Working in Autodesk Maya

• Creating and Editing Maya Nodes
• Creating Maya Projects
• Organizing Complex Node Structures with Assets
• File References

Virtual Filmmaking with Autodesk Maya Cameras

• Determining the Image Size and Film Speed of the Camera
• Creating and Animating Cameras
• Creating Custom Camera Rigs
• Applying Depth of Field and Motion Blur
• Using Orthographic and Stereo Cameras
• Using the Camera Sequencer

Modeling I

• Understanding Polygon Geometry
• Using Subdivision Surfaces
• Understanding NURBS
• Employing Image Planes
• Modeling NURBS Surfaces
• NURBS Tessellation
• Modeling with Polygons

Modeling II

• Modeling with Deformers
• Combining Meshes
• Using Bevel Plus and Bevel Edges
• Using Curves
• Boolean Operations
• Advanced Polygon Editing Tools
• Working with SubDs

Animation Techniques

• Using Joints and Constraints
• Inverse Kinematics
• Keyframe Animation
• The Graph Editor
• Driven Keys
• Motion Path Animation
• Animating Constraints
• Animation Layers

Animating with Deformers

• Animating Facial Expressions Using Blend Shapes
• Animating Blend Shapes Sequentially
• Animating with Lattices
• Animating a Scene Using Nonlinear Deformers
• Creating a Jiggle Effect
• Optimizing Animations with the Geometry Cache

Rigging and Muscle Systems

• Understanding Rigging
• Creating and Organizing joint Hierarchies
• Rigging the Giraffe
• Human Inverse Kinematics
• Skinning Geometry
• The Maya Muscle System

Paint Effects

• Using the Paint Effects Canvas
• Painting on 3D Objects
• Understanding Strokes
• Designing Brushes
• Create Complexity by Adding Strokes to a Curve
• Shaping Strokes with Behavior Controls
• Animating Strokes
• Rendering Paint Effects

Lighting with mental ray

• Shadow – Casting Lights
• Indirect Lighting: Global Illumination
• Indirect Illumination: Final Gathering
• Image – Based Lighting
• Physical Sun and Sky
• mental ray Area Lights
• Light Shaders

mental ray Shading Techniques

• Shading Concepts
• Basic mental ray Shaders
• Car Paint Materials
• The MIA Material
• Controlling Exposure with Tone Mapping
• Rendering Contours

Texture Mapping

• UV Texture Layout
• Bump and Normal Mapping
• Displacement Mapping
• Subsurface Scattering

Rendering for Compositing

• Render Layers
• Render Passes
• Render Pass Contribution Maps
• Setting Up a Render with mental ray
• mental ray Quality Settings

Introducing nParticles

• Creating nParticles
• Making nParticles Collide with nRigids
• Using nParticles to Simulate Liquids
• Emit nParticles Using a Texture
• Using Wind
• nParticles and Fields
• Rendering Particles with mental ray

Dynamic Effects

• Creating nCloth Objects
• Creating nCloth and nParticle Interactions
• Rigid Body Dynamics
• Soft Body Dynamics
• Creating Flying Debris Using nParticle Instancing
• Animating Instances Using nParticle Expressions

Fur, Hair, and Clothing

• Adding Fur to Characters
• Rendering Fur Using mental ray
• Animating Using Dynamic Curves
• Adding Hair to a character
• Styling Hair
• Creating Hair Constraints
• Creating Clothing and Characters
• Painting nCloth Properties

Autodesk Maya Fluids

• Using Fluid Containers
• Creating a Reaction
• Rendering Fluid Containers
• Creating Water Effects