[Lee Montgomery]Tradigital Maya A CG Animator's Guide to Applying the Classical Principles of Animation(pdf){Zzzzz}

Explore Disney's 12 principles of animation, while learning how to animate in Maya. You can develop your own leading digital techniques rooted to traditional workflows. From squash and stretch to timing and appeal, you will enhance your creative toolset with strong classics training and cutting edge techniques. Trusted Maya Authority, Lee Montgomery offers the only artistic guide to applying the principles of traditional animation with Maya's tools, which are used in production by the best animators and VFX artists today. Add another webpage to your favourites and expand your digital workflow to include the practical resources of the Tradigital Maya with the robust companion web site that include demonstrations, project files, links to further resources, available at www.tradigitalmaya.com.

Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (November 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0123852226
ISBN-13: 978-0123852229

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Lee has worked professionally within the 3D Animation and VFX industry for over 9 years. Prior to joining Autodesk he worked as a Senior Animator and Artist on a number of high-profile AAA video game titles for well known studios. Notable titles he's contributed to the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt Video Game series for Rockstar North. His background in production also includes experience in setting up mo-cap pipelines for game cinematics from shoot to edit and in-game implementation utilizing Vicon/MotionBuilder/3ds Max/Maya.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Very good resource for applying classic animation techniques in Maya
By BBP TOP 1000 REVIEWER on March 14, 2012
Maya is an extremely complex software package as anyone who works in it will tell you. Tradigital Maya is nearly twice as thick as the 3ds Max version of this same title. Be aware that this book is for intermediate to advanced users. The purpose of the book is not to teach you modeling, texture-mapping, lighting, rigging, IK, etc, but how to apply classic animation techniques to Maya. These principles were enumerated and made famous by the book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. You should already have a solid understanding of the software, because this book dives right into the individual lessons after a brief intro.

These principles add realism, zing, expressiveness and effectiveness to your animation. You may already know some of these from watching cartoons. They are:

1 Arcs
2 Anticipation
3 Staging
4 Straight ahead action and pose to pose
5 Follow through and overlapping action
6 Ease in and ease out
7 Squash and stretch
8 Secondary action
9 Timing
10 Exaggeration
11 Solid drawing
12 Appeal

These are traditional techniques you'll find in any animation and can be applied to any software or medium, whether it's Flash, Maya, or something else. Squash and stretch, exaggeration, for example, you'll often see in cartoons like Tom & Jerry or Looney Toons animations. I use these principles and easing when animating in Flash as well. Each chapter begins with a passage from the Illusion of Life and each lesson is based around one of these principles. A detailed and easy to follow workshop illustrates how to put these ideas into practice

many detailed abilities to animate the human form - male and female
By W Boudville HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on February 23, 2012
Many current computer animation books do not mention Disney's principles, which arose decades ago when everything was analog and all images were hand drawn. If nothing else, the book bears merit for offering what amounts to a classical education in animation. Set in the context of Maya. If you are aspiring to be a professional, this book is a lengthy education that can be a worthy investment of your time and money.

The chapters show every major effect or effort possible under Maya. Like the use of effectors, which are crucial points in the modelling of the human body. An effector is a pivot point. Think hip, wrist, ankle, neck. You can easily define a rotation in a given direction about an effector. Also, another crucial simplification is that the rotation can be in a local reference frame whose origin is at the effector. Much easier and more natural than having to specify it in a global reference frame. In itself, this is a great timesaver. You can also appreciate who the use of effectors permits the specification of movement of a limb or other portions of the body, that can be treated to good approximation as rigid. People who did animation in the 80s can remember when the treatment was at a much lower level.

Another strong feature of Maya is the easy use of animatics for 3d animating of a sequence of actions. An intermediate form between conventional storyboarding and the doing of the final animation. Related to this is the use of staging, which is the view of the animation from the main camera location.

Maya also has considerable abilities in detail modelling and texturing. A lot of time has been spent by Maya developers in modelling human musculature. So when a character moves, the muscles ripple and move in very realistic manners