
    5. Creating Flying Debris Using nParticle Instancing
    6. Animating Instances Using nParticle Expressions
    7. The Bottom Line
  17. Chapter 15: Fur, Hair, and Clothing
    1. Adding Fur to Characters
    2. Rendering Fur Using mental ray
    3. Animating Using Dynamic Curves
    4. Adding Hair to a Character
    5. Styling Hair
    6. Rendering Hair
    7. Creating Clothing for Characters
    8. Painting nCloth Properties
    9. The Bottom Line
  18. Chapter 16: Maya Fluids
    1. Using Fluid Containers
    2. Fluid Interactions
    3. Rendering Fluid Containers
    4. Create Fluids and nParticle Interactions
    5. Creating Water Effects
    6. The Bottom Line
  19. Appendix A: The Bottom Line
    1. Chapter 1
    2. Chapter 2
    3. Chapter 3
    4. Chapter 4
    5. Chapter 5
    6. Chapter 6
    7. Chapter 7
    8. Chapter 8
    9. Chapter 9
    10. Chapter 10
    11. Chapter 11
    12. Chapter 12
    13. Chapter 13
    14. Chapter 14
    15. Chapter 15
    16. Chapter 16
  20. Appendix B: Autodesk Maya 2014 Certification

Product information

  • Title: Mastering Autodesk Maya 2014
  • Author(s): Todd Palamar
  • Release date: July 2013
  • Publisher(s): Sybex
  • ISBN: 9781118574966