* Maya is the industry-leading 3D animation and effects software widely used in movies, video games, cartoons, short films, commercials, and more
* Using the award-winning animated short Open Season for the book's all-new hands-on tutorials, this exceptional full-color book offers readers clear, step-by-step projects to help them understand the complexities of modeling and animation in Maya
* Teaches readers how to build models with a variety of surface types and create realistic movement with a wide range of animation techniques
* Covers essential Maya topics such as polygon modeling, texturing, using layers to organize work, creating skeleton chains, editing joint orientation, understanding forward and inverse kinematics, using pole vector constraints for realistic motion in arms and legs, and more
