How to Use This Book
We've designed this book so that you can use it in the way that best serves your needs in learning to animate with Maya. You can start at the beginning and read it straight through if you like, as the chapters are ordered progressively. The first few talk about fundamental concepts: the principles of animation, workflow, and how animators think about the tools available in Maya. Then we start practicing some techniques in the context of animations already started for you, finally moving on to guiding you through doing projects in blocking, cycles, polishing, lip sync, and much more.
If you've been animating for a while, but need some new tips or approaches to problems you've been having, you can simply go to any topic that interests you, and pick it up right there. Even the chapter-long projects include a series of progressive files so you don't need to start from the beginning. We've also completely updated the book for Maya 2014, and cover all the exciting new animation tools and how to use them.
Throughout the book we use the abbreviation “f01” to mean frame 1, or whatever frame number we're talking about. Frame numbers are also included on every screenshot where they're relevant, to make things as clear as possible. In the upper right corner of each cheat you'll see a download icon (
) whenever there are accompanying files, which is almost always. Underneath it the file names are listed for easy reference, and you can download all the scene files, rigs, and material from the previous edition from the book's website.
The projects are separated by chapter, and some of the projects also have QuickTime movies of the chapter's final result. Also included is the Goon rig in several versions (regular, ninja, and demon). For additional info and updates, be sure to check out the website: