Introduction

Maya 4.5 Fundamentals is designed to help new animators quickly grasp the main tools and techniques that production Maya animators use. This book is not a collection of dabblings in Maya, and none of the tutorials start with loading a prebaked scene. As gently as possible, we shove you into the water and teach you to swim like a pro.

Maya has historically been targeted to larger effects studios and animation houses . To some extent, that targeting continues in the current version, in that no complex sample scenes are included, and material libraries, marking menus , and hotkeys are minimal. In this book, we supply you with all these aids to help you absorb the working methods of a Maya animator.