Maya Techniques: Hyper-Real Creature Creation (Maya Techniques)

Maya Techniques / Hyper-Realistic Creature Creation is you solution for creating convincing characters in Maya. Get hands-on experience with innovative tools and powerful industry-recognized techniques as you learn to model like a pro, 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 Unay's process for modeling the beast, Paul Thuriot's workflow for rigging the beast's body and Erick Miller's tips and techniques on complex facial rigging for maximum flexibility. The book car5efully 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. You'll also take advantage of helpful video demonstrations so you can watch the experts at work.
By examining the entire process, you will learn strategies for creating characters with an emphasis on anatomy and realism. Lessons are designed to cover effective workflows for devising models that can be easily manipulated and animated. The methods discussed in this book can be applied to any setup needs that you may have because you'll learn the rigging process from the concept stage through to pipeline integration.
With this book you will:
Be introduced to modeling theories
Learn how to use powerful tools like the Soft Modification Tool and the Split Edge Ring Tool.
Learn how to create custom hotkeys and marking menus
Import image planes and block out a character
Create an Adobe Photoshop network
Use automation scripts
Understand how to use a multiple rig workflow
Lock, paint, mirror skin weights, and connect a bound rig to a control rig
Create corrective blend shapes, and set-up cluster controls
Learn how to create jaw, eye, and lip setups
Discover concepts of a realistic skin shader