Mastering Autodesk Maya 2016 is your professional hands-on coverage to getting the most out of Maya. If you already know the basics of Maya, this book is your ticket to full coverage of all Maya 2016's latest features, and showcases the tools and methods used in real-world 3D animation and visual effects. From modeling, texturing, animation and effects to high-level techniques for film, television, games and more, this book expands your skill set and helps you prepare for the Autodesk Maya certification exam. Filled with challenging tutorials and real-world scenarios this book provides valuable insight into the entire CG production timeline.

About the Author

Todd Palamar began his career creating traditional special effects for low-budget horror movies and quickly gravitated to computer animation. After working on numerous straight-to-video movies, he entered the video game industry. Todd has extensive freelance experience, including dozens of military and game-style simulations, corporate commercials and theme park rides.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter 1 Working in Autodesk Maya ·Color Management ·Creating and Editing Nodes ·Using the Hypergraph ·Connecting Nodes with the Node Editor ·Creating Node Hierarchies in the Outliner ·Displaying Options in the Outliner ·The Channel Box ·The Attribute Editor  ·Working with Shader Nodes in the Hypershade ·Creating Maya Projects  ·Creating a New Project  ·Editing and Changing Projects ·The Bottom Line Chapter 2 Introduction to Animation ·Using Joints and Constraints ·Joint Basics ·Point Constraints ·Aim Constraints ·Inverse Kinematics ·IK Handle Tool 45 ·Creating a Master Control ·Keyframe Animation ·Creating Keyframes  ·Auto Keyframe ·Moving and Scaling Keyframes on the Timeline ·Copy, Paste and Cut Keyframes ·The Graph Editor  ·Animation Curves ·Editing Animation Curves  ·Weighted Tangents ·Additional Editing Tools ·Breakdowns and In-Betweens  ·Pre- and Post-Infinity ·Playblast and FCheck ·Driven Keys ·Creating a Driven Key ·Looping Driven Keys ·Copying and Pasting Driven Keys ·Motion-Path Animation ·Motion Trails  ·Animating Constraints  ·Animation Layers ·Creating an Animation Layer ·Layer Mode ·Other Options in the Layer Editor ·Layer Hierarchy ·Merging Layers ·Grease Pencil ·The Bottom Line Chapter 3 Hard-Surface Modeling ·Understanding Polygon Geometry ·Polygon Vertices ·Polygon Edges ·Polygon Faces ·Working with Smooth Polygons ·Understanding NURBS ·Understanding Curves ·Understanding NURBS Surfaces  ·Surface Seams ·NURBS Display Controls  ·Using Subdivision Surfaces ·Employing Image Planes  ·Modeling NURBS Surfaces ·Lofting Surfaces ·Attaching Surfaces  ·Converting NURBS Surfaces to Polygons ·Modeling with Polygons ·Using Booleans ·Cleaning Topology  ·Creating Your Own Polygons  ·Multi-Cut Tool ·Combining and Merging Geometry  ·Bridge Polygon ·Mirror Cut ·The Bottom Line Chapter 4 Organic Modeling ·Implement Box Modeling  ·Shaping Using Smooth Mesh Polygon Geometry ·Multi-Cut with Edge Flow ·Slide Edge Tool ·Offset Edge Loops ·Employ Build-Out Modeling  ·Extrude along a Curve ·Sculpt Polygons  ·Soft Select Tool ·Sculpting Tools ·Use Retopology Tools  ·Importing and Exporting  ·Alembic Cache Files ·Slide on Surface ·Quad Draw ·Reduce ·The Bottom Line Chapter 5 Rigging and Muscle Systems ·Understanding Rigging ·Creating and Organizing Joint Hierarchies ·Orienting Joints ·Naming Joints ·Mirroring Joints ·Rigging the Giraffe ·IK Legs ·FK Blending ·Rotate-Plane Solver ·Creating Custom Attributes ·Spline IK ·Human Inverse Kinematics ·Skeleton Generator  ·Character Controls ·Interoperability ·Skinning Geometry ·Interactive / Smooth Binding ·Weighting the Giraffe  ·Geodesic Voxel Binding ·Painting Skin Weights  ·Editing Skin Weights in the Component Editor ·Copying Skin Weights  ·Mirroring Skin Weights ·The Maya Muscle System  ·Understanding the Maya Muscle System ·Using Capsules ·Creating a Muscle Using the Muscle Builder ·Editing Muscle Parameters ·Converting the Smooth Skin to a Muscle System ·Sliding Weights ·The Bottom Line Chapter 6 Animation Techniques ·Working with Deformers  ·Shrink Wrapping Geometry ·Using Textures to Deform Objects ·Delta Mush ·Animating Facial Expressions using Blend Shapes ·Creating Blend Shape Targets ·Creating Blend Shapes  ·Painting Blend Shape Weights ·Adding Targets ·Animating a Scene Using Nonlinear Deformers ·Creating a Wave Deformer ·Squashing and Stretching Objects ·Twisting Objects ·Creating a Jiggle Effect ·Applying Jiggle Deformers ·Painting Jiggle Weights ·Optimizing Animations with the Geometry Cache ·Creating a Geometry Cache ·Editing the Cache Playback ·Applying Motion Capture ·The Bottom Line Chapter 7 Lighting with mental ray ·Shadow-Casting Lights ·Shadow Preview ·Depth Map Shadows ·mental ray Shadow Map Overrides ·Raytrace Shadows ·Indirect Lighting: Global Illumination ·Color Bleeding ·Indirect Illumination: Final Gathering  ·Light-Emitting Objects ·Using Lights with Final Gathering ·Image-Based Lighting  ·Enabling IBL ·IBL and Final Gathering ·Physical Sun and Sky ·Enabling Physical Sun and Sky ·Editing the Sky Settings ·mental ray Area Lights ·Light Shaders ·Physical Light Shader  ·Tone Mapping ·Photometric Lights and Profiles ·The Bottom Line Chapter 8 Mental ray Shading Techniques ·Shading Concepts ·Diffusion  ·Reflection  ·Refraction ·The Fresnel Effect ·Anisotropy ·Layering Shaders ·Creating Reflections and Refractions ·Creating Metals and Plastics  ·Adding Shaders to Individual Polygons  ·Building a Layered Car Paint Shader ·Base Parameters ·Flake Parameters ·Specular Reflection Layer ·Glossy Reflection Parameters  ·The Bottom Line Chapter 9 Texture Mapping ·UV Texture Layout ·What Are UV Texture Coordinates?  ·Mapping the Giraffe Leg ·Unfolding UVs ·Mapping the Giraffe Head ·Mirroring UVs ·More UV Tools ·Arranging UV Shells ·Additional UV Mapping Considerations ·Transferring UVs ·Multiple UV Sets ·Optimizing Textures ·Bump and Normal Mapping  ·Bump Maps ·Normal Maps ·Creating Normal Maps ·Applying Normal Maps ·Displacement Mapping ·Subsurface Scattering  ·Fast, Simple Skin-Shader Setup ·Subsurface Specularity ·ShaderFX  ·The Bottom Line Chapter 10 Paint Effects ·Using the Paint Effects Canvas ·The Paint Effects Window ·Painting in Scene Mode ·Painting on 3D Objects ·Understanding Strokes ·The Anatomy of a Paint Effects Stroke ·Brush Sharing ·Understanding Brush Curve Nodes  ·Designing Brushes ·Starting from Scratch ·Tubes ·Growing Flowers ·Adding Leaves ·Create Complexity by Adding Strokes to a Curve ·Shaping Strokes with Behavior Controls ·Applying Forces ·Displacement, Spiral and Bend ·Animating Strokes ·Animating Attribute Values ·Adding Turbulence ·Animating Growth ·Modifiers  ·Surface Collisions ·Rendering Paint Effects ·Illumination  ·Shadow Effects ·Shading Strokes and Tubes ·Texturing Strokes ·Converting Strokes to Geometry ·The Bottom Line Chapter 11 Rendering for Compositing ·Render Layers ·Creating Render Layers ·Render Layer Overrides ·Creating Overrides for Rendering Cameras ·Material Overrides  ·Render Layer Blend Modes ·Render Passes ·Rendering Multiple Passes from a Single Render Layer  ·Creating an Ambient Occlusion Render Pass ·Setting Up a Render with mental ray ·File Tokens ·Specifying Frame Range ·Starting a Batch Render ·Command-Line Rendering ·mental ray Quality Settings ·Tessellation and Approximation Nodes  ·Sampling  ·Filtering ·The Bottom Line Chapter 12 Introducing nParticles ·Creating nParticles ·Drawing nParticles using the nParticle Tool ·Spawning nParticles from an Emitter ·Emitting nParticles from a Surface ·Filling an Object with nParticles  ·Making nParticles Collide with nRigids ·Passive Collision Objects ·Collide Strength and Collision Ramps ·Using nParticles to Simulate Liquids ·Creating Liquid Behavior  ·Converting nParticles to Polygons ·Shading the nParticle Mesh ·Emitting nParticles Using a Texture ·Surface Emission ·Using Wind ·Shading nParticles and Using Hardware Rendering to Create Flame Effects ·Shading nParticles to Simulate Flames ·Creating an nCache ·Using the Hardware Render Buffer ·Controlling nParticles with Fields ·Using Multiple Emitters ·Volume Axis Curve ·Working with Force Fields ·Painting Field Maps ·Using Dynamic Fields  ·Rendering Particles with mental ray ·The Bottom Line Chapter 13 Dynamic Effects ·Creating nCloth Objects ·Making a Polygon Mesh Dynamic ·Applying nCloth Presets ·Making Surfaces Sticky ·Creating nConstraints  ·Making nCloth Objects Expand using Pressure ·Additional Techniques ·Creating an nCache ·Creating nCloth and nParticle Interactions  ·Creating an nParticle Goal ·Controlling Collision Events ·Bursting an Object Open Using Tearable nConstraints ·Crumbling Tower ·Soft Body Dynamics ·Creating Flying Debris Using nParticle Instancing ·Adding nParticles to the Scene ·Sending the Debris Flying Using a Field ·Creating a More Convincing Explosion by Adjusting nParticle Mass  ·Instancing Geometry ·Animating Instances using nParticle Expressions ·Randomizing Instance Index ·Connecting Instance Size to nParticle Mass ·Controlling the Rotation of nParticles ·Bullet Physics ·The Bottom Line Chapter 14 Hair and Clothing ·Understanding XGen  ·Creating an XGen Description ·XGen Library  ·Rendering an XGen Description  ·Animating Using Dynamic Curves ·Using Dynamic Curves with IK Splines  ·Creating an IK Spline Handle from the Dynamic Curve ·Using Forces ·Adding Hair to a Character ·Applying Hair to a Surface ·Determining Hair Shape ·Styling Hair  ·Start and Rest Positions ·Painting Follicle Attributes ·Modifying Curves ·Curling, Noise, Sub Clumping and Braids ·Rendering Hair ·Creating Clothing for Characters ·Modeling Clothes for nCloth  ·Using Constraints ·Connecting Buttons to the Shirt ·Applying Forces ·Painting nCloth Properties ·The Bottom Line Chapter 15 Maya Fluids  ·Using Fluid Containers ·Using 2D Containers ·Adding an Emitter  ·Using Fields with Fluids ·Using 3D Containers ·Fluid Interactions ·Emitting Fluids from a Surface ·Making Flames ·Igniting the Fuel  ·Filling Objects ·Rendering Fluid Containers ·Creating Fluids and nParticle Interactions  ·Emitting Fluids from nParticles ·Creating Flaming Trails ·Creating Water Effects ·Bifrost Liquid Simulation ·Shading Bifrost Liquids ·Guiding Liquid ·Creating an Ocean  ·The Bottom Line Chapter 16 Scene Management and Virtual Filmmaking ·Organizing Complex Node Structures with Assets ·Creating an Asset ·Publishing Asset Attributes ·Using the Asset Editor ·Viewing Assets in the Node Editor ·File References ·Referencing a File ·Bounding-Box Representations ·Determining the Image Size and Film Speed of the Camera ·Setting the Size and Resolution of the Image ·Setting the Film Speed ·Creating and Animating Cameras ·Creating a Camera  ·Setting Camera Attributes ·Limiting the Range of Renderable Objects with Clipping Planes ·Composing the Shot Using the Film-Back Settings ·Creating a Camera-Shake Effect  ·Using an Expression to Control Alpha Offset ·Creating Custom Camera Rigs ·Swivel Camera Rig ·Swivel Camera Rig Asset ·Applying Depth of Field and Motion Blur ·Rendering Using Depth of Field  ·Creating a Rack Focus Rig ·Adding Motion Blur to an Animation ·Using Orthographic and Stereo Cameras ·Orthographic Cameras ·Stereo Cameras ·Using the Camera Sequencer  ·The Bottom Line Appendixes Appendix A The Bottom Line  Chapter 1: Working in Autodesk Maya Chapter 2: Introduction to Animation Chapter 3: Hard-Surface Modeling Chapter 4: Organic Modeling Chapter 5: Rigging and Muscle Systems Chapter 6: Animation Techniques Chapter 7: Lighting with mental ray Chapter 8: mental ray Shading Techniques  Chapter 9: Texture Mapping Chapter 10: Paint Effects Chapter 11: Rendering for Compositing Chapter 12: Introducing nParticles Chapter 13: Dynamic Effects  Chapter 14: Hair and Clothing Chapter 15: Maya Fluids Chapter 16: Scene Management and Virtual Filmmaking Appendix B Autodesk Maya 2016 Certification Index