Maya Character Animation

Maya Character Animation is a step-by-step guide to building and honing your modeling and animation skills. Heavily illustrated tutorials teach you how to build effective characters from the ground up, with detailed coverage of successful subdivision surface and polygon modeling techniques. In later chapters, you'll navigate the intricacies of rigid and smooth character binding, discover the art of compelling facial expressions, and systematically conquer post-modeling challenges ranging from character setup to non-linear animation editing to mapping and rendering.

Capping it off is a complete project in which you plan, create, and refine your own short-piece animation. Throughout, you'll find hundreds of full-color images that show you what you can—and will—accomplish. You also get bonus coverage of Deep Paint 3D, the premier texture-painting program.

Contents

Part 1: Character Modeling

Chapter 1: Subdivision & Polygon Modeling
1. Polygon Menu
2. Subdivision Surface Menu
3. Quick Start Tutorial

Chapter 2: Polygon, Subdivision Surface Mapping
1. Polygon Mapping
2. Subdivision Surface Mapping
3. UV Texture Editor

Chapter 3: Subdivision Surface Character Modeling
1. Making the Basic Face
2. UV Setting of Subdivision Surface
3. Transforming the Basic Face for Face Modeling
4. Hand Modeling
5. Other Modeling

Chapter 4: NURBS Modeling
1. Understanding the Basic Menu
2. One Patch Modeling
3. Multi-Patch Modeling

Chapter 5: Facial Expression
1. Using Skeleton
2. Modeling Blend Shape

Chapter 6: Binding Character
1. Rigid Bind
2. Smooth Bind
3. Smooth Bind Example

Chapter 7: Character Setup
1. Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics
2. Advance Character Setup

Chapter 8: Nonlinear Animation
1. Understanding Character
2. Trax Editor
3. Basic Tutorial

Chapter 9: Render Utility & Mapping Techniques
1. The Mapping Environment of Maya
2. Shading Network Using Render Utility
3. Face Mapping
4. Mapping Technique
5. Face Mapping Using Texture Reference Objects


Part 2: Maya and Beyond

Chapter 10: What's New in Maya 4.5
1. Basic Features
2. New Important Features
3. Fluid Effects

Chapter 11: Deep Paint 3D
1. Tutorial
2. Multi-Patch Modeling


Part 3: Making an Animation with Maya

Chapter 12: Modeling
1. Frog Modeling
2. Bee Modeling

Chapter 13: Character Setting
1. Frog Setup
2. Setting Up the Frog for Animation
3. Bee Setup
4. Setting Up the Bee For Animation

Chapter 14: Animating Frog
1. Frog Keyframing

Chapter 15: Rendering Frog
1. Frog Mapping
2. Bee Mapping
3. Making the Tree Using Paint Effects
4. Mapping the Leaves
5. Using Depth of Field