• Written by an industry veteran who has used Maya in such films as Mortal Kombat and Shrek, this full?color book offers advanced, professional?level techniques for texturing and lighting for rendering 3D models in Maya
• Begins with an introduction of various lighting concepts, then offers readers detailed explanations of Maya?s numerous hidden features so they can achieve amazing results quickly
• Features an unparalleled exploration of Maya?s Hypershade, where animators create connections between shaders, texture maps, lights, cameras, and geometry
• Provides a thorough look at rendering in Maya, including everything from batch rendering to global illumination workflow and HDRI techniques
• The CD?ROM includes the Maya Personal Learning Edition, textures, tools, professional shaders, and more

Valuable Techniques from an Industry Veteran

The art of texturing and lighting is a crucial aspect of any movie, game, or other animation project. Now you can learn the secrets of professional animators, mine powerful and often hidden features in Maya, and achieve amazing results with the detailed information you?ll find in Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting.

Written by an industry veteran whose texturing and lighting has been featured in such films as Mortal Kombat, Antz, Shrek, and many others, this in?depth book focuses on advanced techniques used in real?world production environments. You?ll find out how to add complexity to your work with custom shaders, high?level texture mapping, a full understanding of lighting concepts, and an unparalleled exploration of Maya?s Hypershade window. The book takes a detailed look at rendering in Maya, including everything from batch rendering to global illumination workflow and HDRI techniques. In gorgeous full color and full of tips, techniques, and workflow ideas straight from the studio, this valuable guide doesn?t just teach, it shows you how to achieve the same dazzling and rapid results as the pros.

The enclosed CD features exclusive content, including two bonus chapters, Maya scene files, custom shading networks, textures, the Maya Personal Learning Edition, and files for the practical tutorials, which were designed from an industry perspective and refined in the classroom.

• Understand lighting theory, history, application, and technique.

• Painlessly raytrace with Maya Software and mental ray.

• Get the most out of Maya shadows and post?process effects.

• Master Global Illumination, Final Gather, mental ray shaders, HDRI, and normal mapping.

Lee Lanier is a professional animator and teacher who has created digital special effects for such films as The Santa Clause and Mortal Kombat. He served as a senior animator in the Modeling and Lighting departments on Antz and Shrek and has produced and directed the animated short films Millennium Bug, Mirror, Day Off the Dead, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and 13 Ways to Die at Home. He has also taught advanced Maya classes at several schools, including the Art Institute of Las Vegas, where he designed the Media Arts & Animation curriculum. His work can be seen at beezlebugbit.com.

• Written by an industry veteran who has used Maya in such films as Mortal Kombat and Shrek, this full-color book offers advanced, professional-level techniques for texturing and lighting for rendering 3D models in Maya
• Begins with an introduction of various lighting concepts, then offers readers detailed explanations of Maya’s numerous hidden features so they can achieve amazing results quickly
• Features an unparalleled exploration of Maya’s Hypershade, where animators create connections between shaders, texture maps, lights, cameras, and geometry
• Provides a thorough look at rendering in Maya, including everything from batch rendering to global illumination workflow and HDRI techniques
• The CD-ROM includes the Maya Personal Learning Edition, textures, tools, professional shaders, and more

• Written by an industry veteran who has used Maya in such films as Mortal Kombat and Shrek, this full-color book offers advanced, professional-level techniques for texturing and lighting for rendering 3D models in Maya
• Begins with an introduction of various lighting concepts, then offers readers detailed explanations of Maya’s numerous hidden features so they can achieve amazing results quickly
• Features an unparalleled exploration of Maya’s Hypershade, where animators create connections between shaders, texture maps, lights, cameras, and geometry
• Provides a thorough look at rendering in Maya, including everything from batch rendering to global illumination workflow and HDRI techniques
• The CD-ROM includes the Maya Personal Learning Edition, textures, tools, professional shaders, and more

• Written by an industry veteran who has used Maya in such films as Mortal Kombat and Shrek, this full-color book offers advanced, professional-level techniques for texturing and lighting for rendering 3D models in Maya
• Begins with an introduction of various lighting concepts, then offers readers detailed explanations of Maya’s numerous hidden features so they can achieve amazing results quickly
• Features an unparalleled exploration of Maya’s Hypershade, where animators create connections between shaders, texture maps, lights, cameras, and geometry
• Provides a thorough look at rendering in Maya, including everything from batch rendering to global illumination workflow and HDRI techniques
• The CD-ROM includes the Maya Personal Learning Edition, textures, tools, professional shaders, and more

Excellent technical book!

This book is written for intermediate Maya artists and it begins by covering some basic skills. In addition to lighting and texturing it goes on to cover a lot of valuable techniques. Since textures and lighting require good rendering setups, the author explains raytracing, mental ray, global illumination and HDRI. Those subjects are covered in more detail in other books but the author goes a long way in introducing them. Overall, it’s a great way to advance your skills.

**YOU CAN’T Install the Maya Learning Edition from this book

The companion CD comes with Maya 7 Personal Learning. (The key reason I wanted this book.)

You can’t install the software, because it requires a software key.

The link provided to obtain the software key doesn’t work.

It brings you to the download page for Maya 8.5 PLE. Maya 8.5 requires Windows XP or MAC OX X. (I’m on Windows 2000, bummer for me, eh?)
Maya moved from Alias to Autodesk.


Basically, this book provides some helpful theory. General theory you could apply to several different software packages. Also, good for improving photography techniques.

A good guide for beginners and medium weigh 3D designer

The book is well organized and you can find diferent techniques explained and detailed.

I has a focus mainly in general light terms and techniques, and some examples to show you how it work.

I read tons of 3D books and this one is a good choice.

Much detailed examples would rate it 5 stars.

Great Book Beginner or advanced

was very pleased and excited to see such a great new refreshing book on texturing. Great book for a beginner or advance maya user. Great visuals and will touch on many different topics and will show you technigues on creating difficult textures in maya.

Extremely useful book for the medium-level Maya user

I had certain expectations when I chose this book and I found that it lived up to almost all expectations I had. This book gives you an overview of a large range of Maya’s texturing and lighting utility nodes and it explains to the reader all their individual attributes. At the end of each chapter useful tips and tricks are explored in the form of step-by-step tutorials - from lighting to texturing and rendering techniques. One chapter is devoted entirely to Maya’s lighs, another to only 2D texturing nodes, a third to 3D texturing nodes, and so on.
It is a good book for people who have already some experience in using Maya and want to broaden their knowledge.
That said the book contains 13 topical chapters plus a 14th chapter filled with "additional techniques". However, the last three chapters (12-14) can only be found as PDF files on the accompanying CD. The printed book itself finishes with chapter 11. The book could also do with an update to bring it in line with the extensive changes to Maya’s UI since the release of version 8.5, but if you use your brain a little you can use Maya’s online reference to help you locate menus that have been moved or renamed since this book was published.

Excellent for Professionals

I bought this manual to help me ugrade from Maya 7.0 to Maya 8.5 and it’s become my most prized and relied upon resource. Every tutorial I’ve gone through has worked perfectly (no missing steps or errors so far), Mr. Lanier writes coherently & well, and each new topic is presented in a straightforward and matter-of-fact fashion.

As a professional Video Game Artist, I’ve reccommended this manual to our enitire company of 300, and will continue to do so to everyone else. In the past, decent documentation on the finer points of Maya has been elusive, but Mr. Lanier has saved us! I will be adding his other manuals to my library.

Wow

This Book is just Perfect...it tells you EVERYTHING about the Lighting and the Texturing.... if you want to learn about that 2 things... Buy This Book NOW

A Maya book absolutely worth owning

Lee Lanier has approached the writing of his latest book with the same intensity, accuracy, and zeal that he demonstrated when he was my teacher at De Anza College several years ago. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of Maya, and of Maya lighting in particular. The material is laid out methodically and in great detail. Lee never glosses over a topic, but goes in depth to provide insight into the theory behind every concept. I highly recommend this fine book.

Great resource, lots of good information

I’ve read a number of Maya books over the past few years. Most focus on basic-intermediate usage. Lanier’s book is a great resource for learning advanced tips and theory, with many color pictures. This is the best book I’ve found about using Hypershade nodes to build professional materials.

I particularly liked that the included DVD contains Maya project files for every scenario pictured in the book (although most of the cool models are not included, just simple geometric primitives). These project files contain great setups comparing different lighting and rendering settings. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning intermediate-advanced Maya topics.

Excellent !

I’ve been reviewing several books on this topic, and this one’s a winner! It’s specific and useful and goes into great detail about nodes in Hypershade and how to use them that the manuals don’t.

If you’re serious about reaching an advanced level with your Maya rendering skills, then this book is for you. Just buy it now, and you can thank me later! In terms of lighting design and the esthetic side of things, I also like the book Digital Lighting and Rendering, 2nd Edition by the Pixar artist Jeremy Birn, I think the idea to buy both of these together is an unbeatable combination for any serious Maya user!

The BEST book on the subject

Every other book on the subject pales in comparison. This text accomplishes what many of us have been waiting for in both a textbook for advanced students and a guide for experienced users. The explanations are clear and thorough; the examples are useful and extremely well thought-out. This is an instant classic.

Best I’ve found.

In depth treatment of subject while still, for the most part, being easy to understand and follow along. Cd is very helpful. Not just that it has the tutorials but because you can go in and see exactly how he created the other images seen in the book.

Best Maya book I’ve got

Best Maya book I’ve got so far. The stuff on shading networks is gold, great visuals, not muddy or overly technical. The book itself had some poorly/roughly cut pages, but I managed to seperate them without having to send it back - probably an early print run issue (got it soon as it was available).. but the book itself is great, highly recommended for any Maya artist, and a must have for ppl leaning towards texturing.

Great Information

A great exploration of the hypershader and detailed info about creating custom shaders. Gain a great understanding of the principles behind the on screen magic.

Texuring Lighting for the Advanced

There are few resources that compile years of industry experience into one reference guide. Lee Lanier has done just that with this book.. With his background in Hollywood Special FX and Animation, working on such movies as Shrek, and Antz; his real world experience comes through in this easy to follow reference guide. This book is for those Maya users who wish to push texturing and lighting and who wish to learn specific tricks and technical aspects of the Maya Texturing and Lighting pipeline. Lee takes the time to explain the How and more importantly the Why of the techniques that the professionals use. I recommend this as an essential resource for anyone’s reference library who uses Maya professionally, or even as a hobbiest!

I learned more from this book than I did in school!!

I have a degree in media arts and animation and I studied many books and online tutorials for Maya. It soon became clear that those information sources would give you clues into learning new tools and techniques, but you had to decipher those clues on your own to determine the intention of the author.

Mr. Lanier provides his knowledge in an extremely clear and concise manner that leaves nothing to the imagination. The full color illustrations go above and beyond in clarifying complex concepts and procedures.

The supplemental material also covers the basic theories behind the art of lighting. That is something I didn’t learn with my degree and something you may only learn if you are a film student. Animators need to understand the technique behind filmmaking and Mr. Lanier knows this.

I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in improving their skills in Lighting and Texturing. The concepts can easily be applied to other 3D programs.

Wow

I have really been struggling to find a good book on lighting and textures for Maya. This is it! A+ in my grade book. I really enjoyed the glass effects very nice

The Authority on Lighting and Texturing in Maya!

Mr. Lanier has really put it all together. Finally someone has written a book about the intricacies inherent in this wonderfully powerful tool. His insight on textures, shading, lighting, and rendering are a boon to anyone hoping to harness the power of Maya. I would recommend this book to anyone who considers themself an intermediate-and-higher user of Maya.

Kudos to Mr. Lanier. Well done.