Maya Visual Effects

* This full-color title shows animators how to thrive in a fast-paced creative environment by showing them how to create amazing visual effects and solve tough animation problems as if their lives depended on it

* Provides insight to using specific tools in unique ways, such as procedural textures (including adding secondary motion with fractals, animating streaking energy, or creating complex particle motion), Paint Effects (creating twitching nerves, sci-fi computer displays, bacterial hair), joints (mastering the inverse kinematic spline tool, combining joints with deformers), blendshapes (faking time-lapse video effects, layering blend shapes, combining blend shapes with lattices ), Maya Unlimited tools (using hair to create a collapsing bridge, animating fur attributes), incorporating MEL scripting into your everyday workflow, and more

* The step-by-step tutorials are presented in a fun, engaging style

* The CD-ROM includes Maya demo software, scene files, and beginning and ending files for every project in the book