Title Details

Lee Lanier is a 3D animator, digital compositor, and director. His films have played in more than 200 museums, galleries,and film festivals worldwide. Before directing the shorts Millennium Bug, Mirror, Day Off the Dead, Weapons of Mass Destruction, 13 Ways to Die at Home, and Blood Roulette, he served as a senior animator in the lighting and modeling departments at PDI/DreamWorks on Antz and Shrek. He created digital visual effects for such films as Mortal Kombat while at Walt Disney Studios. He is the author of Professional Digital Compositing, Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting, and Maya Professional Tips and Techniques. You can view his work at BeezleBugBit.com.

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1: Texturing and Lighting a Product, Part 1 1

Project: Reviewing the Scene File 2

Material Types and Critical Attributes 4

Hypershade Functionality 8

Project: Assigning Materials 9

Lighting Techniques and Maya Light Types 12

Project: Creating Lights and Shadows 16

2D and 3D Procedural Textures 19

Project: Applying Textures 21

Scanline and Raytraced Rendering 31

Project: Raytracing Reflections 33

Chapter 2: Texturing and Lighting a Product, Part 2 35

Project: Accentuating the Logos 36

Batch Rendering 38

Project: Adding Strategic Fill Light 40

Project: Splitting Material Assignments 41

Project: Fine-Tuning the Shadow 43

Light Width 44

Project: Switching to mental ray 46

Anti-Aliasing Theory 47

Project: Blurring Reflections 52

The Final Gathering System 53

Project: Activating Final Gathering 54

Optimizing the Scene 59

Project: Creating the Final Render 60

Chapter 3: Texturing and Lighting a Character, Part 1 63

Project: Preparing the Scene 64

Project: Assigning Materials 67

1-, 2-, and 3-Point Lighting 68

Project: Roughing in the Lighting 72

Examining the UVs of NURBS Surfaces 75

Translucence 76

Project: Roughing in the Textures 76

Project: Creating a Custom Skin Bitmap 87

Project: Switching to mental ray 90

Chapter 4: Texturing and Lighting a Character, Part 2 93

Custom Connections in the Hypershade 94

Project: Adjusting the Skin-Shading Network 96

Project: Activating Image-Based Lighting 100

Project: Deactivating Shadows 104

Project: Addressing Texture Warp 105

Project: Fine-Tuning 108

Color Space and Monitor Calibration 112

Maya Color Profiles 115

Chapter 5: Texturing and Lighting a Vehicle, Part 1 119

Project: Preparing the Scene 120

UV Maps 123

Project: Assigning Materials 126

Project: Roughing in the Lighting 128

Project: Creating a Sky in Maya 131

Project: Roughing in the Textures 135

Displacement Maps 140

Project: Displacing the Hill 142

Paint Effects 143

Project: Painting Grass 144

Chapter 6: Texturing and Lighting a Vehicle, Part 2 147

Project: Completing the Texture Maps 148

Project: Refining the Materials 158

Motion Blur 163

Project: Adding Motion Blur 166

The Render Layer Editor 166

Project: Breaking the Scene into 170

Render Layers

Project: Adding Reflectivity 172

Project: Creating the Final Render 174

Chapter 7: Texturing and Lighting an Environment, Part 1 177

Project: Preparing the Scene 178

mental ray Shaders 178

Project: Assigning Materials 181

Physical Sun and Sky and Portal Lights 182

Project: Setting Up the Skylights 183

Project: Adding Textures 187

Global Illumination 192

Project: Activating Global Illumination 194

Chapter 8: Texturing and Lighting an Environment, Part 2 197

Project: Preparing the Scene 198

Ambient Occlusion 198

Project: Adding Occlusion 198

Multirender Passes 200

Project: Creating Multirender Passes 202

Project: Fine-Tuning the Render 205

Stereoscopic 3D 206

Project: Setting Up a Stereoscopic Camera 208

Appendix: About the Companion DVD 211

What You'll Find on the DVD 212

System Requirements 212

Using the DVD 213

Troubleshooting 213

Customer Care 214

Index 215