perhaps you could explain what you mean by "theory"? That's been mentioned to me before that my book was lacking, and I have to say, I've no idea what it is. lol

Do you mean, stuff like the bouncing ball lesson and the like?

So far, the main driving philosophy behind my first, and also, this book is to do a how-to on actual job work. This is stuff that I literally do every day at work. Ya know?

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

Quick render just to see how she looks:

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

great work there man !
looking forward to the final render

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littlelostalien

I think when somebody is giving the time to show all aspects of this type of work you cant expect them to give you the whole deal thoroughly in every aspect that they may cover in a book, dvd or whatever. Put Simply, its impractical. It like asking someone to do it for you. If you want more theory you need to get out there and find stuff by other people as there are many different approaches to animation. If you want a book purely on animation I suggest the one by Richard Williams, its devoted to most areas of animation. I have several Maya books and dvds, and have learnt a great deal from them over the years but you have to look beyond what is given to you directly if you want to go the distance. Then hopefully you'll have your own way/style of doing things.

Looking good Mike...

Cheers
Jay

I think he was asking if the book itself was going to go over animation theory. The actual writing of the book hasn't begun yet (been focusing on the art so far), and since I've been told my first book was lacking such theory, I don't mind considering it.

But I don't know what people mean by "theory"! lol

It's true the book, just like the first one, will not be a "beginner-to-Maya" book, so while there will be talk on basic animation techniques and I'll go over all the tools and commands, the rest of the book is actual step-by-step on doing it.

Here, I'll preview the contents to you guys. Feel free to let me know what you think, although, for now, this is final and won't be changing.

The Game Animator's Guide to Maya

Chapter 1 - like in book 1, an introduction to the game industry itself, reel advice, development pipeline, etc.

Chapter 2 - Basic rigging and animation tools, commands, and techniques.

Chapter 3 - Calamity Jane, next-gen main character --- rigging, binding, and 2 or 3 basic animation sequences for a biped, humanoid character

Chapter 4 - Dire Wolf, current-gen basic enemy --- for a four-legged creature

Chapter 5 - Giant Kraken, current-gen boss monster --- for a multi-tentacled creature

Chapter 6 - Storm Tank 6000, low poly handheld or RTS unit (ala Warcraft 3 or C&C: Generals) --- for a mechanical fantasy vehicle

Chapter 7 - Misc. Animation ---- Wings (flapping, folding), Blobby slime movement, 4-wheel undercarriage suspension, etc.

Approx. 315-350 pages

All models and textures (including Calamity Jane here) will be included on the CD as EXCLUSIVE game content created specificaly for the book, over $3000 worth of content, not to mention the Maya PLE and other CD goodies that I won't go into here.

But the basic idea is, once you've learned how to rig and animate a biped, a quadraped, tentacles, mecha-thing, wings, slimer, and a standard vehicle, you're pretty much schooled in how to rig and animate most anything (save for the odd exceptions) that you're given to animate in the game industry!

(oh, and if anyone thinks of another basic archtype thing to animate that I might be missing, feel free to let me know. There's room in Chapter 7 for more. Not weapons, though... there's really nothing to that. A spin here... a recoil there... done. lol)

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

Cool render, its looking good
Just a suggestion but her chin/jaw looks to be jutting out just a little too much to me (personal preference though)

With the outline I think you've just sold the book to us noobies who want to get into that element of maya but are still (slowly) working on the modelling and texturing

Now hurry up and get it finished so we can buy it

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Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

I dunno about the noobs, but I'll be getting that too so move over!!


Cheers Mike

Jay

I wasn't complaining about the last book, I know there is lots of ground work I have to do myself before I'll understand how to animate something. Mike, Chapter 2 sounds like what I meant - a bit more explanation of maya's animation tools that are relevent to games, and the techniques game animators use, before you show us how to use them. Collecting together the tool explanations at the beginning, rather than having to explain each tool as you come up to requiring it in the tutorial, makes more sense to me as it's easier to refer back to.

I think the question is not "is this a maya beginner's book?" but "is this an animator beginner's book?" Do you want a modeller who can use maya to make their models, but who's never animated their models before to be able to follow it?

She looks hot already!

Really looking forward to this book Mike, just as I did the first one

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Liter is French for 'Gimme some ****ing cola before I break vous ****ing lips!"

I know you weren't complaining, littlelostalien, I do appreciate the comments on how I might improve this book over the first! I guess the main thing is I was never trained as a game artist. The only training I ever got was more technical "how to use Maya" type stuff and never had game specific art classes or ever read or used game specific art books. So, the way I learned all this was by actually doing it. There's no real "theory" to it, if you take my meaning. At least, not with how *I* do it.

But hopefully, the expanded techniques/tools chapter will cover what you are looking for. (that's actually the first chapter I'll be writing... need to get started on it!)

Some minor additions to Jane, namely hands and feet. I'm not too happy with the hands, so might revisit them later.







Now to start the details... belt, gun, holster, backpack, spurs and other little doo-dads, etc!

By the way, if there's any part of the model you'd like closer looks at, wires, etc. let me know. I'd like folks to learn from this thread somewhat, since the book will just straight up give the model to you already completed.

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

I understand - I've not had any game art training either, after I'd graduated (I did physics) I just did lots of reading (your book was most helpful ), and did lots of tutorials. Every day at my new job is a new lesson! It's great to get insights in how to do things from more experience people, I think it's a great way to learn as to be an artist you really do have to knuckle down and do stuff yourself.

Calamity is looking good, though from the side view she does look like she's about to fall forwards.

Originally posted by mtmckinley
perhaps you could explain what you mean by "theory"?

Originally Posted by

I think he means by anticipation, squash and stretch, excetera.

Looking good Mike!

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Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Have you thought about adding creatures with multiple legs to your book? For example spiders and scorpions. From my understanding its a completely different animation sequence for those types of creatures than any other you have listed. Also, that general movement also feeds into the robotic walk sequences of futuristic mechs, like the spider walkers from Star Wars Clone Wars. If anything it might help to add a little bit about it, if not create a whole chapter on it.

The storm tank is actually a 6-legged mech vehicle.

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-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

Ha ha, well in that case never mind :p