Maya is a tool for 3-d modelling, animation and a wide range of special effects. This book is a guide, step-by-step, to realizing concepts in models, characters and settings. Beyond the basics, this book shows how to create and animate complex models, use dynamics effects like particles and soft and rigid bodies, and programme Maya's interface with MEL scripting. This book gives coverage of Maya's features to: create photorealistic character animations (for games, movies and broadcast); harness the power of Paint Effects to create and animate painterly effects; model in NURBS and polygons; animate using keyframing, expressions and MEL; expand Maya's innate capabilities with MEL scripting; bind geometry to joints using rigid and smooth skinning; sculpt and weight objects with Artisan; create and use particles; and create and use soft bodies to produce complex behavior in Maya objects. In a section of interviews, industry developers talk about working with Maya. Alias|Wavefront insiders discuss the next frontier for Maya, explain how Paint Effects was developed and discuss the evolution of the Maya GUI. Habib Zargarpour, an artist at Industrial Light and Magic, describes the integration of Maya into ILM's work on "Star Wars: Episode One, The Phantom Menace".