Learn techniques that can speed up your day when you are working in Maya software to help you make better-looking art. It covers all aspects of Maya, including hidden hot keys, working with motion capture, getting faster renders, speeding up playback, and old school tips and tricks.

Maya is a popular 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and visual effects software in the media and entertainment industry. It provides a powerful API that lets users customize and extend Maya software’s functionalities in order to create efficient workflows and become even more productive. This class is an introduction to Maya customization for customers who would like to create automation and/or improve efficiency when using the product. Some programming experience will be helpful. You will learn about the benefits of customizing Maya and gain the confidence to create your first plug-in using the Python API. Note that you can easily reproduce all concepts in the C++ environment as well.

The speaker is a practicing contemporary artist who’s been using Maya for 16 years, including for commercial work making animation and visualizations. With the advent of NFTs and the uptake in digital practices by contemporary artists, the art world is slowly waking up to the possibilities of digital art. As an artist, the speaker’s been exploring these possibilities since the early 1980s, as you can see in this recent interview (https://vimeo.com/543801386). While the art world is extremely varied these days, the need for originality and the hand-to-eye relationship of drawing is fairly elemental. Maya Paint Effects delivers the world's best 3D paint software. And the Bifrost extension for Maya lets artists build new and original effects. When combined with the whole suite of tools in Maya, contemporary artists have the most sophisticated and advanced tools to create the art of the next century. Duncan Brimsmead helped the speaker get started with Paint Effects, and this session will help you see what can be achieved with Paint Effects, Bifrost, and the collection of Maya tools.

With its outstanding modeling tool set and its ability to process NURBS geometry, Autodesk Maya software is well suited for the use in concept modeling in the automotive industry. This class demonstrates the typical use of Maya in automotive concept modeling and shows how Maya is positioned in various design pipelines. We will demonstrate the advantages and limitations of the smooth-polygon workflow.

Autodesk Certification signifies your experience and expertise to employers and clients around the world. Preparing to take the certification exam is highly recommended, and you should structure your examination preparation for success using the exam roadmaps and this virtual course as study guides. This virtual Maya Certification Preparation course is intended to serve as preparation for either the user or professional exam by introducing the exam categories and certification objectives in a workflow based manner in Maya. The course will step through each category using relevant examples, and provide valuable insight for the exam. In preparation for the exam, we encourage you to watch this virtual course in combination with hands-on time in the application to increase your understanding of the concepts and skills. We wish you the best of luck!

This class will present a fast, easy-to-use workflow for creating great-looking textures using Maya software and Substance Painter. This hands-on class has the indie artist and 3D generalist in mind, instead of the big company with an army of specialized artists. Substance Painter has become the industry standard tool for creating textures for games and films, but it's a very complex and daunting software, and its integration with Maya is not always straightforward. This class will cut to the chase and show you how to prepare your model in Maya, set your materials, export, procedurally create the texture in Substance Painter, and then—finally—bring it all back to Maya and render beautifully with Arnold.

This session will demonstrate how to use multitouch technology to drive Maya. The speaker will show how he’s adapted this technology to work with Maya. He’ll also show how he’s customized Maya to work more efficiently with this technology and demonstrate the speed and efficiency that come with that workflow. A simple video that shows him using this technology with Maya can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-JV8_AU9a8&t=92s

This class will present a fast, easy-to-use workflow for creating a dynamic cinematic scene using Maya software (modeling, setup, and animation) and Unreal Engine (layout and rendering). This hands-on class has the indie artist and 3D generalist in mind, instead of big companies with armies of specialized artists. Unreal Engine is widely used in the industry as a powerful, real-time rendering alternative to more-traditional renderers. Unreal Engine is a perfect companion to Maya, letting you achieve high-quality renderers in a fraction of the time needed with other renderers. Nevertheless, Unreal Engine’s integration with Maya can be very confusing for beginners. This class will cut to the chase and show you how to set up your cinematic scene in Maya, and give you best practices to properly export it to Unreal Engine. Then we will show you how to set up everything again inside Unreal Engine, how to lay out your cameras and edit in Unreal Sequencer, how to apply post effects, and, finally, how to export your final cinematic scene.

Attend this session for an in-depth exploration of animation techniques in game development using Maya software. Gain valuable insights into hand-keyed animation, considering the demands of modern gaming environments. Dive deep into Maya software's sophisticated toolset, discovering how you can refine your animation process with precision and finesse. Learn an optimized workflow engineered for seamless integration with diverse game engines, facilitating the smooth transition of your animations into the game engine you work.

This class will present a quick and easy-to-use workflow between Maya software and ZBrush. Maya is the industry-standard software for 3D animation, and ZBrush is the industry-standard software for 3D sculpting. Although both are widely used in the industry, it is not common to see beginner tutorials about the workflow and integration between both software systems. This course will try to fill this gap with plenty of examples and best practices. We will show you how to create basic meshes in Maya, how to refine the basic mesh in ZBrush using Live Boolean, how to go back and forth between both programs using the GoZ plug-in, how to export high and low-poly models back to Maya, and how to create textures in ZBrush and apply them to an Arnold shader, among other interesting topics. In the end, you will have a very good grasp of how to use Maya and ZBrush together.

In this talk, we look at the variety of features and toolsets inside Maya that can be leveraged by artists to create compelling and engaging animated performances, in sometimes unexpected ways.

This class will present a fast, easy-to-use workflow for creating great-looking renders using Maya software with the GPU-based Redshift Renderer. This hands-on class has the indie artist and 3D generalist in mind, instead of the big company with an army of specialized artists. The Redshift Renderer is widely used in the industry and can give you realistic-looking images in a fraction of the time needed with other renderers. Nevertheless, Redshift's integration with Maya can be confusing in the beginning. This class will cut to the chase and show you how to set up your model in Maya; select the correct Redshift shaders; prepare your materials, lights, and lens effects; and finally render your image using the two available modes in Redshift: Production and RT (Real Time). You'll learn about lens effects, denoisers, AOVs, and VDB rendering.

Maya software has recently added some significant new tools for character rigging and animation. These include Offset Parent Matrix, which creates an entirely new way to think about rigging characters. Understand how this feature works and how it can simplify rigs to make them both faster and easier to understand. In addition, new utility nodes such as UV Pin, Proximity Pin, and Rivet can help accelerate facial animation and other skinning tasks. Learn how to use these tools to create better rigs for your characters. Animation features include a brief tour of the new Maya Motion Library, along with a number of animation productivity enhancements, which can speed the animation process.

Layout in the animation and VFX (visual effects) industry utilizes a broad scope of tools to bring cinematic ideas to fruition. This session will be a deep dive into the benefits found using Maya software and Bifrost to boost creative film making and ultimately save time and money. In this course we will capitalize on the latest toolsets and features to compose content that aligns with the director's vision at an early stage of production.

In this session, we’ll explore the fundamentals of creating expressive facial animation in Maya software, with a strong focus on design and appeal. From understanding key facial shapes to enhancing emotions with nuanced details, we’ll break down essential techniques that bring characters to life. We’ll also discuss how strong posing, clear silhouettes, and exaggeration contribute to readability and charm, ensuring that every expression feels intentional and engaging. This lecture will provide insights to elevate your facial animation with both technical precision and artistic appeal.

Arnold 5.0 represents an evolution in rendering for artists everywhere. With a significant update to the Arnold core, faster rendering, new feature additions, enhancements to existing workflows, and exciting new capabilities, Arnold 5 will help artists create more stunning imagery than ever. Join Autodesk Technical Specialists John Paul Giancarlo and Morgan Evans for this hands-on class, where you will experience the power and simplicity of rendering with Arnold in Maya for yourself. Arnold 5 is available now as a stand-alone renderer, as well as a plugin for Maya (MtoA), 3ds Max (MAXtoA), and Cinema4D (C4DtoA).

The script language MEL (Maya Embedded Language) is not only a feature of Autodesk Maya software, it is the foundation. Every function in Maya is a MEL command that can be accessed using menus, icons, buttons, marking menus, and other controls. In this class, we will cover MEL concepts, the possibilities and limitations of this scripting language, and the differences in the Maya API. We will work through some examples, and discuss the differences between MEL and Python and explain the advantages of using Python for Maya.

In this class, we will examine a creature modeling and detailing workflow using Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Mudbox software. We will begin with exploring creature concept techniques in Autodesk® SketchBook® Pro software and then review clean and optimized polygonal modeling tips and tricks in Maya. Next, we will send our base mesh into Mudbox and take an in-depth look at the processes of sculpting, detailing, and painting to bring our creature look and style to life.

This class is a case-study presentation about the use of Maya software to produce a 3D-animated TV pilot for the Brazilian market with almost no money. Although Maya is usually thought of as the software of choice of big Hollywood studios, it can also be very effective in a low-budget context. The TV pilot used as a case study, "Dragao de Aco” (Steel Dragon), was produced with a grant from the Brazilian government in 2017–2018. It is a 22-minute, 3D-animated TV pilot with anime-inspired visuals.

There is a need for digital artists to generate animations from their 2D visual drawings. Further, they also want to enhance the short films with music and additional effects. In this class, we will learn how to create storyboards to short animated films in Autodesk Maya, using advanced tools and high-end plugins, to bring to life realistic 3D art, 4D animations or add to your design portfolio. If you are seeking more inspiration, then this class is for you - We will discuss a few examples to help you get to grips with its core Maya features, and supercharge your skills!