Mastering Autodesk Maya 2015: Autodesk Official Press

Get More Out of Autodesk Maya with this Official Guide Even if you already use Maya, youll get more out of Autodesks popular, leading–edge 3D animation software with Mastering Autodesk Maya 2015 . Author Todd Palamar draws on his extensive professional animation experience to help you take your Maya skills to the next level. Fully updated to reflect Mayas latest features, it takes a hands–on approach to instruction, providing you with a diverse set of tutorials designed by real–world professionals to showcase 3D animation and visual techniques used in industry settings. Illustrated with practical examples that bring the information to light, this guide shows you how to acquire the skills needed to use Maya in a professional environment. Coverage includes: Using the Hypergraph, Outliner, Hypershade, Attribute Editor, and Connection Editor Animating with keyframes, expressions, and constraints Building a humanoid mesh using polygon and subdivision surface techniques Creating a facial–animation rig using blend shapes Lighting tools and techniques that can be used when rendering scenes with mental ray Applying textures painted in other software packages Animating and rendering with Paint Effects Using XGen, Maya nHair, and nCloth Creating smoke, cloud, and flame effects Working with the Maya virtual camera Design Cloth, Fur, and Fluids Use Inverse Kinematics, Keyframes, and Deformers Model Organic and Hard Surfaces Work with Maya Muscle Master Visual Filmmaking and Scene Management

Todd Palamar began his career creating traditional special effects for low–budget horror movies and quickly gravitated to computer animation. After working on numerous straight–to–video movies, he entered the video game industry. Todd has extensive freelance experience, including dozens of military and game–style simulations, corporate commercials, and theme park rides. In addition, he has written several Maya books, including Maya Studio Projects: Photorealistic Characters and several editions of Mastering Autodesk Maya .