Introducing Autodesk Maya 2016

Dariush Derakhshani is an award-winning visual effects supervisor, author, and educator whose work has appeared in The Fantastic Four, Pan's Labyrinth, the South Park TV series, and countless commercials and music videos. An Autodesk Certified Instructor, he teaches 3D animation and is the author of previous editions of Introducing Maya. Dariush is coauthor of the Autodesk 3ds Max series of books.

Introduction xiii Chapter 1 Introduction to Computer Graphics and 3D 1 A Preview of the CG Process 2 The CG Production Workflow 2 Digital Images 4 Summary 9 Chapter 2 Jumping into Basic Animation Headfirst 11 You Put the U in User Interface 12 Project: The Solar System 17 Creating a Project 17 The Production Process: Creating and Animating the Objects 19 Hierarchy and Maya Object Structure 32 The Solar System, Resumed 34 Outputting Your Work: Playblasting 41 Summary 42 Chapter 3 The Autodesk Maya 2016 Interface 45 Navigating in Maya 46 Exploring the Maya Layout 46 Building a Decorative Box 58 Mapping the Boxs Reference Planes with Hypershade 61 Organizing Workflow with the Layer Editor 67 Modeling the Decorative Box 68 Editing the Decorative Box Model Using the Shelf 73 Continuing the Decorative Box Model 77 Finishing the Decorative Box Model 80 Summary 87 Chapter 4 Beginning Polygonal Modeling 89 Planning Your Model 90 Polygon Basics 92 Poly Editing Tools 94 Putting the Tools to Use: Making a Cartoon Hand 101 Creating Areas of Detail on a Poly Mesh 110 Modeling a Catapult 124 Summary 153 Chapter 5 Modeling with NURBS Surfaces and Deformers 155 NURBS for Organic Curves 156 Using NURBS Surfacing to Create Polygons 163 Converting a NURBS Model to Polygons 165 Using Artisan to Sculpt NURBS 167 Creating a Pair of Glass Candle Holders 167 Modeling with Simple Deformers 175 The Lattice Deformer 180 Animating Through a Lattice 185 Summary 188 Chapter 6 Practical Experience! 189 Evaluating the Toy Plane 190 Building the Landing Pontoons 192 Oh, What a Body! Modeling the Body of the Plane 208 The Rear Stabilizers 213 You Spin Me Right Round The Engine and Propeller 217 The Planes Wings 221 Assembling the Plane 230 Summary 232 Chapter 7 Autodesk Maya Shading and Texturing 233 Maya Shading 234 Shader Types 234 Shader Attributes 238 Shading and Texturing the Toy Plane 242 Textures and Surfaces 247 Textures and UVs for the Red Wagon 256 Photo-Real Mapping: The Decorative Box 292 Toon Shading 309 For Further Study 312 Summary 312 Chapter 8 Introduction to Animation 315 Keyframe Animation: Bouncing a Ball 316 Throwing an Axe 327 Replacing an Object 338 Animating Flying Text 340 Animating the Catapult 344 Summary 349 Chapter 9 More Animation! 351 Skeletons and Kinematics 352 Skeletons: The Hand 368 Inverse Kinematics 383 Basic Relationships: Constraints 387 Basic Relationships: Set-Driven Keys 392 Rigging the Locomotive 396 Creating a Simple Character Rig 404 For Further Study 413 Summary 414 Chapter 10 Autodesk Maya Lighting 415 Basic Lighting Concepts 416 Maya Lights 420 Light Linking 427 Adding Shadows 429 Raytracing Soft Shadows 433 mental ray Lighting 434 mental ray Physical Sun and Sky 436 Lighting Effects 440 Assembling and Lighting a Scene 444 Further Lighting Practice 452 Tips for Using and Animating Lights 452 Summary 454 Chapter 11 Autodesk Maya Rendering 455 Rendering Setup 456 Previewing Your Render: The Render View Window 465 Setting the Default Renderer 467 Reflections and Refractions 468 Using Cameras 470 Motion Blur 478 Batch Rendering 479 Rendering the Wine Bottle 480 mental ray for Maya 485 Render Layers 491 Final Gather 502 Ambient Occlusion 506 Hdri 515 Displacement Mapping the Decorative Box 518 Rendering the Scene with mental ray 530 Summary 541 Chapter 12 Autodesk Maya Dynamics and Effects 543 An Overview of Maya Dynamics 544 Rigid Bodies 544 Rigid Body Dynamics: Shoot the Catapult! 548 nParticle Dynamics 556 Emitting nParticles 556 Animating a Particle Effect: Locomotive Steam 564 Introduction to Paint Effects 573 Getting Started with nCloth 577 Customizing Maya 583 Summary 588 Where Do You Go from Here? 588 Index 589