Teaches beginning students everything they need to know to render out exceptional frames. Also provides comprehensive information about textures, how they are projected onto models, and how to use them to modulate bump, transparency, reflectivity, and other surface properties.

This book will help you understand and work with XSI 4 to create a highly detailed character in a production environment. The approach in this book is unique because it is the result of a collaboration between art and technology.

Inspiration and technique are rolled into one with this stunning display of 3D representations of the female form.

You've seen the amazing possibilities offered by XSI. With this official SOFTIMAGE XSI guide, you're ready to not only create animation using this powerful software, but also to create a career. SOFTIMAGE XSI 5 for a Future Animation Studio Boss: The Official Guide to Career Skills with XSI addresses both the technical and business sides of being a professional 3D animator, teaching you how to use the technology of SOFTIMAGE XSI to earn a living as a 3D animator and studio owner.Working through several hands-on tutorials, you'll use the SOFTIMAGE XSI software to learn 3D animation skills necessary to obtain an internship or entry level position. Hone your career skills with tips on writing a resumé, pricing an animation project, and identifying and approaching potential clients. Get ready to take your first step toward success in the professional animation industry.

Improve your 3D animation by understanding the key traditional 2D skills. Learn the basics for producing original and exciting animation.

Improve your character animation with a mastery of traditional principles and processes including weight and balance, timing, walks, birds, fish, snakes, four legged animals, acting and lip-synch. Traditional animation skills and techniques are presented in both 2D and 3D space. The companion CD features demonstration animations and exercises conducted in each of the major animation packages including 3ds Max, LightWave, Maya, and XSI Softimage.

Whether for big budget films and game productions or lower budget TV and Internet content, creating flexible and believable character rigs is an essential skill required to bring any 3D animation to life. As the leading software used for cutting-edge animation, Maya has an established rigging toolset for creating realistic character controls. Traditionally, however, the process of manually building custom rigs in the software interface has been time-consuming and expensive for those who want to produce high-quality 3D characters. Now for the first time and from the author of the best-seller, Maya Character Creation, comes an in-depth guide on how the pros are using MEL (Maya Embedded Language) scripting to streamline and automate the rigging process. With MEL Scripting a Character Rig in Maya, you’ll learn how you can build custom character rigs in a matter of seconds, as opposed to days or weeks. In this detailed guide, you’ll learn: • The techniques used to build a complex character rig in the software interface, followed by instructions for writing the equivalent MEL code for scripting the entire process. • Fundamental concepts of creating animation controls in Maya, from the basics of creating, editing, and binding skeletons, to more complex rigs with controls that employ spline IK and channel connections. • Important coding techniques such as using conditional statements, loops, variables, and procedures. • How to create a character animation GUI (Graphical User Interface) that makes animating the character easy and fast. • Important skills for building rigs using numerous hands-on exercises, all code examples and Maya files available on the companion Web site.