Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls, First Edition

Rating:
Summary: Maya Character Creation
Review: First impressions. A quick glance through the book reveals that this book is for beginning to intermediate Maya users. It includes all one needs to know about character modeling and preparing the model for animation from modeling to skeleton setup to skinning to scripting. Actual character animation itself is not covered in this book.

The book is illustrated with many sketches and screenshots but the illustrations are not in color which makes some of the screenshots hard to see especially the ones with wireframe models.

As the book concentrates on character setup, the examples and tutorials in the book involve creating and working with fairly realistic characters that have muscle and bone structure. If you are only interested in creating highly stylized or simple characters for use in your animation then you won't find much that is useful in this book. If you want to create the next Gollum then read on.

The book starts off with some information on the evolution of digital characters in film. This is followed by an introduction on the basics of character modeling.

The next chapter is on modeling the skin of a biped character and this happens to be the biggest chapter in this book. It begins with an introduction on different modeling methods for modeling a head, usually the most difficult part to model. Here and in the rest of the book as well, the author explains carefully on the pros and cons of each method and possible associated pitfalls that might be encountered when the model is used in an animation later on. Most books on modeling do not take into consideration the problems that might arise later on when animating the model and character animation books usually concentrate on the animation aspects. The author of this book does a commendable job of getting both these bases covered.

This is followed by modeling of the torso and limbs. Later on, the multipatch character is converted into a polygon skin to simplify the process of adding details to the model. Last but not least this chapter covers skin texturing including the use of UV polygons.

There are exercises intersped within the chapters after every few section which covers in detail with step by step instructions on how to perform the lessons covered in the previous sections. Although the steps are explained carefully it would have been better if more accompanying screenshots had been included to guide the reader. As it is, great care has to be taken to read the text carefully as there is no graphical reference to compare if the steps have been followed correctly.

Chapter 3 is on character skeleton setup. This brings back memories of my biology classes as the author covers the importance of having a good understanding of the skeletal anatomy of the human body. Both Forward Kinematics (FK) and Inverse Kinematics (IK) are explained as is when each method is to be used. Pointers to naming convention is included.

All of the above is then employed to create a basic character rig. Controls are added to the rig using the Connection Editor, the Expression Editor or the set driven keys to simplify animation with samples and exercises for each method. Each method is covered in detail in this chapter.

Chapter 4 covers skin deformation with a process known as skin binding with focus on the smooth skin binding method. Muscle flexing using both muscle skeleton and influence objects are covered. For additional realism, methods on deforming the skin with bones, wrinkles and fat are given attention as well.

Face animation is up next. Because it's the most expressive part of the body, special attention has to be given to the animation controls in this area. Techniques such as morph targets and using influences to mimic facial muscles are included as well.

The next chapter is on scripting controls using Maya Embedded Language, something that most Maya users including myself, find daunting. Only the basics are covered with a little information on what advanced scripting can do. Although this chapter only scratches the surface on MEL, it serves it's purpose of whetting the reader's appetite for more information.

The book ends with some guidelines on finishing touches like cleaning up and optimizing the character controls. Some animation methods are also covered and lastly, readers learn how to simplify and streamline animation by using multiple rigs of varying complexity.

Overall, the book is informative and would be a valuable asset to it's targeted audience, beginning to intermediate level Maya users who want to learn about character modeling and setting up the models for animation. The exercises are detailed enough but illustrations and the use of colors are a bit lacking.

The author's style of writing is easy to comprehend and I liked the way how each chapter is nicely summarized at the beginning of each chapter with an indication of what the reader can hope to accomplish at the conclusion of the chapter.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for intermediate modelers
Review: Going into Chris Maraffi's Character Animation course at Full Sail, I was apprehensive about organic modeling and rigging. This book made a great companion during the experience of learning how to model bipedal characters and create their rigs. It provides a great spectrum of information on the subject, and makes a great addition to anyone's tech library. A must have for your tool kit!

Rating:
Summary: Destined to be the most read Maya book on my shelf
Review: I'm beyond the intermediate rigging level and I wanted to do some detailed facial and body expressions. I used to wonder how the Hulk was rigged--not anymore. I used to wonder how to create those cool control panels for animating without scrolling through a character node for hours. Although it's a different approach than Bay Raitt used with Gollum in LOTR, it's pretty damn useful. I learned everything in the Gnomon Video tapes and still ran into a brick wall when it came to advanced animation controls for characters.

I used to wonder how to get the best subtle animations for a face. I used to wonder how to rig a jiggle deformer element with springs and softbodies.

This book has it all. I plan on memorizing it. You have to know this stuff now to get a job being a creature developer. There's no way around it. Anatomical deformation and servicing the animators on a team with MEL-scripting knowledge. This book will catapult you into a different realm of rigging. Serious Maya character set-up artists need it. I even learned how to use some of the new Maya 5 NURBS tools and slider tools that no one ever seems to mention.

another great book for this is "Emotions Revealed" by Paul Ekman to study facial expressions and how to create them... ....

Rating:
Summary: Another Waste
Review: It's hard to find decent MAYA books that can guide you through efficient workflow and professional techniques. I found this book to be suitable for forensic animation, and not much else.
Instead, I recomend:
Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right
by Jason Osipa

Rating:
Summary: Another Waste
Review: It's hard to find decent MAYA books that can guide you through efficient workflow and professional techniques. I found this book to be suitable for forensic animation, and not much else.
Instead, I recomend:
Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right
by Jason Osipa

Rating:
Summary: The best rigging resource ever!!!
Review: Outside of the patch modeling and other preparation to animation, the rigging in this book is AWESOME!! I love this book and use it as a resource often. The advanced MEL scripting you will learn will allow you to create a graphical user interface for selection of the character and sliders for the controls as well as advanced facial animation setup and great skeletal hierarchy with nice driven and cluster based motion. The author has emailed me back with the question i asked him quickly and efficiently, very nice guy. I don't care who you are and what you do but if you use Maya definitely buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: A must have resource
Review: This is a must have book for anyone interested at all in rigging in Maya. Its very useful for the person who knows how to rig but wants to take their rigging skills to the next level. Detailed enough to pull the info you need and discard what you don't, plus there's plenty of pictures. I gave this a fifth star because it includes some great scripting to create usable shelf controls. Which is very hard to come by in an easy to follow book.

Rating:
Summary: Fearful At First
Review: This is my first time to order online, but the scarcity of books related to Maya here in Manila prompted me to take matters into my own hands. Hehe.

Anyway, when I first opened the package, which arrived in an impressive 6-day wait, (wow! Amazon rules!) I eagerly browsed the contents and was not the least bit disappointed. This book helpfully deals with the one area (among many others) I am having most difficulty with, rigging Characters effectively using MEL. I've learned things could be done differently apart from traditional methods regarding drawing of skeletons and grouping them to maximize your rig's functionality and naturalize your character's movement.. and that's just from 10 pages. I've yet to go through the MEL side of creating my own custom control windows, but it's great. Really great.

Though the book is for intermediate to advance users, because of the lengthy reading and lack of illustrations, the author still manages to get the idea across and is easy to understand. If you're having the same difficulty, this book will make surely help you. Can't wait to stick each page into my head.

Ten toes Up!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Rigging, but not for modeling.
Review: Yes, this book is an excellent one if you would like to create an advanced rig, but the earlier modeling chapters don't teach good modeling skills (just look at the student models he put in, only a few are good. I'd be embarrassed to put put the other ones in a book.) That said, the book is excellent for learning how to create a rig and intuitive controls for the animation. The cover price of $45 is probably worth the detailed rigging section, but since the rest is a waste, it's really not a fabulous deal.