Mastering Maya 8.5

Product Description

Take your Maya skills to new levels with the sophisticated coverage in this authoritative Autodesk Maya Press reference and tutorial. From key basics through advanced techniques, a team of Maya experts provides you with the very latest professional-level instruction on Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited through tutorials and hands-on practice. Whether a novice or an advanced user of Maya, you’ll find everything from key basics through advanced techniques.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #148870 in Books
* Published on: 2007-04-09
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 880 pages

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
The Ultimate Maya Resource for Intermediate to Advanced Users

Take your Maya skills to new levels with the sophisticated coverage you'll find in this authoritative Autodesk Maya Press reference and tutorial. From key basics through advanced techniques, our Maya experts provide the very latest professional-level instruction on Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited.

Early chapters offer a practical overview of Maya's interface. A "Quick Start" exercise lets novices create an animation the first day and covers the basics of node structure, keyframes, and basic lighting. Advanced users will broaden their skills with pertinent coverage for nCloth, mental ray integration, volume Fur rendering, advanced texturing tools, and enhanced MEL scripting. Practical tutorials reinforce learning with hands-on practice.

If you've been looking for a professional-quality and complete Maya resource to turn to again and again, this is the book.

* Render and store stills through the Render View window
* Learn techniques with nCloth's powerful cloth simulation
* Tweak and add drag-and-drop Fluid Effects for real-world effects

The CD provides tutorial files, images, and scene files that let you complete the hands-on exercises and compare your work to the pros. See the Introduction for details and complete system requirements.

About the Author
John Kundert-Gibbs is Associate Professor of Animation in the Theatre & Film Studies Department at the University of Georgia and an accomplished author.

Mick Larkins is the Technical Art Lead at Hi-Rez Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dariush Derakhshani is an award-winning Maya animator, author, and educator who has worked on everything from movies to the South Park TV series to commercials and music videos.

Eric Kunzendorf is a Digital Fine Arts faculty member at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.

Eric Keller is a high-end animator for film, television, and scientific visualization.

Boaz Livny owns Vision Animations Inc. studio and teaches advanced Maya and mental ray courses at the NY Film Academy.

Mark E. A. de Sousa is a Computer Graphics Supervisor for Cloth and Hair at Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Ed Siomacco is a Cloth/Hair Technical Director at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Customer Reviews

Great Book4
I bought this book to help understand nCloth in Maya and it was very helpful with explaining the different properties and how to create different effects. I can't speak for the other sections in the book but the chapters on cloth were very helpful for me.

Bent corners3
I was actualy surprised at the way my items where packaged. Mastering Maya8.5 is a pretty big book and it ended up being shrink wrapped with another item and these items weren't boxed. In putting these two items together and packaging them the way they were the book ended up with horrible corner damage. This is the first time I have ever been dissapointed with Amazon.

This book is excellent!5
I highly encourage anyone who wants to learn 3D animation with Maya 8.5 to get this book. It comes with a CD ROM that has many helpful source files that go along with the chapter. Each chapter gives you a thorough lesson in the many powerful features that Maya 8.5 offers.