A unique, in-depth approach to creating realistic characters in Maya. Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls' author, Chris Maraffi, has expertise in the field and in the classroom that translates to the knowledge and solid teaching skills needed to make this book a "must-have"! The current trend in computer graphics is greater organic realism. Many of the top-grossing movies today, such as Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park 3 , and Star Wars Episode 2, all feature realistic 3D characters. There is a major need in the 3D community for educational material that demonstrates detailed techniques for achieving this organic reality. Maya is one of the main packages used on such cutting-edge films, and has an established toolset for creating believable 3D characters. Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls is designed to take you through the process of designing, modeling, and setting up animation controls for complex 3D characters. The concepts, techniques, and Maya tools used for each step in the process are presented in each chapter, followed by many hands-on exercises. NURBS, polygon, and subdivision surface modeling techniques are shown for creating the character's skin, and skeleton-based animation controls are covered in detail. You will learn how a character's skin should deform when the skeletal joints and muscles move. Advanced MEL scripted animation controls are also covered extensively.

The Beginner's Guide series returns to focus on character creation in Autodesk's industry leading 3D animation software, Maya.

Discover the concepts and techniques required to rig engaging CG character models with Maya in this unique book and DVD package. The stunning color images show just what you can achieve, and the detailed step-by-step tutorials show exactly how to achieve them. Every technique and tip is backed up with practical tutorials, using the models, student work and tutorial assets on the companion DVD to offer a crash course in this vital skill. With Cheryl Cabrera you'll learn about: Designing your first Biped Character; Creating your first Biped Character - Modeling Basics, Biped Character Facial Expressions, Texturing Basics; Skeleton setup for a Biped Character Joint Placement; Control Rig setup for a Biped Character - IK and FK; Wrapping up the setup; Skinning your Character

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.

This title provides you with an end-to-end solution for Unity game development with Maya. The book takes you step-by-step through the process of developing an entire game from scratch - including coding, art, production, and deployment.

Well-known Maya professional, Michael Ingrassia, takes readers through his unique style of modeling: "Image Based Modeling" where efficient, realistic models can be created very quickly. Ingrassia's techniques allow modelers to create exact replicas of their concept characters or objects. The techniques presented are very efficient and allow game modelers to quickly build out stand alone props to populate environments and game levels. Presented are tried and true techniques that the author has used successfully in game production for the past 10 years. Most, if not all 3D books, focus on basic "box" modeling techniques, which are the basis for proper 3D modeling but not the complete solution. In the author's experience, students who have learned through the Image Based Modeling brand, have quickly excelled into effective modelers. One of the hardest things for any modeler to do is match their model EXACTLY to the concept art or photos they are provided. The insider tips in this book walk artists through this process. Artists begin with basic modeling and advance to a creating a complete scene and set design/game level. Rather than including sporadic models with zero association from to one another, each model in the book becomes an integral part of an overall theme realistic in game development today. The accompanying downloadable resources include 8 exclusive video tutorials on advanced Maya techniques as bonus tracks for artists providing invaluable modeling, rigging and texturing samples. Also, an in-depth video on assembling a "Killer Demo Reel" showing simple but effective video editing techniques used by the author so that artists can learn how to get their work seen. The book not only teaches effective methodology, but provides the user with impressive content for producing effective demo reels and portfolios. Pros and cons of demo reel, website and artist representation are given, along with insights into the expectations of game studios today. The video tutorials show users the finished product, and then run through the process of step by step creation of that particular technique.

Maya Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation is your solution for creating convincing characters in Autodesk Maya. Get hands-on experience with innovative tools and powerful industry-recognized techniques as you learn to model like a professional; set-up your skeleton in a fast and easy way; and create realistic facial controls. This book will help you achieve hyper-real characters quickly and effectively. Get the inside scoop on high-end production techniques from industry pros Erick Miller, Paul Thuriot, and Jeff Unay. Through project-based lessons, follow Jeff's process for modeling the beast, Paul's workflow for rigging the beast's body, and Erick's tips and techniques on complex facial rigging for maximum flexibility. This book carefully delineates the entire production process for the beast's creation, so that you can both understand the individual techniques and how they relate to each other in a pipeline. The companion DVD includes helpful video demonstrations so you can watch the experts at work.