Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Maya 5 Savvy
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Maya 5 Savvy [Paperback]

John Kundert-Gibbs (Author), Peter Lee (Author), Dariush Derakhshani (Author), Eric Kunzendorf (Author), Lee, et al Kundert-Gibbs (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


Textbook Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more


Book Description

0782142303 978-0782142303 September 9, 2003
Savvy—n. Practical know-how.

Maya, the premier high-end 3D application, is so powerful that no one masters it without help. Maya 5 Savvy—a thorough update to Maya 4.5 Savvy—is written for the Maya user looking to boost their skills to the next level.

Running throughout this book is a completely new, cohesive, expertly organized animation project that teaches specific Maya skills and, at the same time, gives you valuable hands-on exposure to the entire animation production process. Staged support files mean that you can begin and end work on this project anywhere you like—which in turn means you can read this book cover to cover or use it as a reference, dipping in wherever you need information on or practice with specific modeling, animation, and rendering techniques. Everywhere you turn,you'll find expert advice on the latest Maya features, time-saving shortcuts, and advanced capabilities.

Coverage includes:

  • Core Maya: interface briefing, plus planning, writing, and storyboarding your animation.
  • Modeling: NURBS, polygons and subdivision surfaces, character modeling.
  • Animation: paths and bones, deformers, binding, Trax, rigid body dynamics, MEL scripting, particle animation, expression-driven animation.
  • Output: rendering architecture, rendering, shading and texturing, lighting, special light effects.
  • Advanced Tools and Techniques: Paint Effects, ramps and volumes, soft body dynamics, Fluid Effects, Fur, Cloth.

Note:CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Savvyn. Practical know-how.

Maya, the premier high-end 3D application, is so powerful that no one masters it without help. Maya 5 Savvy—a thorough update to Maya 4.5 Savvy—is written for the Maya user looking to boost their skills to the next level.

Running throughout this book is a completely new, cohesive, expertly organized animation project that teaches specific Maya skills and, at the same time, gives you valuable hands-on exposure to the entire animation production process. Staged support files mean that you can begin and end work on this project anywhere you like—which in turn means you can read this book cover to cover or use it as a reference, dipping in wherever you need information on or practice with specific modeling, animation, and rendering techniques. Everywhere you turn,you’ll find expert advice on the latest Maya features, time-saving shortcuts, and advanced capabilities. Coverage includes:

Core Maya: interface briefing, plus planning, writing, and storyboarding your animation.
Modeling: NURBS, polygons and subdivision surfaces, character modeling.
Animation: paths and bones, deformers, binding, Trax, rigid body dynamics, MEL scripting, particle animation, expression-driven animation.
Output: rendering architecture, rendering, shading and texturing, lighting, special light effects.
Advanced Tools and Techniques: Paint Effects, ramps and volumes, soft body dynamics, Fluid Effects, Fur, Cloth.

About the Author

John Kundert-Gibbs is director of the Master of Digital Production Arts program at Clemson University. Peter Lee runs his own 3D company, Storydale. Dariush Derakhshani is a CGI effects animator with Sight Effects. Eric Kunzendorf is computer chair Electronic Arts Department at the Atlanta College of Art.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 800 pages
  • Publisher: Sybex (September 9, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0782142303
  • ISBN-13: 978-0782142303
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,445,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars just balancing out the reviews, June 2, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Maya 5 Savvy (Paperback)
This is an excellent SECOND Maya book, for use after the introductory tutorials and before the advanced books on specific topics. It's a solid overview of the big Maya topics--modeling, rigging, lighting, keyframe animation, dynamics, particles, MEL. In fact, it's the most comprehensive overview I was able to find.

I read it to get a sense of the big-picture concepts, rather than pick my way through the tutorials themselves. That "Mighty Muskrat" project is pretty lame artistically, but the authors know their stuff technically, and they communicate it very well.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


16 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Great paper, but this book isn't what it promises to be, December 22, 2003
By 
L. J. J. Buijs (Rotterdam, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Maya 5 Savvy (Paperback)
From the inside of the cover: "... This book is highly recommended to people who are freshly working with 3D animation, 3D artists who have never before worked with Maya, students who use Maya Personal Learning Edition, and even the odd enthusiast who has paid Maya's price to do some serious 3D animation learning"

I worked with form*Z and Blender before, so this shouldn't be a problem for me, I thought. Unfortunately the authors tend to limit some parts of their 900+ pages explanation to a simple remark, like 'Using a selection mask, pick the end hull of the torus and scale it down.' - without telling what where the selection mask can be found, or how to invoke the hull. So then you're stuck and have to get help in another way.

Even the index in the back doesn't mention 'hull', which is one of the basic tools of Maya. This book is focussed on a project (Mighty Muskrat), but it's too bad everything else had to go for it. Pages enough and although the text is a bit to thin to read nicely, the paper is very nice, but that's not why I bought this book.

BTW: Everything on the cd is zipped, wich makes it hard to browse.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The only one book you will ever need : ), July 14, 2006
This review is from: Maya 5 Savvy (Paperback)
It's a very good book for those that are looking to learn Maya and to not want to buy more then one book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews



Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Three-dimensional modeling and animation are challenging tasks. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pointer pose, anticipation pose, driven pane, spline template, rigid body solver, butt warriors, rigid body animation, butt army, fur description, fur attributes, stepped tangents, passive rigid body, ramp texture, active rigid body, blinnl material, bulge texture, rigid solver, input pane, ocean shader, polygon proxy mode, set driven key, phoneme shapes, active rigid bodies, current time indicator, animation curves
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mighty Muskrat, Trax Editor, Time Slider, Render Global Settings, Edit Polygons, Dope Sheet, Texture Editor, Connection Editor, Expression Editor, Range Slider, Set Key, Material Library, Add Attribute, Final Gather, General Editors, Layer Editor, Dynamic Relationships, Work Area, Maya Vector, Render View, Create Bar, Create Render Node, Animation Editors, Blobby Surface, Automatic Mapping
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:




Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject