Maya at a Glance

George Maestri0782144047, 9780782144048, 9781417582952

One look and you’ll see this Maya book is different from all the others. It presents core Maya features visually, using pages that are packed with beautiful graphics and loaded with detailed explanations on every crucial feature of Maya’s interface. Engaging step-by-step tutorials provide hands-on reinforcement for what you’ve learned.Maya at a Glance is the perfect introduction and reference to the Academy Award(r) winning Maya 3D animation and effects software.

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Table of contents :
Team DDU……Page 1
Contents……Page 10
Introduction……Page 16
1 Introduction to Maya……Page 20
The Status Line……Page 21
Floating Menus……Page 22
Marking Menus……Page 23
The Channel Box……Page 24
The Attribute Editor……Page 25
Viewports……Page 26
Navigation……Page 27
Objects……Page 28
Quick Select……Page 29
The Outliner……Page 30
Coordinate Systems……Page 31
Pivots……Page 32
The Hypergraph……Page 33
Managing Connections in Hypergraph……Page 34
The Connection Editor……Page 35
Maya Folders……Page 36
Setting and Editing Projects……Page 37
2 NURBS Modeling……Page 38
Creating Curves……Page 39
Editing Curves……Page 40
Refining Curves……Page 41
Offsetting a Curve……Page 42
NURBS Patches……Page 43
Building Surfaces……Page 44
Refining NURBS Surfaces……Page 45
Sculpting Surfaces……Page 46
Projecting Curves on a Surface……Page 47
NURBS Booleans……Page 48
The Stitch Surfaces Tool……Page 49
Tutorial: Building a NURBS Car……Page 51
3 Polygonal Modeling……Page 54
Keeping Polygons Planar……Page 55
Combining Polygonal Objects……Page 56
Modifying Polygonal Surfaces……Page 57
Extrusions……Page 59
Subdivision Surfaces……Page 60
Subdivision Surface Attributes……Page 61
Mirroring and Attaching……Page 62
Tutorial: Modeling a Cartoon Character……Page 63
4 Creating Textures……Page 68
Ramp Shader……Page 69
Shader Attributes……Page 70
Common Attributes……Page 71
Connecting Textures to Attributes……Page 72
The Hypershade……Page 73
Using the Hypershade……Page 74
Bitmapped Textures……Page 75
Creating Bitmapped Textures Using 3D Paint……Page 76
2D Procedural Textures……Page 77
3D Procedural Textures……Page 79
Displacement Maps……Page 80
Projections on Polygons……Page 81
UV Texture Editing……Page 82
Reflection Mapping……Page 84
Tutorial: Mapping a Car Using Multiple Textures……Page 85
5 Lighting……Page 88
Types of Lights……Page 89
Adjusting Lights……Page 92
Depth Map Shadows……Page 93
Depth Map Focus……Page 94
Raytraced Shadows……Page 95
Intensity Curves……Page 96
Decay Regions……Page 97
Fog……Page 98
Tutorial: Light Linking……Page 99
Tutorial: Lighting a Scene……Page 100
6 Rendering……Page 102
Types of Cameras……Page 103
Focal Length……Page 104
Clipping Planes……Page 105
Depth of Field……Page 106
Motion Blur in Mental Ray……Page 107
Render Globals……Page 108
Render Region……Page 109
Interactive Photoreal Rendering……Page 110
Anti-Aliasing……Page 111
Raytracing……Page 112
Mental Ray Renderer……Page 113
Global Illumination……Page 114
Final Gathering……Page 115
Photon Intensity……Page 116
Caustics……Page 117
Tutorial: Rendering Global Illumination……Page 119
Tutorial: Rendering Caustics……Page 120
7 Paint Effects……Page 122
Paint Effects Basics……Page 123
Strokes……Page 124
Scene Mode……Page 125
Modifying Brushes……Page 126
Brush Types……Page 127
Tubes……Page 128
Growing and Branching……Page 129
Growing a Tree……Page 130
Tutorial: Painting a Scene……Page 132
8 Deformations and Rigging……Page 134
Nonlinear Deformers……Page 135
Soft Modification……Page 136
Lattices……Page 137
Sculpt Deformers……Page 138
Wrap Deformers……Page 139
Jiggle Deformers……Page 140
Blend Shapes……Page 141
Basics of Joints……Page 143
Joint Attributes……Page 144
Inverse Kinematics……Page 145
Configuring IK……Page 146
Aim……Page 147
Skinning……Page 148
Lattice Flexors……Page 149
Smooth Bind……Page 150
Paint Weights……Page 151
Mirroring or Copying Weights……Page 152
Tutorial: Creating a Skeleton……Page 153
Tutorial: Skinning a Character……Page 154
9 Animation……Page 156
Path Animation……Page 157
Nonlinear Animation……Page 158
Simulations……Page 159
Creating Keys……Page 160
Playblast……Page 161
Dope Sheet……Page 162
Types of Tangents……Page 163
Graph Editor……Page 164
Character Sets……Page 165
Trax……Page 166
Poses……Page 167
Animating with Trax……Page 168
Tutorial: Walk Cycle……Page 169
10 Special Effects……Page 170
Emitters……Page 171
Types of Emitters……Page 172
Particle Types……Page 173
Particle Lifespans……Page 174
Affecting Particles with Fields……Page 175
Rigid Body Dynamics……Page 176
Setting Up Rigid Body Simulations……Page 177
Soft Body Dynamics……Page 178
Goals……Page 179
Tutorial: Creating Rocket Exhaust……Page 180
Index……Page 182