Lynda.COM Maya 2011: Creating Textures and Shaders

Author:
Eric Keller

Duration:
03h 30m

Released on:
9/28/2010

Exercise files:
Yes

Software works on:
Windows only

Maya 2011: Creating Textures and Shaders with Eric Keller shows how to create textures and materials, and then apply them to models to render realistic surfaces. The course covers working with the mental ray shading nodes, including the mental images architectural node, subsurface scattering nodes, occlusion, and car paint shaders, as well as how to incorporate these nodes into shading networks using the Hypershade editor. It also explores using textures, Maya software nodes, normal maps, and displacement maps for adding detail to models. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics include:
Understanding shading concepts
Simulating the Fresnel effect for realistic reflections
Rendering transparent and translucent surfaces
Comparing mental ray and Maya standard shaders
Introducing the mia_material
Developing shader networks
Using subsurface scattering shaders
Mapping polygon UV coordinates
Incorporating texture nodes into networks
Improving skin detail with ambient occlusion
Painting bump maps
Creating normal and displacement maps
Troubleshooting maps

Introduction 02m 19s
Welcome 01m 06s
Using the exercise files 01m 13s

1. Shading Concepts 17m 49s
Explaining diffuse reflections 02m 39s
Defining glossy and blurred reflections 02m 32s
Looking at refraction 04m 20s
Describing the Fresnel effect 01m 56s
Understanding anisotropy 01m 10s
Identifying ambient and reflection occlusion 01m 49s
Defining sub-surface scattering 02m 04s
Simulating translucency 01m 19s

2. Shading in mental ray 01h 08m
Using Maya's standard shaders with mental ray 07m 02s
Comparing mental ray and Maya shader nodes 09m 12s
Creating mental ray shaders 02m 32s
Making sense of mental ray shaders 10m 35s
Introducing the mia_material 09m 16s
Creating a custom mia_material preset 09m 17s
Looking at car paint materials 06m 43s
Using subsurface scattering shaders 13m 33s

3. Textures 01h 05m
Understanding UV coordinates 04m 26s
Comparing NURBS and polygon UVs 04m 48s
Mapping polygon UV surfaces 13m 01s
Using texture maps for color and other shader channels 08m 01s
Applying and projecting 2D procedural texture nodes 04m 00s
Applying 3D procedural texture nodes 07m 01s
Using ramp textures 08m 12s
Setting up utility nodes 06m 29s
Using file texture nodes 09m 41s

4. mental ray Texture Nodes 22m 36s
Applying the turbulence texture 09m 37s
Considering the round corners texture 04m 17s
Improving skin detail with ambient occlusion 04m 27s
Applying reflection occlusion 04m 15s

5. Creating Surface Details with Textures 33m 06s
Painting bump maps 04m 14s
Creating normal maps 05m 24s
Applying normal maps 06m 17s
Creating displacement maps 09m 14s
Troubleshooting displacement maps 07m 57s

Conclusion 00m 33s
Goodbye 00m 33s