ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|33 pages

Animation Principles

chapter 2|27 pages

Splines

chapter 3|15 pages

Graph Editor

chapter 4|37 pages

Techniques

chapter 5|17 pages

Constraints

chapter 6|15 pages

Gimbal Lock

chapter 7|21 pages

Cameras & Layout

chapter 8|33 pages

Blocking

chapter 9|21 pages

Cycles

chapter 10|15 pages

Polishing

chapter 11|25 pages

Facial Animation

chapter 12|17 pages

Animation Layers