Maya Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation

Maya Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation is your solution for creating convincing characters in Autodesk Maya. Get hands-on experience with innovative tools and powerful industry-recognized techniques as you learn to model like a professional; 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's process for modeling the beast, Paul's workflow for rigging the beast's body, and Erick's tips and techniques on complex facial rigging for maximum flexibility. This book carefully 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. The companion DVD includes helpful video demonstrations so you can watch the experts at work.

Autodesk, the official author of this book, has gathered top artists to write specific sections. The author team, lead by Maya Master Marc Andre Guindon, includes industry experts who have perfected their techniques over years of high-end film and game production: Jeff Unay of WETA, Nick Lloyd of Digital Domain, Erick Miller of Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Paul Thuriot of EA.