Customer Reviews

Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this manual to help me ugrade from Maya 7.0 to Maya 8.5 and it's become my most prized and relied upon resource. Every tutorial I've gone through has worked perfectly (no missing steps or errors so far), Mr. Lanier writes coherently & well, and each new topic is presented in a straightforward and matter-of-fact fashion.

As a professional Video Game Artist, I've reccommended this manual to our enitire company of 300, and will continue to do so to everyone else. In the past, decent documentation on the finer points of Maya has been elusive, but Mr. Lanier has saved us! I will be adding his other manuals to my library.

I've been reviewing several books on this topic, and this one's a winner! It's specific and useful and goes into great detail about nodes in Hypershade and how to use them that the manuals don't.

If you're serious about reaching an advanced level with your Maya rendering skills, then this book is for you. Just buy it now, and you can thank me later! In terms of lighting design and the esthetic side of things, I also like the book Digital Lighting and Rendering, 2nd Edition by the Pixar artist Jeremy Birn, I think the idea to buy both of these together is an unbeatable combination for any serious Maya user!

I've read a number of Maya books over the past few years. Most focus on basic-intermediate usage. Lanier's book is a great resource for learning advanced tips and theory, with many color pictures. This is the best book I've found about using Hypershade nodes to build professional materials.

I particularly liked that the included DVD contains Maya project files for every scenario pictured in the book (although most of the cool models are not included, just simple geometric primitives). These project files contain great setups comparing different lighting and rendering settings. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning intermediate-advanced Maya topics.

Every other book on the subject pales in comparison. This text accomplishes what many of us have been waiting for in both a textbook for advanced students and a guide for experienced users. The explanations are clear and thorough; the examples are useful and extremely well thought-out. This is an instant classic.

This book is written for intermediate Maya artists and it begins by covering some basic skills. In addition to lighting and texturing it goes on to cover a lot of valuable techniques. Since textures and lighting require good rendering setups, the author explains raytracing, mental ray, global illumination and HDRI. Those subjects are covered in more detail in other books but the author goes a long way in introducing them. Overall, it's a great way to advance your skills.

I had certain expectations when I chose this book and I found that it lived up to almost all expectations I had. This book gives you an overview of a large range of Maya's texturing and lighting utility nodes and it explains to the reader all their individual attributes. At the end of each chapter useful tips and tricks are explored in the form of step-by-step tutorials - from lighting to texturing and rendering techniques. One chapter is devoted entirely to Maya's lighs, another to only 2D texturing nodes, a third to 3D texturing nodes, and so on.
It is a good book for people who have already some experience in using Maya and want to broaden their knowledge.
That said the book contains 13 topical chapters plus a 14th chapter filled with "additional techniques". However, the last three chapters (12-14) can only be found as PDF files on the accompanying CD. The printed book itself finishes with chapter 11. The book could also do with an update to bring it in line with the extensive changes to Maya's UI since the release of version 8.5, but if you use your brain a little you can use Maya's online reference to help you locate menus that have been moved or renamed since this book was published.

I have a degree in media arts and animation and I studied many books and online tutorials for Maya. It soon became clear that those information sources would give you clues into learning new tools and techniques, but you had to decipher those clues on your own to determine the intention of the author.

Mr. Lanier provides his knowledge in an extremely clear and concise manner that leaves nothing to the imagination. The full color illustrations go above and beyond in clarifying complex concepts and procedures.

The supplemental material also covers the basic theories behind the art of lighting. That is something I didn't learn with my degree and something you may only learn if you are a film student. Animators need to understand the technique behind filmmaking and Mr. Lanier knows this.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in improving their skills in Lighting and Texturing. The concepts can easily be applied to other 3D programs.

Mr. Lanier has really put it all together. Finally someone has written a book about the intricacies inherent in this wonderfully powerful tool. His insight on textures, shading, lighting, and rendering are a boon to anyone hoping to harness the power of Maya. I would recommend this book to anyone who considers themself an intermediate-and-higher user of Maya.

Kudos to Mr. Lanier. Well done.

In depth treatment of subject while still, for the most part, being easy to understand and follow along. Cd is very helpful. Not just that it has the tutorials but because you can go in and see exactly how he created the other images seen in the book.

I am reading this book and I am finding it easy to understand and follow. The teacher I had was very technical and I was a bit wary on how much I did grasp. To the teacher's credit she did a great job, but I think a book like this is great for the technically challenged. The pages have good examples and lots of images and pictures to help too. I am glad I bought this book, and look forward to applying the things I learned to my arsenal.