Datasheet

Part I ✦ Getting Started with Maya 4.5

Figure 1-1: A 3D world with characters, animals, props, clothes, plants, and

so on. This was shot by the iLumina project at Visual Book Productions.

Some of the contributing artists are Shaun Comly, Phil Delacruz, Brent

Hensarling, Jake Long, Nelson Saba, Adriano Silva, and Joe Spadaro.

Maya’s Strengths

Although Maya has many strengths, which enable you to perform numerous

functions, Maya is best-suited for, and most often used in, real productions for

the following seven tasks:

3D character animation

This not only includes character creation, but it also enables you to move and

deform a character. It’s similar to handling a marionette, but is much more flexible

and specific. It also includes posing and animating final motion, and emotion. In

addition, the process of creating 3D character animation requires that you perform

just about all of the other major functions as well.

For more on 3D character animation, see Part VII, “Character Animation in Maya.”

Cross-

Reference

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