Maya Techniques: Hyper-Real Creature Creation 1st Edition

by Alias Learning Tools (Author), Erick Miller (Author), Paul Thuriot (Author),

19 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1897177044

ISBN-10: 1897177046

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Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation

Step-by-step instructions combined with in-depth discussions of topics ranging from the importance of good topology to the subtlety of facial expressions, make Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation an excellent all-around resource for the modeling, texturing and rigging of characters.
—William Dwelly, Senior Software TD

Maya Techniques / Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation is you solution for creating convincing characters in Maya. Get hands-on experience with innovative tools and powerful industry-recognized techniques as you learn to model like a pro, set-up your skeleton in a fast and easy way and create realistic facial controls. This book will help you achieve hyper-real characters quickly and effectively.

Get the inside scoop on high-end production techniques from industry pros Erick Miller, Paul Thuriot, and Jeff Unay! Through Project-based lessons, follow Jeff Unay's process for modeling the beast, Paul Thuriot's workflow for rigging the beast's body and Erick Miller's tips and techniques on complex facial rigging for maximum flexibility. The book car5efully delineates the entire production process for the beast's creation, so that you can both understand the individual techniques and how they relate to each other in a pipeline. You'll also take advantage of helpful video demonstrations so you can watch the experts at work.

By examining the entire process, you will learn strategies for creating characters with an emphasis on anatomy and realism. Lessons are designed to cover effective workflows for devising models that can be easily manipulated and animated. The methods discussed in this book can be applied to any setup needs that you may have because you'll learn the rigging process from the concept stage through to pipeline integration.

With this book you will:

Be introduced to modeling theories
Learn how to use powerful tools like the Soft Modification Tool and the Split Edge Ring Tool.
Learn how to create custom hotkeys and marking menus
Import image planes and block out a character
Create an Adobe Photoshop network
Use automation scripts
Understand how to use a multiple rig workflow
Lock, paint, mirror skin weights, and connect a bound rig to a control rig
Create corrective blend shapes, and set-up cluster controls
Learn how to create jaw, eye, and lip setups
Discover concepts of a realistic skin shader

What you need to use this book

Maya Complete 7 or Maya Personal Learning Edition
DVD-ROM drive

Bonus Features

Video demonstrations of workflows & animation skills
Artist Interviews
MEL^TM Scripts
Scene Files
Support Files

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Erick Miller, Character Setup Supervisor at Sony Pictures Imageworks, has been a Maya user since its inception at version 1.0 Currently, Erick is finishing the all-CG Sony Pictures Animation feature, Surf's Up. Prior to Surf's Up, while at Imageworks, Erick did facial rigging for the all-CG Feature, Monster House, and also built a muscle and skin system for the visual effects feature Ghost Rider. The muscle and skin system ins currently being used in other upcoming feature films, including the all-CG medieval fantasy/adventure epic, Beowulf, directed by the acclaimed Academy Award-winning director, Robert Zemeckis. Before Sony Pictures Imageworks, Miller worked at Digital Domain where he contributed to several groundbreaking effects projects including a crowd animation and rendering system, and a plug-in pose space deformation system. he created the Maya crowd pipeline for The Day After Tomorrow and muscle based facial rigging for a photo-realistic Michael Jordan Superbowl commercial. He was also the Lead Character TD for a series of Disney 50th anniversary commercials, and with his team, created a full squash and stretch 3D cartoon character rigging pipeline. As a Lead Character TD for the feature film, I, Robot, Erick was responsible for the hero facial rigging of the fully CG, photo-realistic main character, "Sonny", in addition to much of the character based Maya pipeline, including the crowd system, and many scripts, plug-ins, and character based tools.

Jeff Unay is a passionate artist and Maya enthusiast. He most recent accepted a position as Character Modeling Supervisor with Electronic Arts, Vancouver. Most recently, Jeff completed work as a Senior Modeler with Weta Digital working on Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong. Specializing in character./creature creation, his work can be found on film, television, and in video games. For his work in this book, the creation of the beast, he looked to his favorite artists and sculptors as well as nature for his inspiration. "We studied many different animals during the conceptualization stage of the new beast and really wanted to focus on capturing some of the intricate facial motion of the animals, mainly in the areas of the face where the skin reacts to the contracting, stretching and relaxing of the muscles. Those details in mind influenced the new look of the beast," he says. For example, the beast now has specific wrinkles on its muzzle, and we wanted those wrinkles to move in a way that would give the illusion of an underlying muscle, fat and skull structure existing for the wrinkles to travel over. It was a lot of fun playing around with that."

"When I say creating the illusion of realism, what I mean is, when you're doing this stuff don't go for truly real. If you try and hit realism you'll never get it, it just won't happen. Take a couple of steps back, look at what you're doing. It's just like a painting - when you try and paint naturally, it's better to just express yourself in it as well," says Paul Thuriot, Associate CG Supervisor at Electronic Arts (EA). Thuriot should know—he holds a B.A. in drawing and painting and a Master degree in computer animation. His artistic and technical expertise has been brought to bear on several complex projects. Before joining EA, he was the Puppet/Creature Supervisor at Tippett Studio where he contributed to the award-winning blockbuster "Carl & Ray" commercials, Blade 2, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Hellboy.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sybex; 1st edition (March 13, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 244 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1897177046
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1897177044
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.83 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.56 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,023,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #723 in 3D Graphic Design
- #3,391 in Game Programming
- #4,107 in Computer Graphics

Customer Reviews:
19 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		49%
4 star		13%
3 star		13%
2 star		10%
1 star		15%

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MMM

Great gift idea for students

Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2015

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Bought this as a gift for a college student, and she loved it. This book was used in schools all over Europe. I think it's worth the money and something Maya software users should have on their bookshelf; especially if they are students.

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Lem

Be prepared to problem solve......

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2009

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There is a lot of valuable information in the text, but there are some major problems. It seems as if during proof reading they failed to follow along step-by-step. I first noticed these problems well into the book when attempting to rig the creature I've spent so long modeling. The book instructs you to rename certain joints to a specific name, however, when cross referencing my scene against a supplied scene, I notice my own logic was correct. Like I said, during proof reading they must have just made sure there were no spelling errors and not that it made sense. Be warned you cannot trust that everything in the book is accurate because it's not.
Further more some of the mel scripts that they instruct you to use do not do all they say they'll do and you'll be left to do it yourself (be prepared to problem solve). I have yet to complete this book but after hours of frustration trying to figure out why it wasn't all adding up they way they say it will I figured it out....I wasn't using my own logic and trusted that the book was accurate. Upon realizing this, I became irritated and decided to finally write a review. Too Bad.
I don't understand how anyone gave it 5 stars, by no stretch of the imagination is it a 5 star book...seriously.
I don't want to detour anyone from purchasing this book, but if you're not familiar with this program don't buy it. Besides, there are newer versions available.

P.S. I only gave it 3 stars because I was able to step up my modeling in the process. Other than that, I'm irritated.

Helpful

Dougals Siclari

Always benificial to have this series

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2014

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I love the maya series. As a computer animator and a multimedia artist, I am constantly ensuring that I have material at hand to help enhance my skills. This is an asset that I will use for years to come.

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Teri D.

came without the cd

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2016

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came without the cd

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Code Name M

Why I did not learn anything from this book.

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2006

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Some Maya books are unclear about the real "need to know" steps on creating a model and this is one of those books. It is well known that most really good books about Maya come with a DVD with video tutorials that help reinforce the book and further the knowledge you can gain but this book had such basic lame videos that did not help at all. The DVD was full of interviews that were pointless instead of tutorials to go along with the book and about non related topics. Creativity and imagination was definitely not important. I felt they could of given us so much more and that they just rushed though making this within a few hours skipping steps and valuable need to know information for doing this kind of work.
Seemed to me it was a quick few hour project and book deal for some quick cash.

8 people found this helpful

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Ali Asad Jafri

Good Book

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2007

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I found this book a good overviewer for people who want to practically work in the area of hyper real characters. Its truely is a good reference and practical guide. Although it isnt for beginners, it gives overview of hyper-real character workflow in maya.

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Christopher Carpenter

Maya Techniques : Hyper-Real Creature Creation

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2006

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This is a great book if you are serious about learning Maya

One person found this helpful

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isaiah

item missing

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2013

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the CD rom wasn't in the book. make sure you check your books out and see if it has all the stuff

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Top reviews from other countries

Tenchi

Decent book, a little dated now though...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 5, 2010

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I bought this a while back and recently picked it up again to peruse. It's a little dated now and I don't think anyone follows the same pipeline anymore, certainly not in production, and with the advent of 3D scultpting packages...

However this is oldschool modeling and you don't always get to model some generic male superhero looking character. Advanced poly modeling will always require your knowledge of how to create good structured polys, where to place loops, flow etc. This book has the basics that will hold you in good stead.

So this is a good suppliment to your library of books, but as a standalone learning resource I would suggest not, use this in conjunction with DVDs and other books.

Mrs.L

tencniques

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 22, 2012

Verified Purchase

if you're getting into character annimation- a brillient book. very technical- but if u use the Maya software it will show u how to do it. comes with a CD too. so it's a bonus. takes time an effort. so i would say I recommend this to someone who is really keen on getting into chracter modelling. Really good book

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