Ian Mankowski
April 24, 2005
You've sunk a couple thousand into 3D instructional books and classes, you've done your share of contractual freelance gigs, and maybe even done a professional gig or two. Or maybe a lot, maybe you've been in the industry for years, and have passed the bookshelves by long long for their lack of information that is new to you.
In that case, you owe it to yourself to check out Maya Secrets of the Pros, a color compendium of 12 professionals who share a couple of the secrets they've picked up on the way. The book is targeted squarely at the experienced pro who is looking for an introduction to deeper levels of the program, or additional information and procedures to accomplish complicated problem solving tasks more efficiently.
Many advanced techniques are explored here. Complete instruction in Maya Cloth, and non-photo realistic rendering techniques. Creating subtle realism such as the emulation of real-world camera motion to real world lighting using radiosity, global illumination, HDRI, and finally how best to most efficiently render this realism using multi-pass rendering and compositing.
Highly informative information is presented regarding character pipelines, giving the reader solid information on standards and techniques to create a more efficient pipeline. Maya's Hair is explained as well, with interesting and practical real world examples, showing how you can deform not only hair, but IK chains, deformers and surfaces for unique problem solving solutions.
The final chapters utilize Maya's noise function to show how you can use it to produce innovative procedural effects. And finally, a very in-depth and involved tutorial takes you through modeling a subdivision head paying particular attention to edge loops and their practical flow pattern for optimal animation deformation.
The chapters are a goldmine of in depth and practical information, utilizing examples that are specific enough to illustrate concepts and problem solving techniques, and yet general enough that you can easily see how they can apply to your own production pipeline. The book is not for the weak of heart or newly initiated however, as the reader will be asked to be intimate with Melscript on more then one occasion.
The strengths of this text lie in the techniques that each author shares, and their encouragement to explore and take the ideas learned further then where the text leads. After all, any monkey can read a book and follow a tutorial, but the studios are paying the big bucks for your problem solving ability.
Though a very strong text, there are a few weaknesses, mainly in the presentation. For all the in-depth information presented, the text begs to be broken down into more digestible chunks. The intros are written well enough, however the conclusions and recaps to each chapter range from insufficient to non existent. With such technical and information deep text, much more effort needs to be devoted to breaking down the information presented into digestible chunks.
Regardless of the editing and organizational issues, this tome remains a very practical informational resource that any pro should have on their bookshelf to supplement their tool chest.
List Price: US $49.99 | Can $83.95 | UK 39.99
279 pgs.
Sybex Publishing: www.sybex.com
Copyright © 2005, Ian Mankowski, All Rights Reserved
