In This Chapter

You've come to the end of this book, but there's so much more to Maya for you to explore. Because New Riders again refused to issue an encyclopedia-sized set of books as Maya 5 Fundamentals, the subjects in this book have been confined to those most necessary and useful to learning and using Maya. Rather than stop there, however, this last chapter points out some directions for your future growth, not only with Maya and its mechanics, but also as an animator and artist.

The subjects covered include the following:

• Troubleshooting slow renders Sometimes, you can unintentionally increase your render times. You learn a few tips on why this can happen.

• Batch rendering If you want to render several different animations on one or many machines, you need to learn how to set it up.

• Workflow enhancements Learn to build your own marking menus and hotkeys.

• Compositing Professionals working on a deadline learn to divide their work into layers and use compositing to combine the layers later. You see how this technique works.

• Adding to Maya A broad variety of free tools can be installed in Maya to add to its functionality seamlessly.

• Future directions Some general thoughts and tips from professional animators have been compiled to guide you if you want to make a career of computer animation.

Key Terms

batch file A text file that runs in the command prompt and includes a list of commands for the operating system.

Shelf A convenient place in the Maya interface to set up your favorite tools or build your own.

compositing Creating an image from several source images, layered on one another.

layer or pass or plate One of the sources in a composite. Often described with a name, such as background plate, beauty pass, specular layer, and so forth.