Designing an Organic Character
This section shows you how to begin creating a 3D character in Maya by taking you through the basic preproduction design process. Some character-idea generation approaches are presented, and you are shown how to create the designs that you will later use as guides for modeling vour characters skin. The first thing you want to do when designing your character is to decide the style you want to use. At one extreme, you could design a completely stylized cartoon character at the other extreme, you...
Overview
Maya Character Creation Modeling and Animation Controls is designed to take the reader through the process of designing, modeling, and setting up animation controls for a biped 3D character. The concepts, techniques. and Maya tools used for each step in the process arc presented in each chapter, followed by many hands-on exercises and examples. Chapter 1 Creating Organic 3D Characters I his chapter begins by describing the trend in computer graphics toward creating realistic 3D characters. This...
Conventions
This book follows a few typographical conventions A new term set in italics the first time it is introduced Program text, functions, variables, and other computer language' are set in a fixed-pitch font for example, Sphere . translateY 5 Cube. rotateZ. V S j H I Code lines that do not fit within the margins of the printed page are continued on the next line, and the continuation of the line is preceded by a code continuation character
Designing an Organic Character 1
This section shows you how to begin creating a 3D character in Maya by taking you through the basic preproduction design process. Some character-idea generation approaches are presented, and you are shown how to create the designs that you will later use as guides for modeling your characters skin. The first thing you want to do when designing your character is to decide the style you want to use. At one extreme, you could design a completely stylized cartoon character at the other extreme, you...
Who This Book Is Not For
Maya is a robust 3D program that includes many different tools for every aspect of the 30 production process. The focus of this hook is on how-to model and set up 3D characters for animation. Although this book shows you how to create the controls essential for animating a 31 character, it is not a how-to-animate book. If you want to learn how to animate your character, consider buying George Maestri s Digital Character Animation books.This book also does not cover in detail the lighting,...
A Trend Toward Organic Realism
This section describes the trend in films, TV, and games to push digital technology toward creating more realistic 3D characters. You also learn what is involved in working as a character modeler and setup artist for a large film company through two interviews with industry professionals. From Jurassic Park to The Lord of the Rings It is a good time to be working in the digital 3D character animation field. Even though the economy has declined in recent years, entertainment products such as...