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Creating Cartoon Characters in Maya

by Justin Marshall

In this series of Maya tutorials, we will go step by step through the process of building and texturing a child character in a cartoon style. Software required: Maya 2013.

What you'll learn

In this series of Maya tutorials, we will go step by step through the process of building and texturing a child character in a cartoon style. Cartoon-style characters are prevalent in the world of TV and film CG, as well as video games. These types of characters are a lot of fun to build, but they do present their own set of challenges. We'll jump right into the training by talking about creating work that matches our reference images. We'll use a variety of polygon methods as well as some NURBS techniques to build up our adolescent football star from the ground up. In addition, we'll talk about creating topology that will lend itself well to deformation during animation. In the end, you'll have a finished cartoon character ready for rigging and animation. And you'll have the knowledge you need to begin creating your very own character designs. Software required: Maya 2013.

About the author

Justin thrives as a lead modeling author at Pluralsight. Growing up, Justin found a deep interest for the computer graphics industry after watching movies like Jurassic Park, Toy Story, and The Abyss. His ambition would lead him to work at Sony Imageworks in Los Angeles on movies like Monster House and Surf's Up. Justin has also had numerous articles, tutorials, and images published in 3D World and 3D Artist. As an author, Justin enjoys collaborating with fellow authors, especially on project... more

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