Autodesk Maya 2013 Essentials
Learn Autodesk Maya Quickly and EasilyThis Autodesk Official Training Guide teaches you the fundamentals of Autodesk Maya. Through step-by-step tutorials, full-color illustrations, and fun, hands-on exercises, this practical book gets you up to speed on modeling, texturing, animating, lighting, and other core Maya topics. Whether you're a beginning animator or just updating your skills on the latest version of the software, this task-based book provides the solid grounding you need.Learn these Autodesk Maya essentials—and more:The Maya 2013 interface, menus, and toolsSimple animation—set keyframes, adjust tangents, and moreModeling with polygons—bodies, faces, and cleanup before riggingAdding character with blend shapes and surfacesBuilding bone structure, adding joints, and weighting jointsRigging, animating, and lighting basicsHow to render and composite a shotThe hows and whys of certain techniques and decisionsExplore vertex weighting to create smooth joint bendsLearn step-by-step how to animate your characterThis striking Essentials book features:Chapter-opening learning objectivesStep-by-step tutorialsFour-color screenshots and illustrationsEssentials and Beyond—summaries and additional suggested exercisesDownloadable exercise files