Learn the Alias?endorsed workflow for creating a game in Maya with. this full?color, official book. Discover the Game with Alias is the only book available that also teaches animation techniques in Alias MotionBuilder. Accompanying the book, are two DVDs. The first features instructor movies, scene files, and PLEs of Maya and Alias MotionBuilder. The second includes Maya Techniques in Polygon, Texturing, Lighting, and Shading. Be sure to get your copy of this invaluable resource today.

With this book you will understand:

Game character design

• Creating the character
• Weighting the skin
• Working with UV textures

Creating an evironment

• Building backgrounds
• Creating props
• Applying vertex color

Animation

• Rigging in Maya
• Working in Alias MotionBuilder
• Working with Motion Capture data
• Transferring data between applications

This official book is written by Alias, the creators of Maya.

Alias (Toronto) is the company that produces Maya software and other applications for the entertainment and high?end design industries. Alias?s Learning Tools division publishes its own books and DVDs. Alias?s recognizable industry customers include CNN, Disney, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Pixar, Sega, GM, Honda, and more.

Learn the Alias-endorsed workflow for creating a game in Maya with. this full-color, official book. Discover the Game with Alias is the only book available that also teaches animation techniques in Alias MotionBuilder. Accompanying the book, are two DVDs. The first features instructor movies, scene files, and PLEs of Maya and Alias MotionBuilder. The second includes Maya Techniques in Polygon, Texturing, Lighting, and Shading. Be sure to get your copy of this invaluable resource today.

With this book you will understand:

Game character design

• Creating the character
• Weighting the skin
• Working with UV textures

Creating an evironment

• Building backgrounds
• Creating props
• Applying vertex color

Animation

• Rigging in Maya
• Working in Alias MotionBuilder
• Working with Motion Capture data
• Transferring data between applications

Learn the Alias-endorsed workflow for creating a game in Maya with. this full-color, official book. Discover the Game with Alias is the only book available that also teaches animation techniques in Alias MotionBuilder. Accompanying the book, are two DVDs. The first features instructor movies, scene files, and PLEs of Maya and Alias MotionBuilder. The second includes Maya Techniques in Polygon, Texturing, Lighting, and Shading. Be sure to get your copy of this invaluable resource today.

Maya is the premier tool for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering. It is used by such film houses as Pixar and Disney for creating 3D animation and special effects. Discover the Game with Aliasteaches the Alias-endorsed workflow for creating a game in Maya. This full-color, official book is produced by Alias and is the only book available that also teaches animation techniques in Alias MotionBuilder.

(Real) Game Character Modeling

First off let me say this, many people who rated this book were really to Noob to rate it right. If you want to get the most out of this book you should be familiar with Maya fundamentals, mainly what the essential tools do and how to create and shape objects.

Even though the character is a little dorky looking, this will really teach you how to model game characters in Maya. It contains a very indepth explanation of weighting the character, something you really need to know how to do. If your a beginner and can’t really navigate through Maya then you should wait until then to purchase this book..

One thing to remember, proper modeling is not and never will be easy, if you understand that and are willing to put in time you will do fine with this book......

Not a good teaching tool

I bought this book primarily to see if I could use it in teaching character animation using a pipeline of Maya and MotionBuilder.

No way.

The first part delves into making scenery for a hypothetical game with a hypothetical lead character. Fine. However, a lot of the polygon scenery could be readily replaced by matte painting, thereby drastically cutting down on poly count. The female character modeling session is typical of other character modeling chapters from other books by Sybex and Maya Press. The game modeler will not find anything new or insightful here.

However, there is one glaring omission in the book that totally negated any thought of using this book in a classroom. After the character is finished, it’s time to animate it in MotionBuilder. But is there anywhere in the chapters preceding MB any mention of building the character’s skeletal system? On top of this, from my previous work with MotionBuilder, MB is rather fussy on naming conventions for bones and joints. Not only is a "chapter" missing on how to properly bone the character, but at least one lesson on proper naming conventions is in order. Neither exist.

not for maya beginners

the only downfall of this book is that it doesn’t give you a step by step directions to create the character. you have great images to follow. so you have to figure out how to get from one image to the next. it’s a helpful book to use if you want to know how to model figures. i would not recommend this book if you just started on the maya program. some of the contents in the book can be confusing for beginners.

not for maya beginners

the only downfall of this book is that it doesn’t give you a step by step directions to create the character. you have great images to follow. so you have to figure out how to get from one image to the next. it’s a helpful book to use if you want to know how to model figures. i would not recommend this book if you just started on the maya program. some of the contents in the book can be confusing for beginners.

Had potential but lost it quickly

Recently I purchased this book because I thought it would give me "In depth" insight into game art creation in Maya and other software, but to my dismay it’s more of an "overview" of the process from taking a model for concept to completion. The information was very sparse especially with the texturing section, the exception was the actual modeling of the main character (with no concept art I might add). All of the "information" was glossed over by letting the reader guess at how the author accomplished a particular series of steps. For instance creating the ground for the sets went like this

- Shape the basic terrain of the map with various Maya modeling tools. Start with a primitive polygon and go from there-

Seriously this is basically what was written in a nutshell. The diagrams from step 1-3 were vastly different in areas and requires alot of guesswork on the part of the reader.

The only redeeming quality of this book is the character tutorial and the bonus material on the DVD. The instructor led tutorials were ok but could’ve been done to more effect.

I’m an experienced 3D artist so I can fill in the wide gaps in the tutorials well enough, but for someone looking to learn the art of creating artwork for games, look elsewhere for ie, the first Sybex book on the matter "The Game Artists Guide to Maya".

Not to leave on a somber note, the book does have some descent info sprinkled throughout, but it’s no where near as good as it should’ve been.

Had potential but lost it quickly

Recently I purchased this book because I thought it would give me "In depth" insight into game art creation in Maya and other software, but to my dismay it’s more of an "overview" of the process from taking a model for concept to completion. The information was very sparse especially with the texturing section, the exception was the actual modeling of the main character (with no concept art I might add). All of the "information" was glossed over by letting the reader guess at how the author accomplished a particular series of steps. For instance creating the ground for the sets went like this

- Shape the basic terrain of the map with various Maya modeling tools. Start with a primitive polygon and go from there-

Seriously this is basically what was written in a nutshell. The diagrams from step 1-3 were vastly different in areas and requires alot of guesswork on the part of the reader.

The only redeeming quality of this book is the character tutorial and the bonus material on the DVD. The instructor led tutorials were ok but could’ve been done to more effect.

I’m an experienced 3D artist so I can fill in the wide gaps in the tutorials well enough, but for someone looking to learn the art of creating artwork for games, look elsewhere for ie, the first Sybex book on the matter "The Game Artists Guide to Maya".

Not to leave on a somber note, the book does have some descent info sprinkled throughout, but it’s no where near as good as it should’ve been.

Something lost in the translation?

This book could have been great. Maybe it tries to cover too much ground. Maybe the translation from Japanese leaves something to be desired. It’s filled with amazing illustrations and great detail you won’t find in any book, but it’s mostly trapped in the images. The text is often confusing or banal: "Create the appearance of sand on the texture bordering the ground." Oh really? How? Isn’t that why I bought this book?

If you’re past the beginner stage or want to get a thorough overview of the game art creation process, by all means buy this book. Even beginners will get something out of it. But you won’t get as much out of this book as you would have hoped.

Something lost in the translation?

This book could have been great. Maybe it tries to cover too much ground. Maybe the translation from Japanese leaves something to be desired. It’s filled with amazing illustrations and great detail you won’t find in any book, but it’s mostly trapped in the images. The text is often confusing or banal: "Create the appearance of sand on the texture bordering the ground." Oh really? How? Isn’t that why I bought this book?

If you’re past the beginner stage or want to get a thorough overview of the game art creation process, by all means buy this book. Even beginners will get something out of it. But you won’t get as much out of this book as you would have hoped.