• 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

If you already understand the basics of Maya, the industry-leading 3D animation and effects software, you?ll be ready to move on to the sophisticated topics in this updated edition of Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting. Detailed, easy-to-follow instructions will teach you the real-world production secrets that professional animators use to achieve amazing results. In the second edition, you will find extensive and updated coverage of the latest theories and trends in addition to an enclosed CD with exclusive content to help you sharpen your skills.

Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting, 2nd Edition is a culmination of Lee Lanier’s professional and teaching experience. He learned advanced techniques working on such films as Mortal Kombat and Shrek, and as an instructor he craved an in-depth book that taught shop-tested and professional texturing, lighting, and rendering methods.

This second edition is up-to-date with Maya’s latest texturing, lighting and rendering powerhouse features, including Toon shading, nCloth texturing, and multipass rendering. It begins with an introduction of lighting concepts, moves into a thorough explanation of texture mapping and Maya’s hidden features for achieving great results, then provides the most thorough exploration ever published of Maya’s Hypershade (where animators create connections between shaders, texture maps, lights, cameras, and geometry), and concludes with a detailed look at rendering in Maya, including everything from batch rendering to global illumination workflow and HDRI techniques.

So far, so good

I haven’t gotten through the entire book yet but I am impressed with it so far. The author talks about techniques in an interesting manner making you want to read more. I have a multitude of Maya books and so far this one is my favorite.

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.

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