Maya 4.5 Fundamentals

I'm proud to have been associated with the creative and excellent Maya Fundamentals team assembled by New Riders. I wish to thank them as a group and also individually: The first edition's Development Editor Lisa Lord improved the book immeasurably with her quick perception of Maya (without ever using it!) and amazing attention to detail. This 4.5 edition was edited by Sarah Kearns, who helped coordinate a large number of changes and additions. Senior Acquisitions Editor Linda Bump piloted our project, keeping us on the right track and offering kind encouragement when we needed it. And this book would not be possible without the confidence from New Riders executive management, Publisher David Dwyer. First edition technical editors Chaz Laughlin and Eric Pavey were immeasurably helpful in guiding our approach, as well as checking every technical detail. Thanks also to the technical editors for this edition, Shawn Dunn and Tom Harper.

The developers of this book's tutorials made a major contribution ”Lee Gooding and Garry Lewis. Lee developed a continuing "Spooky World"-themed tutorial that teaches many concepts and yields some attractive results with a minimum of complex steps. Garry Lewis of Mind's Eye 3D (www.me3d.tv) helped create the character animation chapter that is new to this edition. Garry's organized approach to character rigging and animation make a potentially painful subject fun and straightforward.

I am indebted to the artists who have contributed imagery to this book, in particular cover artist Michael Sormann (see www.sormann3d.com for more of his images and movies) for giving us a book cover to promote Maya 4.5 Fundamentals before there were any words for the pages inside. The artists' inspirational images prove that lone artists can create stunning 3D art and animation using Maya, in an age where large teams of animators often work on single scenes for 3D animated movies.

Thanks to AliasWavefront for their help; particularly David Lau and Leilei Sun for keeping my software humming between new beta releases.

Here at home, Pam Willis managed sales for my company Trinity Animation while I was preoccupied with creating a new edition. Michael Rucereto compiled the FAQ for the book's web site that helped drive some of the changes we made to this new edition. Amber West also helped in compiling the CD-ROM movies for this book and in development of the book's web site. I'm blessed to have such outstanding help with my business and book projects. My deepest thanks to Pam, Michael, and Amber.

My gratitude and affection also goes out to those who have inspired me creatively and otherwise : my high school art teacher Sherryl Knox, who gave me the eyes to understand visual expression; my guitar teacher and lifelong friend Scott Roby, who taught me to teach; my elementary school music teacher Mrs. Young, who showed me how technology and creation can go together; Bill Allen of 3D Artist magazine, who encouraged me to write about 3D computer graphics; my father, who introduced me to computing when I was still in junior high school (with a Sinclair ZX-81, which would be somewhat sluggish if it could run Maya today!); my mother, who taught me to read before kindergarten, and also taught me the principles of art and music from before I can remember; my sisters Diane, Tracy, and Tonya, who have always treated me like a star even when it was quite clear I was not ; and my wife, who showers guidance, support, and encouragement upon me at every turn .