Mastering Autodesk Maya 2015 – E-BOOK

Mastering Autodesk Maya 2015 – E-BOOK

The Autodesk® Maya® program is big. It is really, really huge. The book you hold in your hands
and all the exercises within it represent a mere sliver of what can be created in Maya. Mastering
Maya takes years of study and practice. I have been using Maya almost every day since 1999,
and I’m still constantly facing new challenges and making new discoveries.
This book is meant to be a guide to help you not only understand Maya, but also learn about
Maya. The title Mastering Autodesk Maya 2015 implies an active engagement with the software.
This book is packed with hands-on tutorials. If you’re looking for a quick-reference guide that
simply describes each and every button, control, and tool in the Maya interface, turn to the
Maya documentation that comes with the software. This book is not a description of Maya; it is
an explanation illustrated with practical examples.
The skills you acquire through the examples in this book should prepare you for using Maya
in a professional environment. To that end, some features, such as lighting and rendering with
mental ray®, nDynamics, Fluids, and Maya Muscle, have received more emphasis and attention
than others. Features that have not changed signifi cantly over the past few versions of the software,
such as Maya Software rendering, standard Maya shaders, and older rigging techniques,
receive less attention since they have been thoroughly covered elsewhere.
When you read this book and work through the exercises, do not hesitate to use the Maya
help fi les. We won’t be insulted! The Maya documentation has a very useful search function that
allows you to fi nd complete descriptions of each control in the software. To use the help fi les,
click the Help menu in the Maya menu interface. The documentation consists of a large library
of Maya resources, which will appear in your default web browser when you access the help
fi les. Experienced Maya artists never hesitate to use the help fi les to fi nd out more information
about the software; there is no shame in asking questions! In addition, hovering over a tool or
setting will give you a brief description. Features new to Maya, highlighted in green throughout
the interface, have links to larger descriptions as well as movies.