Introducing Autodesk Maya 2015: Autodesk Official Press

Learn Autodesk Maya from an award-winning insider Best-selling author, visual effects supervisor, and technical educator Dariush Derakhshani brings you a newly-updated, step-by-step guide to the most popular and complex 3D application on the market, Autodesk Maya. Introducing Autodesk Maya 2015 includes straightforward lessons, real-world examples, detailed tutorials, and downloadable project files that get you modeling and animating your own digital models and scenes right away. The book starts you with the latest CG concepts and production workflows, and then shows you how to create a solar system to help get you acquainted with the basic tool set in Maya. From there, the books helps you: Learn the Maya user interface, including menus and plug-ins Build simple animations and 3D images right away Explore polygons, modeling, and NEX tools Get started with HDRI lighting, rendering, dynamics, simulations, and effects Whether you're new to 3D or migrating from another 3D application, Introducing Autodesk Maya 2015 will kick-start your creativity and get you up and running with Maya. Author Derakhshani has worked on movies such as The Fantastic Four and Pan's Labyrinth, the South Park TV series, and numerous commercials and music videos.

Table of Contents:
Introduction xvii 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 8 Chapter 2 Jumping into Basic Animation Headfirst 9 You Put the U in User Interface 10 Project: The Solar System 14 Creating a Project 15 The Production Process: Creating and Animating the Objects 17 Hierarchy and Maya Object Structure 28 The Solar System, Resumed 30 Outputting Your Work: Playblasting 37 Summary 38 Chapter 3 The Autodesk® Maya® 2015 Interface 39 Navigating in Maya 40 Exploring the Maya Layout 40 Building a Decorative Box 50 Mapping the Box?s Reference Planes with Hypershade 53 Organizing Workflow with the Layer Editor 57 Modeling the Decorative Box 58 Editing the Decorative Box Model Using the Shelf 63 Continuing the Decorative Box Model 67 Finishing the Decorative Box Model 71 Summary 78 Chapter 4 Beginning Polygonal Modeling 79 Planning Your Model 80 Polygon Basics 82 Poly Editing Tools 84 Putting the Tools to Use: Making a Cartoon Hand 93 Creating Areas of Detail on a Poly Mesh 101 Modeling a Catapult 115 Summary 142 Chapter 5 Modeling with NURBS Surfaces and Deformers 143 NURBS for Organic Curves 144 Using NURBS Surfacing to Create Polygons 151 Converting a NURBS Model to Polygons 153 Using Artisan to Sculpt NURBS 154 Creating a Pair of Glass Candle Holders 154 Modeling with Simple Deformers 161 The Lattice Deformer 166 Animating Through a Lattice 170 Summary 174 Chapter 6 Practical Experience! 175 Evaluating the Toy Plane 176 Building the Landing Pontoons 178 Oh, What a Body! Modeling the Body of the Plane 194 The Rear Stabilizers 198 You Spin Me Right Round?The Engine and Propeller 201 The Plane?s Wings 206 Assembling the Plane 215 Summary 217 Chapter 7 Autodesk® Maya® Shading and Texturing 219 Maya Shading 220 Shader Types 220 Shader Attributes 223 Shading and Texturing the Toy Plane 227 Textures and Surfaces 232 Textures and UVs for the Red Wagon 240 Photo-Real Mapping: The Decorative Box 274 Toon Shading 291 For Further Study 294 Summary 294 Chapter 8 Introduction to Animation 295 Keyframe Animation: Bouncing a Ball 296 Throwing an Axe 307 Replacing an Object 318 Animating Flying Text 320 Animating the Catapult 324 Summary 329 Chapter 9 More Animation! 331 Skeletons and Kinematics 332 Skeletons: The Hand 348 Inverse Kinematics 362 Basic Relationships: Constraints 366 Basic Relationships: Set-Driven Keys 371 Rigging the Locomotive 375 Creating a Simple Character Rig 382 For Further Study 391 Summary 391 Chapter 10 Autodesk® Maya® Lighting 393 Basic Lighting Concepts 394 Maya Lights 398 Light Linking 405 Adding Shadows 407 Raytracing Soft Shadows 411 mental ray Lighting 412 mental ray Physical Sun and Sky 414 Lighting Effects 418 Assembling and Lighting a Scene 422 Further Lighting Practice 430 Tips for Using and Animating Lights 430 Summary 432 Chapter 11 Autodesk® Maya® Rendering 433 Rendering Setup 434 Previewing Your Render: The Render View Window 443 Setting the Default Renderer 445 Reflections and Refractions 446 Using Cameras 448 Motion Blur 456 Batch Rendering 456 Rendering the Wine Bottle 458 mental ray for Maya 461 Render Layers 467 Final Gather 478 Ambient Occlusion 482 HDRI 490 Displacement Mapping the Decorative Box 493 Rendering the Scene with mental ray 504 Summary 516 Chapter 12 Autodesk® Maya® Dynamics and Effects 517 An Overview of Dynamics and Maya Nucleus 518 Rigid Bodies 518 Rigid Body Dynamics: Shoot the Catapult! 522 nParticle Dynamics 530 Emitting nParticles 530 Animating a Particle Effect: Locomotive Steam 538 Introduction to Paint Effects 547 Getting Started with nCloth 551 Customizing Maya 557 Summary 561 Where Do You Go from Here? 562 Index 563

About the Author :
Dariush Derakhshani is an award-winning visual effects and CG supervisor, author, and educator. He has worked on movies such as RED and Pan?s Labyrinth, TV shows such as Game of Thrones, Falling Skies, and South Park, as well as countless commercials and music videos. He teaches story and 3D animation, and is the author all the Introducing Maya books, as well as coauthor of the Autodesk 3ds Max Essentials series of books.