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How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator
 
 
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How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator [Paperback]

Eric Luhta (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)

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How to Cheat in Maya 2012: Tools and Techniques for Character Animation How to Cheat in Maya 2012: Tools and Techniques for Character Animation 4.4 out of 5 stars (11)
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Book Description

December 29, 2009 0240811887 978-0240811888 1

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

-- 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


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How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator + Mastering Autodesk Maya 2011 + Introducing Maya 2011
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Luhta is a professional animator whose recent credits include "Bioshock 2", "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs", "Horton Hears A Who!", and numerous television commercials. Eric has extensive experience with Autodesk's Maya, including teaching it, as an instructor for the Maya Training Program at AnimationMentor.com. He currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and 3 computers.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 328 pages
  • Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0240811887
  • ISBN-13: 978-0240811888
  • Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Luhta is a professional animator working at Pixar Canada. His recent credits include "Bioshock 2", the feature films "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs" and "Horton Hears A Who!", and numerous television commercials. Eric's animated short film "Prospective Student" was featured in the 2008 Siggraph Computer Animation Festival, one of the highest honors for an independent film. Eric has extensive experience with Autodesk's Maya, including teaching it, as an instructor for the Maya Training Program at AnimationMentor.com. He currently lives in Vancouver, BC with his wife and 3 computers.

 

Customer Reviews

42 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (42 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars it's about time!, December 26, 2009
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This review is from: How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator (Paperback)
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!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars finally a maya ANIMATION book, December 22, 2009
This review is from: How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator (Paperback)
This book is exactly what I've been looking for to help learn animation. It covers everything you need to know about Maya to do character animation. Other maya books have a chapter on animation and that's it, the rest is modeling, texturing, etc but this book deals with animation from cover to cover. It includes all the files on the dvd in step-by-step so you can see how the animation was done in the graph editor, and for exercises on specific techniques you're provided an animation to just learn the technique on its own, which is sooo helpful. The animations are really good too, way better than any other maya book i've seen since the author actually works as an animator on movies and games like Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, Bioshock, Hortan hears a who). And, the technical stuff like constraints and gimbal lock is explained better than anything I've ever seen, anywhere. Also great chapters on doing lip sync, using animation layers a bunch of different ways, blocking, polishing, and tons more. Comes with a cool rig and lots of extras too. If you're an animator or interested in animation you should definitely get this book. The only thing I wish was different was that it was longer!! Thanks for a great one of a kind book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have Book if You're Just Starting Out with Maya, February 2, 2010
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Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to Cheat in Maya 2010: Tools and Techniques for the Maya Animator (Paperback)
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You can take your animation to the next level with Maya, but to do that most of us, well some of us anyway, will need some help as it's a daunting program. It is for me anyway. And that's where this book comes in. Instead of throwing everything at you all at once, Eric Luhta takes you through the program one concept at a time, starting with "Setting Up Projects" and "Work Space Layout" and taking you all the way to "Rendering" at the end of the book.

The book is fairly easy, for me a novice, to understand and it's been helping me more than I can say with the trial version of Maya. I've got two weeks left before my trial runs out, then I have to decide if I want to spend the money, and it's a lot of money, to buy the program. Right now, because computer animation is something I think I can do, I'm leaning toward buying the program. I probably will, but I never would have even considered it without this book.
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