Take your animations to the next level with this essential guide to Maya 2010. Packed with character animation techniques and the secrets of professional animators, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 provides the tips and tools to help you create high quality animation in the most efficient way possible. This comprehensive guide to animating with Maya contains gold-mine coverage, including animation techniques, using Maya's tools with the 12 animation principles, working with constraints, and even foolproof lighting tricks to show off your work. With this essential handbook, learn which circumstances call for which techniques, and how to get quality results fast. You will not only learn how to be productive in Maya, but also be given access under the hood to the actual scene files of a professional animator. Covering such topics such as pose to pose blocking, layered animation, fixing gimbal lock, facial animation, and much more, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 is an invaluable resource for artists and animators alike. -- See "under the hood" of a professional animator's workflow with beginning and ending scene files for every technique and workflow example in the book. --Complete, step-by-step walkthroughs of essential techniques every animator needs to know such as walk cycles, pose-to-pose blocking, lip syncing to dialogue, and much, much more. -- Proven "How to Cheat" series - Learn to create impressive, appealing animations using the fastest techniques possible, containing everything you need to know about Maya as a character animator. --Includes rarely discussed topics, such as reading spline curves, avoiding gimbal lock, animation layers, creating appealing lighting for demo reels, and features interviews with some of the most experienced animation leads and TDs working in the industry -- Learn to apply these professional techniques to your own animations with the accompanying downloadable resources which include all scene files to follow along with, as well as final versions to study in the Graph Editor

The Maya guide for animators, How to Cheat in Maya 2012 presents everything you need to know about character animation in Maya. Fully updated for the latest revision of Maya, this book provides you with complete, step-by-step walkthroughs of essential animation techniques to increase your efficiency and speed. This is an animator's workflow in book form, written by professional animators-not a software book with a few animation pointers thrown in.In addition to all the gold-mine coverage and interviews with expert animators from the previous edition, How to Cheat in Maya 2012 also features a new in-depth chapter on the principles of animation, updated information on camera settings and animation using Maya's new Camera Sequencer tool, the ins and outs of the brand new Editable Motion Trails tool, new techniques for working with characters in multi-shot animation tests and short films, a new cycles chapter covering actions like flying and walks, time-saving scripts, and advanced tricks with the new Graph Editor. The proven "How to Cheat" series gets you up to speed quickly, and in a way that's fun.

All professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands! Learn time and energy-saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam-packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly. From menus to modeling, lipsync to lighting, How to Cheat in Maya 2013 covers all of the methods available in the latest version of Maya. Get up to speed quickly and produce stellar results with these insider workflows. With new, updated cheats for the latest version of Maya, "How to Cheat in Maya" is an essential guide for amateur and professional 3D animators alike. Fully updated with gold-mine coverage including: expanded sections on production workflow, all new chapters covering rigging cheats and Maya's referencing tools, and brand new project files demonstrating production-proven techniques. The companion website includes complete scene files for exercises and techniques, extra rigs, Quicktime movies of full projects, and video tutorials.

All professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands Learn time and energy-saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam- packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly. From menus to modeling, lipsync to lighting, How to Cheat in Maya 2013 covers all of the methods available in the latest version of Maya. Get up to speed quickly and produce stellar results with these insider workflows. With new, updated cheats for the latest version of Maya, "How to Cheat in Maya" is an essential guide for amateur and professional 3D animators alike. Fully updated with gold-mine coverage including: expanded sections on production workflow, all new chapters covering rigging cheats and Maya's referencing tools, and brand new project files demonstrating production-proven techniques. The companion website includes complete scene files for exercises and techniques, extra rigs, Quicktime movies of full projects, and video tutorials. NOTE: there is a problem with the companion web site. As Focal Press continues to work on this issue, please visit http: //www.kennyroy.com/public/How-to-Cheat-in-Maya-2013.cfm for the scene files, extra rigs and movies of full projects. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Take your animations to the next level with this essential guide to Maya 2010. Packed with character animation techniques and the secrets of professional animators, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 provides the tips and tools to help you create high quality animation in the most efficient way possible. This comprehensive guide to animating with Maya contains gold-mine coverage, including animation techniques, using Maya's tools with the 12 animation principles, working with constraints, and even foolproof lighting tricks to show off your work. With this essential handbook, learn which circumstances call for which techniques, and how to get quality results fast. You will not only learn how to be productive in Maya, but also be given access under the hood to the actual scene files of a professional animator. Covering such topics such as pose to pose blocking, layered animation, fixing gimbal lock, facial animation, and much more, How to Cheat in Maya 2010 is an invaluable resource for artists and animators alike. -- See "under the hood" of a professional animator's workflow with beginning and ending scene files for every technique and workflow example in the book. --Complete, step-by-step walkthroughs of essential techniques every animator needs to know such as walk cycles, pose-to-pose blocking, lip syncing to dialogue, and much, much more. -- Proven "How to Cheat" series - Learn to create impressive, appealing animations using the fastest techniques possible, containing everything you need to know about Maya as a character animator. --Includes rarely discussed topics, such as reading spline curves, avoiding gimbal lock, animation layers, creating appealing lighting for demo reels, and features interviews with some of the most experienced animation leads and TDs working in the industry -- Learn to apply these professional techniques to your own animations with the accompanying downloadable resources which include all scene files to follow along with, as well as final versions to study in the Graph Editor

The Maya guide for animators, How to Cheat in Maya 2012 presents everything you need to know about character animation in Maya. Fully updated for the latest revision of Maya, this book provides you with complete, step-by-step walkthroughs of essential animation techniques to increase your efficiency and speed. This is an animator's workflow in book form, written by professional animators-not a software book with a few animation pointers thrown in. In addition to all the gold-mine coverage and interviews with expert animators from the previous edition, How to Cheat in Maya 2012 also features a new in-depth chapter on the principles of animation, updated information on camera settings and animation using Maya's new Camera Sequencer tool, the ins and outs of the brand new Editable Motion Trails tool, new techniques for working with characters in multi-shot animation tests and short films, a new cycles chapter covering actions like flying and walks, time-saving scripts, and advanced tricks with the new Graph Editor. The proven "How to Cheat" series gets you up to speed quickly, and in a way that's fun.