December 5, 2007

NEW TOOLS FOR MASTERING AUTODESK'S MAYA

"From simulating realistic cloth and creating dynamic effects, to building custom applications and creating an entire cartoon environment, we have designed fun and creative projects for any artist using Maya," notes Tanya Golubeva, director of emerging media at Digital-Tutors. "Students and artists new to dynamics or scripting will gain a wealth of knowledge, while professionals and experienced artists will find time-saving techniques to environment creation and simulating cloth."

Creating Cartoon Sets in Maya ($59.99) covers look development, using an asset referencing workflow, texturing with UVs and projection, and creating stylized models, among other subjects.

Introduction to Maya nCloth ($45.99) provides an overview of Nucleus Node, as well as details on creating realistic cloth simulation, scene scale and settings, time scale, mass, dynamic forces, friction, dynamic attributes and rigidity.

Introduction to Dynamics in Maya ($45.99) looks at particle systems and understanding rigid body simulations. It also provides an overview of dynamic fields, such as gravity, wind, turbulence and drag. The title shows users how to set up simulations to run efficiently, and also covers particle instancing, rendering particles with Maya Hardware, software and hardware render buffers, using the fire effects, creating smoke effects, lighting and fireworks.

And Python Scripting in Maya ($55.99) details the fundamentals of Python programming, as well as plug-in development, rewriting MEL as Python, understanding variables and types, timeline based scripting, Python in Maya expressions, creating a Tkinter GUI, working with Mayapy Shell, and using additional Python editors.