Creating Visual Effects in Maya: Fire, Water, Debris, and Destruction

If you ever wanted an in depth look at how Maya handles fluid dynamics, particles, and physics, this book will be incredibly useful to you! Mr. Lanier explains, chapter by chapter, how these different aspects of Maya can be combined to create photo-realistic FX for movies and television. Using tutorials which build on each other, Mr. Lanier goes over designing different types of smoke, fire, fluids, PaintFX and NParticles. Also included are very useful MEL scripting tips and tricks, which can help control attributes, and link them across Maya's toolsets. Topics include generation of hair/fur, creating explosions, and how to handle the destruction of multiple types of materials. All of these things are tackled within the context of projects throughout the book. Mr. Lanier goes over creating a robot with a fiery furnace for a stomach, as well as creating a bundle of dynamite (complete with disappearing fuse, and ensuing explosion/debris).Although these things can be very technical, Mr. Lanier goes over each step in detail and explains why Maya handles it in the way that it does. Additionally, Mr. Lanier has included extensive information about camera matching and motion tracking. By the end of the book, one can generate a variety of natural effects within Maya and be confident about matching that to a film or background plate. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to get more familiar with the more advanced VFX capabilities in Maya and how they can be applied to a film or video project.

I found this book very useful and thorough as with all of Lanier's books and instruction style. One of the better books I've seen on the subject matter. It's presented in a concise easy to follow format that gets your hands dirty doing things rather than just reading about it. Highly recommend Lanier's books!

Waste of money