ake your skills to the next level. This Learning Maya 2012 Tutorial Video is the ultimate in comprehensive instruction for the discerning professional.

In this course, we will cover tools and techniques for setting up character rigs in Maya.
Step by step, we'll construct a control rig that is robust and animator-friendly. We'll learn everything from proper joint placement and techniques for correcting a joint's orientation to learning fun ways we can preserve volume as our mesh deforms and how to make our controls efficient and easy to comprehend. We'll also learn how to build some fun MEL tools that will help speed up our workflow, bringing that time back into constructing our control rigs with the best methods.

The Refinery Project is a four chapter tutorial that demonstrates in real-time how to bring a static image to life in seven hours. Starting with a static photo of an oil refinery Alex integrates 2D and 3D elements using Maya After Effects and Photoshop. In this final chapter we begin by adding a new foreground shoreline and some rocks in the water. We pull elements from a photo using masking fringe removal and warping. We then move to Maya to create a dynamic flock of birds that fly into frame. The bird effect is created from scratch including joints skinning looping animation UVs texturing particle instancing emitters fields expressions lighting rendering and the final composite of the Refinery Project.

The Refinery Project is a four chapter tutorial that demonstrates in real-time how to bring a static image to life in seven hours. Starting with a static photo of an oil refinery Alex integrates 2D and 3D elements using Maya After Effects and Photoshop.