Maya Professional Tips and Techniques

Designed for busy Maya users like you, this guide offers dozens of how-tos, workarounds, and shortcuts culled from years of experience in a fast-paced, deadline-driven production pipeline. You’ll discover tricks and timesavers on texturing particles, customizing Paint Effects brushes, modeling polygon faces, creating facial rigs with wire deformers, and much more—and helpful full-color illustrations reinforce the concepts. From modeling, animating, and rigging to texturing and lighting, this book will help you streamline workflow and improve your skills.

Designed for busy Maya users like you, this guide offers dozens of how-tos, workarounds, and shortcuts culled from years of experience in a fast-paced, deadline-driven production pipeline. You’ll discover tricks and timesavers on texturing particles, customizing Paint Effects brushes, modeling polygon faces, creating facial rigs with wire deformers, and much more—and helpful full-color illustrations reinforce the concepts. From modeling, animating, and rigging to texturing and lighting, this book will help you streamline workflow and improve your skills.

Lee Lanier is a professional animator and teacher who has created digital special effects for such films as The Santa Clause and Mortal Kombat. He was a senior animator for modeling and lighting on Antz and Shrek and has produced and directed the short films Millennium Bug, Mirror, Day Off The Dead, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and 13 Ways to Die at Home. He has taught advanced Maya classes at several schools, including the Art Institute of Las Vegas. His work can be seen at beezlebugbit.com. Lee is the author of Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting (Sybex).