Maya Character Animation

Rating:
Summary: Great, but don't buy this for the modelling tutorials
Review: I am relatively new to Maya, but i have been doing 3d modelling for quite some time using both 3dsmax and lightwave. I bought this as well as Maya 4.5 Fundamentals, and i found this to be a very nice combination for moving into maya territory. Choi's book is, if anything, a very thorough and in depth look at the uses of tools that arent given the time of day in other books, and the animation essays and tutorials are truly helpful, which is quite rare. However, as it has been said by others, the color illustrations, while nice, don't really serve their purpose in the modelling tutorials. For one they are extremely small. Selected edges and faces are almost impossible to see. What puzzles me a bit is that this book is made for intermediate users of Maya, and intermediate users should have their own methods firmly in place. I have to say that personally i find choi's modelling methods (making a profile outline polygon and extruding edges, working out-and-in using edge merging) rather unwieldy, and by far not the easiest way to do things. Also, he has rickety terminology, and it's sometimes hard to figure out what he means when he says "polygon". Regardless, the animation related information is *very* interesting and thorough. I recommend it to users comfortable with modelling but unfamiliar with character animation

Rating:
Summary: Nice book for intermediates
Review: I thought this book was helpful. It is not for beginners, however. Not all of the tutorials give step by step instructions, instead, the book just tells you to make the model like the picture shown, you're on your own as to how to get the model to look like it.

This book has fully colored pages throughout but some of the images are a little hard to read. One thing I found really useful was it's relatively detailed coverage of the various shader utilities (sampler info, set range, clamp... etc)

The CD-Rom accompanying this book as some scene files, but the author does not provide a sample scene for every tutorial. Coverage of the Deep Paint 3D isn't all that detailed, but does give you an idea of how to use it in conjunction with Maya.

Character animation coverage is very detailed, and on some levels, pretty steep. Overall a very good book, worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: Best book for begineers
Review: I've just starting to learn 3D character modeling using Maya. So I searched the net to get online tutorial but I'm not satisfied on their approach. Then I tried amazon.co.jp to search for the best book on the subject - I found Maya Character Animation.
This is a great book - easy to learn with the author's approach. After I have finished quickstart tutorial, I'm pretty confident to start my own project.
Thanks for your great work Mr. Choi.

Rating:
Summary: Good information horribly presented
Review: MAYA Character Animation by Jae-jin Choi is a book that covers a huge amount of information and advanced techniques. This book is not a good choice if you're still a beginner but it's not so hard to understand either. It is exellent if your intermediate. It does have some good new tricks for advanced users.
The book covers polygon, nurb and subD modelling although you should know about modelling a little bit before reading. It covers facial expressions, skin binding, *good* rigging, texturing, some rendering and of course animation. It has very valuable information scattered around on topics like fluids, fur, and new things on Maya 4.5 that of course persist on Maya 5. It even has a tutorial on Deep Paint 3D. Full color and filled with pictures that aid the text perfectly. You get to work with different characters and many settings. The information and data on the CD is a big ++.
Not to go any further I would like to say that everytime I open this book on ANY page I learn something new. Im a 3D veteran and a University Teacher on Character Animation that came into 3D from the world of comic pencilling and inking with some good amount of fame and good memories in my shoulders and this book I can tell you is one of the few books I find useful and believe me... I'm close to compleating all the book list you'll find here at Amazon.com... IF YOUR SERIOUS ABOUT MAYA BUY THIS BOOK!!! (check my list for other great books)

Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS GREAT... READ IF YOUR PLANNING ON BUYING
Review: MAYA Character Animation by Jae-jin Choi is a book that covers a huge amount of information and advanced techniques. This book is not a good choice if you're still a beginner but it's not so hard to understand either. It is exellent if your intermediate. It does have some good new tricks for advanced users.
The book covers polygon, nurb and subD modelling although you should know about modelling a little bit before reading. It covers facial expressions, skin binding, *good* rigging, texturing, some rendering and of course animation. It has very valuable information scattered around on topics like fluids, fur, and new things on Maya 4.5 that of course persist on Maya 5. It even has a tutorial on Deep Paint 3D. Full color and filled with pictures that aid the text perfectly. You get to work with different characters and many settings. The information and data on the CD is a big ++.
Not to go any further I would like to say that everytime I open this book on ANY page I learn something new. Im a 3D veteran and a University Teacher on Character Animation that came into 3D from the world of comic pencilling and inking with some good amount of fame and good memories in my shoulders and this book I can tell you is one of the few books I find useful and believe me... I'm close to compleating all the book list you'll find here at Amazon.com... IF YOUR SERIOUS ABOUT MAYA BUY THIS BOOK!!! (check my list for other great books)

Rating:
Summary: Great book for the intermediate animator
Review: Maya Character animation is probably one of the best books I have seen so far dealing with character construction. While it is not for beginners, if you have a solid knowledge of Maya, the Maya tools and a general understanding of how it all works, this will take you to the next step in building your animations in a professional manner.

I am an animation student at the Columbus College of Art and Design and this book has been a great help in reducing my character modeling time as well as showing me different ways to assign control surfaces so that my characters movements are easier to direct and look much more natural.

Another good thing about this book is that it does deal with issues such as assigning textures to your characters and shows you multiple ways to reach the same goal so that you are able to work with the style that suits you the best.

All in all, a definite must have in any serious animators' library and it should be put right next to the Maya 4.5 Bible

Rating:
Summary: Great book for the intermediate animator
Review: Maya Character animation is probably one of the best books I have seen so far dealing with character construction. While it is not for beginners, if you have a solid knowledge of Maya, the Maya tools and a general understanding of how it all works, this will take you to the next step in building your animations in a professional manner.

I am an animation student at the Columbus College of Art and Design and this book has been a great help in reducing my character modeling time as well as showing me different ways to assign control surfaces so that my characters movements are easier to direct and look much more natural.

Another good thing about this book is that it does deal with issues such as assigning textures to your characters and shows you multiple ways to reach the same goal so that you are able to work with the style that suits you the best.

All in all, a definite must have in any serious animators' library and it should be put right next to the Maya 4.5 Bible

Rating:
Summary: Not for the faint hearted
Review: Ok I've just scraped the surface of this book & it is definately not your normal step by step tutorial style book... so be warned.. It gives lots of nice example colour shots as you progress but these pics are only guide lines so don't expect it to firstly state the obvious when setting up your example scenes. I've been using Maya 4 now for just over a year & started out with the "Learning Maya, Foundation BOOK" which is great for a beginner. This new Book is targeted more for intermediate users.. so forget it if you're new to Maya..
The book is structured throughout with nice tips & notes that give some real nice advice.. just gotta cram it all into your cranium... hhhmm, So what are you waiting for..? get those neurons jumping.. (it's not easy but stick with it & you'll dig it) ;)
ENJOY

Rating:
Summary: Not for the faint hearted
Review: This book covers intermediate modeling, UV mapping, texturing and animation. If you are already familiar witht the basics of maya then this book is great to get you familiar with the more complex techniques in modeling, shading, rigging, and animation. Although i agree some pictures are hard to see in the modeling section i would highly recommend this book, i haven't seen any other MAYA book with pictures as good as this one. Sure, you can spend the time to look for FREE tutorials on the internet but then you pay your TIME searching on a subject, sometimes getting a page that doesn't give you what you where looking for. You could instead be flipping through this niceley organized book and go straight to the subject you want to learn more about.

I got this book and i am already way ahead of other students in my Maya 3d animation class. In no way is this book or any book as good as attending school under a teachers who know. I keep it for reference and take it with me any time i go to work on maya. If you plan to be a professional, you are better off with it than without it. It is the best book ive seen so far.

Rating:
Summary: Great if those familiar with the interface
Review: This book covers intermediate modeling, UV mapping, texturing and animation. If you are already familiar witht the basics of maya then this book is great to get you familiar with the more complex techniques in modeling, shading, rigging, and animation. Although i agree some pictures are hard to see in the modeling section i would highly recommend this book, i haven't seen any other MAYA book with pictures as good as this one. Sure, you can spend the time to look for FREE tutorials on the internet but then you pay your TIME searching on a subject, sometimes getting a page that doesn't give you what you where looking for. You could instead be flipping through this niceley organized book and go straight to the subject you want to learn more about.

I got this book and i am already way ahead of other students in my Maya 3d animation class. In no way is this book or any book as good as attending school under a teachers who know. I keep it for reference and take it with me any time i go to work on maya. If you plan to be a professional, you are better off with it than without it. It is the best book ive seen so far.