Mastering Autodesk Maya 2013

Mastering Autodesk Maya 2013

Released June 2012
Publisher(s): Sybex
ISBN: 9781118130582

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Book description

Provides hands-on intermediate-to-advanced coverage of the leading 3D software

Maya is the industry-leading 3D animation and effects software used in movies, visual effects, games, and other genres. For intermediate and advanced users who already know Maya basics, this official Maya guide provides the detailed coverage you need to unlock the software's more complex features. Elevate your skills in modeling, texturing, animation, and visual effects, and gain proficiency in high-level techniques for film, television, game development, and more.

  • Artists who are already proficient in Maya basics can elevate their skills and increase their marketability with the techniques in this official Maya guide

  • This fully updated book brings you up to speed on Maya's latest features and expands your skills with advanced instruction on cloth, fur, and fluids

  • Offers intermediate-level projects on Dynamics, Maya Muscle, Stereo Cameras, Assets, rendering with mental ray, and more

  • Offers challenging tutorials and real-world scenarios from some of the leading professionals in the industry

  • Provides valuable insight into the entire CG production pipeline

Mastering Autodesk Maya gives the serious Maya student a head start toward a successful career in 3D animation.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Introduction
  4. Chapter 1: Working in Autodesk Maya
    1. Creating and Editing Nodes
      1. Using the Hypergraph
      2. Connecting Nodes with the Node Editor
      3. Creating Node Hierarchies in the Outliner
      4. Displaying Options in the Outliner
      5. The Channel Box
      6. The Attribute Editor
      7. Working with Shader Nodes in the Hypershade
    2. Creating Maya Projects
      1. Creating a New Project
      2. Editing and Changing Projects
    3. Organizing Complex Node Structures with Assets
      1. Creating an Asset
      2. Publishing Asset Attributes
      3. Using the Asset Editor
    4. File References
      1. Referencing a File
      2. Using Multiple Representations
    5. The Bottom Line
  5. Chapter 2: Virtual Filmmaking
    1. Determining the Image Size and Film Speed of the Camera
      1. Setting the Size and Resolution of the Image
      2. Setting the Film Speed
    2. Creating and Animating Cameras
      1. Creating a Camera
      2. Setting Camera Attributes
      3. Limiting the Range of Renderable Objects with Clipping Planes
      4. Composing the Shot Using the Film-Back Settings
      5. Creating a Camera Shake Effect
      6. Using an Expression to Control Alpha Offset
    3. Creating Custom Camera Rigs
      1. Swivel Camera Rig
      2. Swivel Camera Rig Asset
    4. Applying Depth of Field and Motion Blur
      1. Rendering Using Depth of Field
      2. Creating a Rack Focus Rig
      3. Adding Motion Blur to an Animation
    5. Using Orthographic and Stereo Cameras
      1. Orthographic Cameras
      2. Stereo Cameras
    6. Using the Camera Sequencer
    7. The Bottom Line
  6. Chapter 3: Modeling I
    1. Understanding Polygon Geometry
      1. Polygon Vertices
      2. Polygon Edges
      3. Polygon Faces
      4. Working with Smooth Polygons
    2. Using Subdivision Surfaces
    3. Understanding NURBS
      1. Understanding Curves
      2. Understanding NURBS Surfaces
      3. Surface Seams
      4. NURBS Display Controls
    4. Employing Image Planes
    5. Modeling NURBS Surfaces
      1. Lofting Surfaces
      2. Intersecting Surfaces
      3. Trim Surfaces
      4. Working with Trim Edges
      5. Fillet Surfaces
      6. Creating Rail Surfaces
      7. Lofting Across Multiple Curves
      8. Live Surfaces
    6. NURBS Tessellation
    7. Modeling with Polygons
      1. Shaping Using Smooth Mesh Polygon Geometry
      2. Insert Edge Loops
      3. Extruding Polygons
      4. Edge Creasing
      5. Mirror Cut
    8. The Bottom Line
  7. Chapter 4: Modeling II
    1. Modeling with Deformers
      1. Using a Lattice
      2. Soft Modification Tool
    2. Combining Meshes
    3. Using Bevel Plus and Bevel Edges
      1. Creating the Curves
      2. Projecting the Curve
      3. Bevel Edges
    4. Using Curves
      1. Create an Extrusion Curve
      2. Extrude Along a Curve
      3. Drawing Curves on a Live Surface
    5. Converting NURBS Surfaces to Polygons
      1. Employing Revolved Surfaces
      2. NURBS Extrusions
    6. Boolean Operations
      1. Using Booleans
      2. Cutting Polygons
    7. Sculpting Polygons Using Artisan
    8. Advanced Polygon-Editing Tools
      1. Append a Polygon
      2. Interactive Split Tool
      3. Spin a Polygon Edge
      4. Bridge Polygons
    9. Working with SubDs
      1. Modeling with SubDs
      2. SubD Levels
    10. The Bottom Line
  8. Chapter 5: Animation Techniques
    1. Using Joints and Constraints
      1. Joint Basics
      2. Point Constraints
      3. Aim Constraints
    2. Inverse Kinematics
      1. IK Handle Tool
      2. Create a Master Control
    3. Keyframe Animation
      1. Creating Keyframes
      2. Auto Keyframe
      3. Move and Scale Keyframes on the Timeline
      4. Copy, Paste, and Cut Keyframes
    4. The Graph Editor
      1. Animation Curves
      2. Editing Animation Curves
      3. Weighted Tangents
      4. Additional Editing Tools
      5. Breakdowns and In-Betweens
      6. Pre- and Post-Infinity
    5. Playblast and FCheck
    6. Driven Keys
      1. Creating a Driven Key
      2. Looping Driven Keys
      3. Copying and Pasting Driven Keys
    7. Motion Path Animation
    8. Motion Trails
    9. Animating Constraints
    10. Animation Layers
      1. Creating an Animation Layer
      2. Layer Mode
      3. Other Options in the Layer Editor
      4. Layer Hierarchy
      5. Merging Layers
    11. The Bottom Line
  9. Chapter 6: Animating with Deformers
    1. Animating Facial Expressions Using Blend Shapes
      1. Creating Blend Shape Targets
      2. Creating Blend Shapes
      3. Painting Blend Shape Weights
      4. Adding Targets
      5. Creating a Custom Mouth Control Slider
      6. Connecting the Slider to the Blend Shape
    2. Animating Blend Shapes Sequentially
      1. Creating the Base Mesh
      2. Creating the Blend Shape Targets
      3. Creating the Blend Shape Sequence
    3. Animating with Lattices
      1. Creating a Lattice
      2. Using the Lattice Membership Tool
      3. Adding an Object to an Existing Lattice
      4. Animating Lattices
    4. Animating Object Components with Clusters
      1. Adding Cluster Objects
      2. Painting Cluster Weights
      3. Applying Cluster Components
      4. Constraining Clusters
    5. Animating a Scene Using Nonlinear Deformers
      1. Creating a Wave Deformer
      2. Squashing and Stretching Objects
      3. Twisting Objects
    6. Creating a Jiggle Effect
      1. Applying Jiggle Deformers
      2. Painting Jiggle Weights
    7. Optimizing Animations with the Geometry Cache
      1. Creating a Geometry Cache
      2. Editing the Cache Playback
    8. The Bottom Line
  10. Chapter 7: Rigging and Muscle Systems
    1. Understanding Rigging
    2. Creating and Organizing Joint Hierarchies
      1. Orienting Joints
      2. Naming Joints
      3. Mirroring Joints
    3. Rigging the Giraffe
      1. IK Legs
      2. FK Blending
      3. Rotate Plane Solvers
      4. Creating Custom Attributes
      5. Spline IK
    4. Human Inverse Kinematics
      1. Skeleton Generator
      2. Character Controls
      3. Interoperability
    5. Skinning Geometry
      1. Interactive/Smooth Binding
      2. Weighting the Giraffe
      3. Painting Skin Weights
      4. Editing Skin Weights in the Component Editor
      5. Copying Skin Weights
      6. Mirroring Skin Weights
    6. The Maya Muscle System
      1. Understanding the Maya Muscle System
      2. Using Capsules
      3. Creating a Muscle Using the Muscle Builder
      4. Editing Muscle Parameters
      5. Converting the Smooth Skin to a Muscle System
      6. Sliding Weights
    7. The Bottom Line
  11. Chapter 8: Paint Effects
    1. Using the Paint Effects Canvas
      1. The Paint Effects Window
      2. Painting in Scene Mode
    2. Painting on 3D Objects
    3. Understanding Strokes
      1. The Anatomy of a Paint Effects Stroke
      2. Brush Sharing
      3. Understanding Brush Curve Nodes
    4. Designing Brushes
      1. Starting from Scratch
      2. Tubes
      3. Growing Flowers
      4. Adding Leaves
    5. Create Complexity by Adding Strokes to a Curve
    6. Shaping Strokes with Behavior Controls
      1. Applying Forces
      2. Displacement, Spiral, and Bend
    7. Animating Strokes
      1. Animating Attribute Values
      2. Adding Turbulence
      3. Animating Growth
      4. Modifiers
    8. Rendering Paint Effects
      1. Illumination
      2. Shadow Effects
      3. Shading Strokes and Tubes
      4. Texturing Strokes
      5. Converting Strokes to Geometry
    9. The Bottom Line
  12. Chapter 9: Lighting with mental ray
    1. Shadow-Casting Lights
      1. Shadow Preview
      2. Depth Map Shadows
      3. mental ray Shadow Map Overrides
      4. Raytrace Shadows
    2. Indirect Lighting: Global Illumination
      1. Global Illumination
      2. Tuning Global Illumination
      3. Working with Photon Maps
      4. Color Bleeding
      5. Importons
      6. Caustics
      7. Caustic Light Setup
    3. Indirect Illumination: Final Gathering
      1. Light-Emitting Objects
      2. Final Gathering Maps
      3. Using Lights with Final Gathering
    4. Image-Based Lighting
      1. Enabling IBL
      2. IBL and Final Gathering
    5. Physical Sun and Sky
      1. Enabling Physical Sun and Sky
      2. Editing the Sky Settings
    6. mental ray Area Lights
    7. Light Shaders
      1. Physical Light Shader
      2. Tone Mapping
      3. Photometric Lights and Profiles
    8. The Bottom Line
  13. Chapter 10: mental ray Shading Techniques
    1. Shading Concepts
      1. Diffusion
      2. Reflection
      3. Refraction
      4. The Fresnel Effect
      5. Anisotropy
    2. Creating Blurred Reflections and Refractions Using Standard Maya Shaders
      1. Reflection Blur
      2. Refraction Blur
    3. Basic mental ray Shaders
      1. DGS Shaders
      2. Dielectric Material
      3. mental ray Base Shaders
    4. Car Paint Materials
      1. Diffuse Parameters
      2. Specular Parameters
      3. Flake Parameters
      4. Reflection Parameters
    5. The mia Material
      1. Using the mia Material Presets
      2. Add Bump to the Rubber Shader
      3. Create Beveled Edges Using mia_roundcorners
      4. Creating Thick and Thin Glass and Plastic
      5. Other mia Material Attributes
    6. Controlling Exposure with Tone Mapping
    7. Rendering Contours
    8. The Bottom Line
  14. Chapter 11: Texture Mapping
    1. UV Texture Layout
      1. What Are UV Texture Coordinates?
      2. Mapping the Giraffe Leg
      3. Unfolding UVs
      4. Mapping the Giraffe Head
      5. Mirroring UVs
      6. More UV Tools
      7. Arranging UV Shells
      8. Additional UV Mapping Considerations
      9. Transferring UVs
      10. Multiple UV Sets
      11. Optimizing Textures
    2. Bump and Normal Mapping
      1. Bump Maps
      2. Normal Maps
      3. Creating Normal Maps
      4. Applying Normal Maps
    3. Displacement Mapping
    4. Subsurface Scattering
      1. Fast, Simple Skin Shader Setup
      2. Subsurface Scattering Layers
      3. Subsurface Specularity
    5. The Bottom Line
  15. Chapter 12: Rendering for Compositing
    1. Render Layers
      1. Creating Render Layers
      2. Render Layer Overrides
      3. Creating Overrides for Rendering Cameras
      4. Using Different Shaders on Render Layers
      5. Material Overrides
      6. Render Layer Blend Modes
    2. Render Passes
      1. Upgrade Materials for Rendering Passes
      2. Render Multiple Passes from a Single Render Layer
      3. Creating an Ambient Occlusion Pass
    3. Render Pass Contribution Maps
      1. Lights and Contribution Maps
      2. Render Pass Sets
    4. Setting Up a Render with mental ray
      1. File Tokens
      2. Specifying Frame Range
      3. Renderable Cameras
      4. File Formats and the Frame Buffer
      5. Starting a Batch Render
      6. Command-Line Rendering
      7. Creating a Batch Script
    5. mental ray Quality Settings
      1. Tessellation and Approximation Nodes
      2. Antialiasing and Sampling
      3. Filtering
      4. Rasterizer
      5. Raytrace Acceleration
      6. Diagnose BSP
    6. The Bottom Line
  16. Chapter 13: Introducing nParticles
    1. Creating nParticles
      1. Drawing nParticles Using the nParticle Tool
      2. Spawning nParticles from an Emitter
      3. Emitting nParticles from a Surface
      4. Filling an Object with nParticles
    2. Making nParticles Collide with nRigids
      1. Passive Collision Objects
      2. Collide Strength and Collision Ramps
    3. Using nParticles to Simulate Liquids
      1. Creating Liquid Behavior
      2. Converting nParticles to Polygons
      3. Shading the nParticle Mesh
    4. Emit nParticles Using a Texture
      1. Surface Emission
    5. Using Wind
    6. Shading nParticles and Using Hardware Rendering to Create Flame Effects
      1. Shading nParticles to Simulate Flames
      2. Creating an nCache
      3. Using the Hardware Render Buffer
    7. nParticles and Fields
      1. Using Multiple Emitters
      2. Volume Axis Curve
      3. Working with Force Fields
      4. Painting Field Maps
      5. Using Dynamic Fields
    8. Rendering Particles with mental ray
    9. The Bottom Line
  17. Chapter 14: Dynamic Effects
    1. Creating nCloth Objects
      1. Making a Polygon Mesh Dynamic
      2. Applying nCloth Presets
      3. Making Surfaces Sticky
      4. Creating nConstraints
      5. Making nCloth Objects Expand Using Pressure
      6. Additional Techniques
      7. Creating an nCache
    2. Creating nCloth and nParticle Interactions
      1. Creating an nParticle Goal
      2. Controlling Collision Events
      3. Ripping an Object Open Using Tearable nConstraints
    3. Rigid Body Dynamics
      1. Creating an Exploding Tower
      2. Tuning the Rigid Body Simulation
      3. Baking the Simulation
      4. Crumbling Tower
    4. Soft Body Dynamics
    5. Creating Flying Debris Using nParticle Instancing
      1. Adding nParticles to the Scene
      2. Sending the Debris Flying Using a Field
      3. Creating a More Convincing Explosion by Adjusting nParticle Mass
      4. Instancing Geometry
    6. Animating Instances Using nParticle Expressions
      1. Randomizing Instance Index
      2. Connecting Instance Size to nParticle Mass
      3. Controlling the Rotation of nParticles
    7. The Bottom Line
  18. Chapter 15: Fur, Hair, and Clothing
    1. Adding Fur to Characters
      1. Preparing Polygons for Maya Fur
      2. Creating a Fur Description
      3. Editing the Fur Description: Baldness
      4. Editing the Fur Description: Direction
      5. Editing the Fur Description: Length
      6. Test Render Fur
      7. Applying a Color Map
      8. Applying Map Offsets and Multipliers
      9. Enhancing the Realism of Fur
    2. Rendering Fur Using mental ray
    3. Animating Using Dynamic Curves
      1. Using Dynamic Curves with IK Splines
      2. Creating an IK Spline Handle from the Dynamic Curve
      3. Using Forces
    4. Adding Hair to a Character
      1. Applying Hair to a Surface
      2. Determining Hair Shape
    5. Styling Hair
      1. Start and Rest Positions
      2. Painting Follicle Attributes
      3. Modifying Curves
      4. Curling, Noise, Sub Clumping, and Braids
    6. Rendering Hair
    7. Creating Clothing for Characters
      1. Modeling Clothes for nCloth
      2. Adding a Transform Constraint
      3. Using Component Constraints
      4. Connecting Buttons to the Shirt
      5. Applying Forces
    8. Painting nCloth Properties
    9. The Bottom Line
  19. Chapter 16: Maya Fluids
    1. Using Fluid Containers
      1. Using 2D Containers
      2. Adding an Emitter
      3. Using Fields with Fluids
      4. Using 3D Containers
    2. Creating a Reaction
      1. Emitting Fluids from a Surface
      2. Making Flames
      3. Igniting the Fuel
    3. Rendering Fluid Containers
    4. Create Fluids and nParticle Interactions
      1. Emitting Fluids from nParticles
      2. Creating Flaming Trails
    5. Creating Water Effects
      1. Filling a Container
      2. Adding Surface Detail
      3. Rendering Liquids
      4. Creating an Ocean
    6. The Bottom Line
  20. Appendix A: The Bottom Line
    1. Chapter 1: Working in Autodesk Maya
    2. Chapter 2: Virtual Filmmaking
    3. Chapter 3: Modeling I
    4. Chapter 4: Modeling II
    5. Chapter 5: Animation Techniques
    6. Chapter 6: Animating with Deformers
    7. Chapter 7: Rigging and Muscle Systems
    8. Chapter 8: Paint Effects
    9. Chapter 9: Lighting with mental ray
    10. Chapter 10: mental ray Shading Techniques
    11. Chapter 11: Texture Mapping
    12. Chapter 12: Rendering for Compositing
    13. Chapter 13: Introducing nParticles
    14. Chapter 14: Dynamic Effects
    15. Chapter 15: Fur, Hair, and Clothing
    16. Chapter 16: Maya Fluids
  21. Appendix B: Autodesk Maya 2013 Certification
  22. Index

Product information

  • Title: Mastering Autodesk Maya 2013
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: June 2012
  • Publisher(s): Sybex
  • ISBN: 9781118130582