Many animators and designers would like to supplement their Maya learning with a less-technical, more helpful book. This self-study manual is both a general guide for understanding 3-D computer graphics and a specific guide for learning the fundamentals of Maya: workspace, modeling, animation, shading, lighting, and rendering.Understanding 3-D Animation Using Maya covers these fundamentals in each chapter so that readers gain increasingly detailed knowledge. After an initial 'concepts' section launches each chapter, hands-on tutorials are provided, as well as a chapter project that progressively adds newly learned material and culminates in the final animated short. This is the first book on Maya that teaches the subject using a sensible, proven methodology for both novices and intermediate users.Topics and features: Proven method that emphasizes preliminaries to every chapter Integrates the "why" concepts of 3-D simultaneously with the "how-to" techniques Skills reinforced with tutorials and chapter projects Real-world experience distilled into helpful hints and step-by-step guides for common tasks

Understanding 3-D Animation Using Maya is both a general guide for understanding 3-D computer graphics as well as a specific guide for learning the fundamentals of Maya: workspace, modeling, animation, shading, lighting, and rendering. Each chapter first presents an initial concept, which details a proven method, before providing hands-on tutorials and projects. This approach details how and why animation techniques work and explains how to use Maya for creating sophisticated, state-of-the-art animations. The author distills real-world experience into helpful hints and step-by-step guides for common tasks. Animators, game developers, effects animators, and computer graphics artists will all find the book an essential tool and resource.

* Essential skills * Refinements * Intermediate skills * Adding character * Wiring things up * Bringing it all together * Index