[Eric Luhta]How to Cheat in Maya 2010 Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator(pdf){Zzzzz}

Take your animations to the next level with this essential guide to Maya 2010. Packed with character animation techniques and the secrets of professional animators, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 provides the tips and tools to help you create high quality animation in the most efficient way possible. This comprehensive guide to animating with Maya contains gold-mine coverage, including animation techniques, using Maya's tools with the 12 animation principles, working with constraints, and even foolproof lighting tricks to show off your work.

With this essential handbook, learn which circumstances call for which techniques, and how to get quality results fast. You will not only learn how to be productive in Maya, but also be given access under the hood to the actual scene files of a professional animator. Covering such topics such as pose to pose blocking, layered animation, fixing gimbal lock, facial animation, and much more, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 is an invaluable resource for artists and animators alike.

-- See "under the hood" of a professional animator's workflow with beginning and ending scene files for every technique and workflow example in the book.

--Complete, step-by-step walkthroughs of essential techniques every animator needs to know such as walk cycles, pose-to-pose blocking, lip syncing to dialogue, and much, much more.

-- Proven "How to Cheat" series - Learn to create impressive, appealing animations using the fastest techniques possible, containing everything you need to know about Maya as a character animator.

--Includes rarely discussed topics, such as reading spline curves, avoiding gimbal lock, animation layers, creating appealing lighting for demo reels, and features interviews with some of the most experienced animation leads and TDs working in the industry

-- Learn to apply these professional techniques to your own animations with the accompanying DVD which includes all scene files to follow along with, as well as final versions to study in the Graph Editor

Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (January 6, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0240811887
ISBN-13: 978-0240811888

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

it's about time!
By Dieter Wagner on December 26, 2009
I've been working as an animator about 4yrs and I have been looking for a book like this forever! Finally a Maya book that is just about character animation. I love how Eric keeps things simple and really explains what the thought process is behind the techniques ("cheats") he is showing. Being able to follow along and actually animate the scenes is great for beginners and experienced animators alike. Having the actual files to open up and check out is priceless. You get to see what a polished scene looks like from an experienced feature film animator. You also get an amazing rig to work with, which is exactly setup like Bishop from [...]. The chapters on the graph editor(GE) are another great bonus, there is so much control and cool things you can do in the GE but if you are not familiar with it, it really makes your brain hurt. This book is well worth reading cover to cover! I decided to even read the chapters that i felt like i knew enough about....and it was well worth it, cause there are tons of little "cheats" that can help even the most seasoned of animators. The book says for 2010, but honestly all the info works for previous versions of Maya except for chapter 11 which deals with animation layers. I think that was just implemented into 2010? If you are an animator, you should have at arms reach from your desk: Disney's Illusion of Life, The Animator' Survival Kit, Character Animation Crash Course, and I'm saying that How to Cheat in Maya 2010 should be there too! This is a MUST HAVE for computer animators!


A book I'll recommend to both my students and my co-workers.
By Richard W. Edwards on January 8, 2010
Although aimed at the beginner with big clear color images and step by step procedures (they really should enable the Look Inside feature). This book also contains plenty of gems for the working animator.

It reads like this; I knew that, I knew that, I knew that, HOLY COW I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!!!

It's a book I'll recommend to both my students and my co-workers.