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Lynda.com Up and Running with mental ray in Maya

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Lynda.com Up and Running with mental ray in Maya
English | Size: 1.49 GB (1,601,339,173 Bytes)
Category: Tutorial


Up and Running with mental ray in Maya
with Brian Bradley

Meet mental ray, the render engine of choice for many Maya users In this course, Brian Bradley covers the basic and not-so-basic features of this production-proven renderer. Brian introduces the mental ray workflow, lighting tools, global illumination toolset and the mia materials. Last but not least, he covers the Unified Sampling engine and render effects such as caustics, depth of field, and displacement mapping
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Digital Tutors – Creating an Animated Paper Folding Effect in Maya

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Digital Tutors – Creating an Animated Paper Folding Effect in Maya
English | Size: 4,78 GB
Category: Digital Tutors


Throughout this Maya tutorial, weÆll learn the process of how to create a paper folding animation. Utilizing MayaÆs Geometry cache weÆll run a dynamic deformer, nCloth simulations and vertex animation to get the look we want. WeÆll go through how to manipulate, duplicate and edit our Geometry cache files. WeÆll also talk about how we can control our render times and plan ahead for working on a render farm. Once youÆve completed this Maya training, youÆll not only know how to achieve this result but youÆll also understand how you can optimize it to meet any deadline. [Read more…]

Lynda – Creating Shader Networks in Maya and Mental Ray

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Lynda – Creating Shader Networks in Maya and Mental Ray
English | Size: 954 MB
Category: Lynda.com


Dive deep into the Hypershade window and shader creation with Maya and the mental ray rendering engine. In this course, author Aaron F. Ross shows how to create materials and shaders for 3D objects, characters, and landscapes, with reflectivity, transparency, and amazing texture. Become more comfortable building shader networks and open up a lot of new possibilities for creative surfaces in Maya.
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The Gnomon Workshop Global Illumination and Caustics in Maya & mental ray

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The Gnomon Workshop Global Illumination and Caustics in Maya & mental ray
English | Size: 1,3 GB
Category: The Gnomon Workshop


n this lecture, Frederic Durand demonstrates a variety of techniques for using Global Illumination and Caustics within Maya and mental ray. Global Illumination and Caustics rendering techniques use photons as the method to create natural lighting phenomenon. Photon based lighting allows light rays to bounce and create complex effects that are not possible with other rendering methods. The training begins with an introduction on Global Illumination theory and quickly moves into how to control the basic GI render settings. Fred shows how to balance accuracy, intensity and photon emission to create fast, production quality renders using Global Illumination alongside of Final Gather. The technical and artistic challenges of caustic lighting are covered in great detail. Materials such as glass, shiny metals and translucent plastics are used as case studies. Compositing is addressed as an integral part of any lighting workflow, as it helps to work more efficiently, while rendering in passes is critical to any successful lighting strategy. For those interested in mastering mental ray, this title offers invaluable techniques from an experienced industry artist. [Read more…]

Lynda – Creating Cityscapes in Maya

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Lynda – Creating Cityscapes in Maya
English | Size: 1.55 GB
Category: Lynda.com


Follow along with Adam Crespi as he designs, models, and renders a detailed cityscape with Maya. After gathering reference materials, Adam designs the basic structure and components of the city in Adobe Illustrator, generating reusable symbols to represent trees, lights, and buildings. With the plan in hand, Adam dives into Maya, creating proxy objects as he lays out the city to scale. Each element is then set up as a reference object and duplicated throughout the scene, using containers and mental ray Proxy objects. The final chapter shows you how to add a matte-painting background to your scene and check the composite in Nuke. Adam also includes a bonus movie featuring a real-world example project: a simulation of a crane moving on a studio backlot. [Read more…]

Digital Tutors – Blend Shape-Based Facial Rigging in Maya

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Digital Tutors – Blend Shape-Based Facial Rigging in Maya
English | Size: 2,57 GB
Category: Digital Tutors


In this series of Maya tutorials, youÆll learn production-proven facial rigging techniques for animation. WeÆll start by building a facial skeleton. WeÆll then cover time-saving binding and weight-painting techniques.
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Lynda.com – Creating Cityscapes in Maya-ELOHiM

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Lynda.com – Creating Cityscapes in Maya-ELOHiM
English | Size: 753 MB
Category: Lynda.com


Follow along with Adam Crespi as he designs, models, and renders a detailed cityscape with Maya. After gathering reference materials, Adam designs the basic structure and components of the city in Adobe Illustrator, generating reusable symbols to represent trees, lights, and buildings. With the plan in hand, Adam dives into Maya, creating proxy objects as he lays out the city to scale. Each element is then set up as a reference object and duplicated throughout the scene, using containers and mental ray Proxy objects. The final chapter shows you how to add a matte-painting background to your scene and check the composite in Nuke. Adam also includes a bonus movie featuring a real-world example project: a simulation of a crane moving on a studio backlot. [Read more…]

Dynamic Simulations with Bullet Physics in Maya – Lynda.com

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Dynamic Simulations with Bullet Physics in Maya – Lynda.com
English | Size: 392 MB
Category: Lynda.com


Visual effects designers and video game artists often need to animate complex scenes containing physical simulations. The Bullet dynamics solver, an open-source physics engine, is a great solution, and it replaces MayaÆs legacy rigid-body and soft-body toolsets. Fast and efficient, Bullet is highly optimized and integrated into the existing Maya toolset. In this course, Aaron F. Ross shows how to set up and direct Bullet simulations for collisions, breakage, and simple cloth effects. Learn how to create simulations with polygon objects; work with dynamic and passive rigid bodies; integrate dynamics with keyframes, constraints, and soft bodies; and use rigid sets to create breakage simulations. Aaron will also show how to leverage Alembic data for faster baking, caching, and importing and exporting. [Read more…]