Publisher's Synopsis
In this unique full–color book, a cadre of professionals led by Maya expert and best–selling author, John Kundert–Gibbs, team up to share what they ve learned using Maya in the CG trenches.
Contributing authors include veterans of such high–profiles projects as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within , Star Wars: Episode I , The Perfect Storm , as well as animations featured at SIGGRAPH.
Whether you re new to the field or already have solid 3D experience, Maya: Secrets of the Pros offers insights and step–by–step instructions designed to help you build and sharpen a range of critical skills, including:
- Preparation techniques for modeling and animation
- Improving motion capture and lip synching
- Creating crowd scenes from a small number of base models
- Controlling dynamics in plot–driven sequences
- Developing massively complex particle systems for film effects, such as those in The Perfect Storm
- Modeling subdivision surfaces
- Creating a GUI animation set–up for animators
- Using effective natural lighting
- Writing software for a multi–platform renderfarm
