In this unique full-color book, a cadre of professionals led by Maya expert and best-selling author, John Kundert-Gibbs, team up to share what they've learned using Maya in the CG trenches.





Contributing authors include veterans of such high-profiles projects as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Star Wars: Episode I, The Perfect Storm, as well as animations featured at SIGGRAPH.





Whether you're new to the field or already have solid 3D experience, Maya: Secrets of the Pros offers insights and step-by-step instructions designed to help you build and sharpen a range of critical skills, including:


? Preparation techniques for modeling and animation


? Improving motion capture and lip synching


? Creating crowd scenes from a small number of base models


? Controlling dynamics in plot-driven sequences


? Developing massively complex particle systems for film effects, such as those in The Perfect Storm


? Modeling subdivision surfaces


? Creating a GUI animation set-up for animators


? Using effective natural lighting


? Writing software for a multi-platform renderfarm