Maya Illuminated: Games [Paperback]

Lane Daughtry (Author), Brian Demong (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0970753012 | ISBN-13: 978-0970753014 | Publication Date: April 5, 2001 | Edition: 2nd

Maya Illuminated: Games is a comprehensive guide to the powerful tools Maya gives you to create stunning game art. Inside you’ll find exhaustive coverage of both Maya’s polygonal modeling and UV mapping toolsets. Also covered is information on character rigging and animation as they apply to game work, and ways to use Maya for going beyond low-poly work for games. This book is the perfect companion for working game artists and aspiring game artists alike.

Complete coverage of:
• The polygonal modeling toolset
• Polygonal modeling theory
• The UV mapping toolset
• UV mapping tips and tricks
• Character rigging issues for game content
• Animation issues for game content
• Other ways Maya can be used to create game art

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lane is a full-time Alias|Wavefront Certified Maya instructor at Mesmer Animation Labs. He’s been working with 3D art packages for the last six years and counts Maya and Lightwave as being near and dear to his heart.

When he’s not slaving away at Mesmer teaching, designing course material, writing his next book, or helping students, he can be found trying to finish one of his own games and get it sold to a publisher, or in a random pub with his friends. If all else fails, look for a pool table, he’ll probably be there perfecting the gentleman’s game. It could also be fruitful to try the slopes or volleyball courts in the area, depending on the season. Lane currently resides in Seattle, WA, and has no immediate plans of leaving.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Mesmer Inc; 2nd edition (April 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970753012
• ISBN-13: 978-0970753014
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,102,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read the book, took the course, May 6, 2001

By 

Colin Curwen (Lancaster, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maya Illuminated: Games (Paperback)

I took the mesmer course in Seattle that the book is based on. I have read a number of Maya books including Maya Complete, Learning Maya and Maya Character Animation, and although there are better books out there for general training in Maya, this is a must have if you are interested in designing and modelling characters for game content. I also found that I got more useful tips and general guidance in the basics of poly modelling in Maya from this courseware than in the other literature I've read. Definately should have this book on the shelf. (BTW other than the learning Maya crap you get from A/W this is also one of the few/only? books out there that is updated for Maya 3).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wanna learn how to use polygons? this is it!, December 19, 2001

By 

R. Barbir - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maya Illuminated: Games (Paperback)

this book is completely focused on learning how to use polygons. For ANYONE out there who wants to learn how to model polygons from scratch, this is it. This is the only book I know of that teaches only polygons.

It will then move on to teaching UV mapping for polygons. That is also very helpful.

A few notes to beginners. This book is meant for animators who already know how to use the Maya interface. It won't go much into where all the buttons are etc., so I suggest your familiarize yourself with Maya's interface first. If you decide not to, you might be doing some searching around to do the tuts. I can't make a very accurate guess with this because I already knew the interface before starting with this book.

Another thing is that it ends with rigging characters for games. I was expecting to learn how-to, only to find that it says that it expects you to know how to work with the basics of rigging. I haven't gone into that chapter yet, so I could be wrong about how hard it is as a beginner in rigging, but there is another book called Maya 2 Character Animation that goes over rigging techniques and teaches it in depth, from simple to complicated. For beginners like me with rigging, since rigging exercises are so hard to find online, maybe this book will be a very good buy to accompany Maya Illuminated.

Otherwise, this is an EXCELLENT resource book. It will teach you how to model polygons from scratch. The only thing you need to know as I said is the interface.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good Maya workbook, May 17, 2004

By 

Andrew Raczkowski (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maya Illuminated: Games (Paperback)

Ok, I don't know about the *best* Maya book out there, but I do know that Maya Illuminated: Games, is one of the best. If you're looking for subdivision surfaces or NURBS, look elsewhere, because they aren't covered here. What this book does cover is most of the tools involved with polygon modeling, polygon UV mapping, character rigging and weighting, and animation. The first two subjects will take you about 2/3 of the book, leaving the rigging and animation pretty sparse. However, those subjects are covered in great depth in other books. Many other books.

If you're looking for a hefty tome of reference information, this book is not it. The picture seemed to me to indicate a book about the size of most Maya reference books, but in reality, it's the size of a workbook, and was designed for class use, complete with short quizzes at the end of each chapter. The book is a good intro to game modeling, for people starting out in the software. People familiar with other software's tools and principles may find this book mostly review, with only a little new information introduced, apart from the differences in the toolsets.

A final note, you may want to consider getting it direct from Mesmer, too. It does tend to be a bit cheaper, although shipping isn't as fast or free. Teachers can get a Teaching Gamecraft book for free with an order as well.