Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

I was skeptical at first, but this book is well worth the money. Traditional animators have Animators Survival Kit and Illusion of Life, but there has never been a great book that focuses just on 3D Character Animation...until now. Eric does a very good job of making all of the topics coherent and relevant, and has workflow ideas that will help even working professionals. But even better, there are still workflow techniques that will help no matter what the program. And to be able to follow along with the support files is an invaluable experience.

If you know Maya, and you're getting into animation, do yourself a favor and get this book.

As someone just getting started in Animation - I needed a book that was easy to read and yet interesting. This book is the ticket. It's also great for those more familier with Maya - you will love it. And it makes a great gift to the student who is just starting.

This a very helpful, very thoughtful book. And it knows what it is about -- making character animation work for you.

Not quite sure why there's the big emphasis on "cheat" in the title...maybe this is part of a series, or maybe the publisher thought that it would increase sales...because it isn't about cheating as much as it is about learning techniques. And, frankly, I need to be taught techniques when it comes to animation because Maya is a biiiiiggg program.

And the DVD is not useless! Which is often the case with media attached to books.

I look forward to really digging in and becoming much more proficient when it comes to lip-synching and facial expressions.

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.

Not only does this book answer a world of questions, it offers alot of step-by-step tutorials so you're on the right track!

Remember to go to: [...]

If you bought the Kindle edition of the book, you'll need the files the paperback version includes on the dvd!

Anyways, great read all around, I have alot of books that cover animation and this book is great help when jumping on the computer so you can skip through the technical hassles and perils of the computer world and focus on your performance as an animator!

There are a number of massive books on Maya that have tons of facts and procedures, but they can be quite difficult to use unless you know exactly what you're looking for. This book takes a suitably leisurely pace to introduce animation fundamentals, along with enough detail that the examples aren't hard to follow. Sometimes books like this make assumptions and skip steps, but happily that's not the case here.

Although the book will mostly appeal to intermediate uses, there is actually some good information for one who is fairly experienced. I've used Maya for a while now, but I definitely learned some time-saving tricks. The DVD that accompanies the walk-throughs gives you everything you need to work through the examples without having to do too much prep work that you likely know how to do anyway. Overall, this is a book that I'll recommend to other animators who want to create a more streamlined workflow.

This is one of the best Maya books I've seen. The techniques shown by Eric Luhta are not really "cheating". They're just a better way to work-- battle-tested techniques that will save you time and frustration. You could call it cheating if you want, but I'd call it "working smarter". 3D animation is inherently complex and anything that can make your life easier is worth the time and effort in learning. This is exactly what Luhta does. He dives right with the basics and builds on those foundations progressively. The first chapter is about workflow and how to set up your projects and workspace more efficiently.

There is a wealth of knowledge here. Surely things that would take years to learn through experience and trial and error. Luhta distills it all into 300 pages of easy to understand tutorials and lessons. Like all good tutorial books, each page is filled with numerous and detailed screen captures illustrating the menu options involved and the intermediate steps between point A and point B. Where appropriate, the images are labeled with circles, arrows, and text in bold red letters for added clarity.

Luhta covers a lot. He not only teaches you the mechanics, he also tries to teach you the art by applying polish and personality to your animations. He includes several chapters on making your animations more expressive and appealing. There's a chapter on faces, one on brows, eyes, lip-sync, etc.

A truly excellent and valuation resource for animators. Highly recommended, and at $30, this is a lot cheaper than many other animation books on the market.