Learning Autodesk Maya 2008: The Special Effects Handbook

Create mind-blowing special effects skills with Learning Autodesk Maya 2008 I The Special Effects Handbook. This completely updated official Maya guide focuses on dynamics and rendering, with in-depth tutorials covering lighting, texturing, and soft body and hard body dynamics. This exceptional, full-color guide uses LAIKA's award-winning short film Moongirl to guide you through clear step-by-step projects using the newest version of Maya. Learn how to create materials and textures, set up lights and cameras, work with shadows and raytracing, control renders, understand rendering for special effects and compositing, explore hardware and vector rendering, create caustics and global illumination effects, and much more. Check out the companion DVD for instructor-led overviews, artist interviews and scene files to get your creative juices flowing and get you started developing amazing visual effects.

The Special Effects Handbook.

Create stunning images and striking effects with Learning Maya 2008/ The Special Effects Handbook! Building on the characters and scenes created in Learning Maya 2008/ The Modeling & Animation Handbook, this book explores the rendering and dynamic effects stages of the production pipeline. Based on artwork from Laika's Moongirl, this book is filled with easy to follow step by step tutorials to help you maser the final stages of production. Learn to light, texture and create shaders for your models using both the Maya and mental ray renderers. Use features like Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Fur, Maya nCloth and Maya Hair to create realistic effects such as fire, water, fur, cloth and hair.

This intermediate-level book is full of useful theoretical discussions that will ensure you understand the principles behind your actins so that you can get the results you want time and again. Fire up your imagination with Learning Maya 2008 / The Special Effects Handbook.

With this book, you will:

• Understand shading, lighting, shadows and cameras
• Learn rendering with mental ray® , hardware and vector renderers
• Work with caustics, Global Illumination, Final Gathering and HDRI
• Work with rigid body and particle dynamics
• Learn MEL by creating particle expressions
• Understand particle instancing
• Learn about fluids, fluid collisions and open water effects
• Create, cob, color and render fur
• Create dynamic effects with Maya Hair
• Learn about hair constraints, collisions and hair rendering
• Work with nCloth

Bonus features included on DVD

• Free model from Turbo Squid
• Autodesk Maya reference guides
• Support files

What you Need to use this book

• Autodesk® Maya® Unlimited 2008
• DVD-ROM drive