Table of Contents

•	Table of Contents
•	Index
•	Examples

Game Character Development with Maya
By Antony Ward
Publisher	: New Riders Publishing
Pub Date	: November 22, 2004
Print ISBN	: 0-7357-1438-X
Pages	: 832

		Copyright
		Acknowledgements
		Introduction
			Why Maya?
			Why I Wrote This Book
			About This Book
			On the Included CD
		Chapter 1.  Designing Your Character
			What Makes a Successful Character?
			The Three Stages of Concepting
			Research
			Preparation
			Design
			Summary
		Chapter 2.  Modeling Kila
			Preparation
			Getting Started in Maya
			Building a Placeholder Character
			The Basic Shape for Kila
			The Morgue
			Summary
		Chapter 3.  Finishing and Refining
			Muscle Line Mapping
			Legs
			Face and Upper Body Detail
			Hands
			Feet
			Summary
		Chapter 4.  Modeling Details
			Creating Hair
			Modeling the Ear
			Modeling the Eyes
			Developing the Inner Mouth
			Dressing Kila
			Summary
		Chapter 5.  Model Optimization
			Deciding What to Remove
			Finding the Polygon Count
			Arm Optimization
			Torso Optimization
			Waist and Leg Optimization
			Foot Optimization
			Hair, Face, and Neck Optimization
			Current Count
			Hand Optimization
			Final Check
			Summary
		Chapter 6.  Deformation Testing
			The Arms and Legs
			The Lower Body
			Face Deformation
			Summary
		Chapter 7.  Modeling Grae
			The Torso and Limbs
			Creating Grae's Head
			Muscle Line Mapping
			Adding Details
			Modeling the Wings
			Optimization
			Deformation Testing
			Summary
		Chapter 8.  Texture Preparation
			Mapping Methods
			Dividing a Character
			Mapping UVs: The Checker Map Technique
		Chapter 9.  Texture Painting
			Image Preparation
			The Base Colors
			Viewing the Texture in Maya
			Lighter Shades and Highlights
			Darker Shades and Shadows
			Final Texture Details
			Working with an Alpha Map
			Bump and Specularity Maps
			Topology Check
			Texture Bit Depth and Page Size
			Summary
		Chapter 10.  Levels of Detail (LODs)
			Why Do We Need LODs?
			Setting the Binding Pose
			Generating LODs
			Grae's LODs
			Testing LODs: The Level of Detail Group
			Summary
		Chapter 11.  Skeleton Setup
			The Base Skeletons
			Additional Joints
			Joint Cleanup
			Checking the Rotational Axis
			Repositioning the Characters
			Summary
		Chapter 12.  Character Rigging
			Why Use Controls?
			Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics
			Arm and Hand Controls
			Leg and Feet Controls
			Main Body Controls
			Upper Body Controls
			More Controls
			Visibility Controllers
			Color Coding for Icons
			Summary
		Chapter 13.  Facial Animation Setup
			Joint-Based Facial Animation Setup (Kila)
			Facial Rig (Kila)
			Blend Shapes Facial Animation Setup (Kila)
			Grae's Facial Animation
			Which Is Best?
			Summary
		Chapter 14.  Final Character Deformation
			Preparation and Binding
			Painting Kila's Weights
			Hair Weights
			Final Rig Adjustments
			Level of Detail Weights
			Painting Grae's Weights
			Summary
		Chapter 15.  Finalize and Clean Up
			Scene Optimization
			Make Your Rig Idiot-Proof
			Character Sets
			Summary
		Chapter 16.  Animating for Games
			Animation Optimization
			Animation Categories
			The Animation List
			Animation Tools
			Creating a Walk Cycle
			Running in Place
			Animation Archive
			Summary
		Appendix A.  Normal Mapping in Maya
			System Requirements
			Generating a Normal Map
			Viewing Normal Maps
		Appendix B.  Reference and Further Reading
			Anatomy Books
			Animation Books
			Web Sites
			Graphics Tablets
		Index