Maya Character Animation, 2nd Edition by Sybex

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MAYA 3D ANIMATION

Maya Character Animation, 2nd Edition

by Sybex

n/a

$64.99

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Sales Rank:	810845 (lower is better)
Price Used:	$16.74
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Availability:
Label:	Sybex
UPC:	025211443286
Pages:	832
Binding:	Paperback
Publication Date:	2004-02-02
Published By:	Sybex
ASIN:	0782143288
Category:	Book

Authors

Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions

Product Description

"The best character animation book available."
--Ian Cairns, Editor, MAYA Association

This second edition of the popular Maya Character Animation is an in-depth, step-by-step guide to perfecting your modeling and animation skills. Abundantly illustrated tutorials teach you how to build life-like characters from the ground up, with detailed coverage of effective subdivision surface and polygon modeling techniques. You'll master the intricacies of rigid and smooth character binding, discover the art of convincing facial expressions, and conquer post-modeling challenges ranging from character setup to non-linear animation editing to mapping and rendering. Benefit from this edition's coverage of inverse and forward kinematics, 3D character animation for character modeling and character setup, and valuable info on rigging your characters.

Put your new skills to the test by completing a realistic project in which you plan, create, and refine your own short-piece animation. Throughout, you'll find hundreds of full-color images that demonstrate what you can--and will--accomplish. You also get bonus coverage of Deep Paint 3D, the premier texture-painting program.

Customer Reviews

Still THE book on Maya - Reviewed on 2008-10-21

Over the past three years, I've accumulated a modest library of over 30 books and DVDs on Maya and 3D. Only two have risen to the level of "essential:" Maya Character Animation and Jeremy Birn's [Digital] Lighting & Rendering. I had some background using Maya before I bought this book, so I can't speak to it's appropriateness to complete newcomers. But for people who have the basic fundamentals down and want to improve their knowledge, I don't believe there's a single volume that will be more effective than Maya Character Animation.

Far too many training books and DVDs walk you through the steps for a particular project without spending enough time explaining what the actions your taking do. Jae-jin Choi explains every tool and command you're working with clearly before walking you through creating a character. It's easy to skip around, using the text as a reference, as well as reading it straight through.

While aimed at people who are fairly new to Maya/3D, Choi includes more advanced techniques in an accessible way. If you spent a year with this book and no others, you'd like come out much better than sampling a dozen different training resources.

Crappy book - Reviewed on 2007-12-19

1 customer found this review not to be helpful.

This was book had boring tutorials and confusing wording. I learned more thru CG talk or Highend 3d sites. not worth it.

Does not cover character animation to any significant degree - Reviewed on 2006-03-13

2 customers found this review helpful.

I bought this book because I wanted to learn how to animate a character, as the title suggests. However, the book is more of a general reference of how to model, rig, skin, and create a character rather than animate a character.

For example, it covers nothing about making a character move in a believable way, how to use the character controls effectively, or any suggestions on a good animation workflow (such as blocking in, then converting to spline keys).

At the end of reading it you will have a fully created and rigged character but still not know how to animate it. The book should have been entitled Maya Character Creation and Rigging instead.

That said, the material is very in-depth and nicely presented for what it does cover. The title's a bit misleading, that's all.

This is about reference more then techniques... - Reviewed on 2005-08-08

Although a certain ammount of techniques are involved throughout this book, this book is one of the more complete overall references of the software. I teach various Maya courses and I recommend this book to the beginner as a solid encyclopedia type reference to use as an alternative to the sometime annoying Help which contains very good but confusing and unclear definitions and explanations. As always you will get more out of the book the more you practice with the software. I DO recommend this for beginners as there are no topics in my opinion which require more than a beginner level of skill. I think saying this book is not for beginners is total crap! If you were to sit and read an encyclopedia from cover to cover ofcourse you would be confused if you just rely on it and not practical practice with the knowledge within. I do agree that the wording gets confusing but for some of the techniques I use other ways not how he does it, because technique is 10% reason for this book I think.

Excellent, but not for beginners - Reviewed on 2005-06-07

7 customers found this review helpful.

I have found this to be a remarkable book which has helped me take my skills to another level. That said, if you're starting out, you will probably be overwhelmed and frustrated for awhile. It's less of a how-to book and more of a "looking over the shoulder of an expert" book. He illustrates how he does things and it's pretty much up to you to experiment with the concepts/techniques and adopt them as you see fit. Thousands of pictures and full color - very beautiful book. It also extensively covers areas like rigging and deep paint, which are difficult subjects to find books about, as well as modeling and animation. But, if you're just starting out in 3D, hold off until you have a solid foundation and good basic skills.

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Book Subjects

Computer Software Packages
Computer graphics software
Computers
Computers - Desktop Publishing
Computer Books: Desktop Publish
Computer Animation
Computer Graphics - General
Computers / Computer Graphics / Design
Desktop Publishing - General