Learning Maya 6 | Foundation

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Learning Maya 6: Foundation is your essential guide to mastering Maya efficiently. Join countless users who have enhanced their skills by creating projects like the Bouncing Ball, Jack-in-the-box, Primitive Man, Spaceships, and Salty the Seal. This book offers hands-on experience with Maya's key tools through project-based lessons, enabling you to model, animate, render, and add dynamic effects to your work. You'll learn to model with NURBs and Polygons, animate, texture map, and apply visual effects while rendering your scenes. Instructor-led chapter overviews by an Alias Certified Instructor further clarify the concepts presented. With this resource, you will become familiar with the Maya User Interface, work in 3D space, set keyframes and motion paths, utilize Trax for non-linear animation, apply forward and inverse kinematics, deform surfaces, and set up cameras and lights. Additionally, you'll create shaders and textures, explore rendering techniques, and delve into particles and dynamics while beginning to use MEL (Maya Embedded Language). Ideal for newcomers to Maya, this book is highly recommended by educators, including Peter Weishar, Dean of Film and Digital Media at Savannah College of Art and Design. To use this book, you need a working knowledge of 3D space, access to Maya Complete 6, Maya Unlimited 6, or Maya Personal Learning Edition, and a DVD-ROM drive.