Product Review
Use Maya to create realistic environments and props for digital gamesWeapons, vehicles, tools, buildings, trees, plants, walls, ceilings, and floors-these items may seem secondary to the game environment, but they are integral parts of the game and they all need to be created.
Maya Studio Projects: Game Environments and Props is a step-by-step project guide to creating some of the most popular game art.
Author Michael McKinley shares techniques for getting the most out of Maya to create realistic, vivid, and compelling worlds and otherworldly props. Along the way, he provides notes and FYIs that give readers depth and breadth for bringing both reality and creativity to their game art. A bonus DVD features step-by-step videos to help drive home concepts.
- The Studio Projects series offers projects that start from nothing, just as they do in the studio; these books provide you with a step-by-step guide to software attributes and tools that encompass multiple disciplines so that you can create a finished, renderable object
- Many games have only a few characters, and multiple levels and environments, and hundreds of props-this book focuses on projects and techniques for creating everything but the character
- Maya is the top 3D app for creating console and computer games such as: Rock Band, Gears of War, James Bond: Quantum of Solace, Fallout 3, and Far Cry 2
Learn effective Maya studio techniques with this handy, step-by-step, full-color book.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(5 customer reviews) 6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
just what i was looking for,
July 15, 2010 k00lbr33ze - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Maya Studio Projects: Game Environments and Props (Paperback)
This book is perfect for those who want to design game assets
using Maya but haven't got a clue on how to do it.
For a little over $20 this book is a great resource- it saves
time digging through the interwebs for how to's.
A background knowledge of Maya & it's UI is expected of the user.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Not for those that have never touched Maya!,
June 15, 2011 $ko7 (Hollywood) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Maya Studio Projects: Game Environments and Props (Paperback)
When I first started to actually use this book, I had already started taking an Intro to Maya class aswell as a texturing in Maya class and didn't find it to be as difficult as some people might.
The major trouble areas of this book are as follows. It's done using Maya 2009, which to someone that is not familiar with Maya at all this can be difficult as the interface is different from recent releases of the software. The video's do not have audio, which can also be confusing unless you actually READ the book. Some of the video's are out of order, however if you've read the book, it's simple to figure this out.
Now that being said, allot of the actual useful Maya instructional DVD's out there from places like Gnomon are also done in Maya 2009, so it's fairly common that the version your using is going to be different then the one in the instructional material. At the time of writing this, I'm using Maya 2011 and 2012 is already out.
Personally I found...Read more
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Not the best book to follow.,
March 13, 2011 JohnMc - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Maya Studio Projects: Game Environments and Props (Paperback)
I am currently using this book in my Maya class at school. This book is not the easiest to follow, specially for beginners. In the first project he has you take your work from Maya to Photoshop, and back and forth, over and over, then tells you to use his file instead. If you follow along in the book, the video files are completely out of order. If the book did sets 1, 2, 3, 4... 10. Then the video would go 1, 3, 8, 9, 2, 5, 7, 10, 4, 6.... The videos also have no audio, so you are stuck skipping around to figure out what to do next. Also if you purchase the pdf version, you do not get the files he refers you to in the chapters.
