Datasheet

Part I ✦ Getting Started with Maya 4.5

✦ Animation Motion: There are different ways to add motion. Keyframes are

the most direct method to use, but you can also use motion capture, motion

control camera information, expressions, and dynamics. A working knowledge

of traditional animation helps here.

✦ Lighting and Rendering: At this stage, the computer figures out the appear-

ance of 3D scenes, after calculating lights and shaders. A lighting artist must

be knowledgable in photography and painting. Many new advancments are

being made in this area to improve on previous techniques.

✦ Compositing and Video Editing: This is the point at which it all comes

together. When you have produced the 3D imagery in Maya, you move

forward to other types of software and hardware to refine and combine

your images.

Compositing in its simplest form is layering images. The compositor’s job

involves color correction, 2D morphing, lighting effects, blurring, filtering,

rotoscoping, painting, and achieving a final look using a range of tricks and

procedures that compositors have developed over the years. Sometimes

you composite a 3D character on a live action background. Other times,

you may composite the foreground over background. In the production world,

the composite layer list often becomes quite long.

Editing is sequencing together film, video, audio, and animation, in its final

form. It is also a video editor’s job to color correct, and create final special

effects. A wide variety of software and hardware is used for editing, from

computer based nonlinear systems for video and film to traditional linear

tape editing to tape editing. When a film is edited in a nonlinear fashion, an

edit description list (EDL) is produced in order to apply the edits back to

physical film. Then it is the job of an online editor to maintain continuity

among cuts and achieve a final look. Output is the final stage of any produc-

tion pipeline. If you are producing computer movies, you may want to com-

press them for playback. If you are outputting video, you will export out to a

DDR (digital disk recorder) or a computer with a hard disk playback system.

For film, you use a film printer usually provided by a service bureau.

What’s New in Version 4.5

Maya 4.5 offers many new features and improvements over previous versions.

Table 1-1 lists a few improvements made in customer learning.

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