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Maya Character and Environment FX with Bifrost and XGen

by Todd Palamar

This course will focus on Maya's Generation and Simulation tools with a strong emphasis on recently added features throughout Maya. The goal is to create an extended tracking shot that moves deep into a haunted swamp. Software required: Maya 2017.

What you'll learn

Go on the journey of learning environment and character creation. In this course, Maya Character and Environment FX with Bifrost and XGen, you'll learn techniques for building trees with Paint Fx, populating terrain with XGen and creating a creature using a liquid simulation. First, you'll discover how to build a tree from scratch with Paint FX. Next, you'll explore how to use expressions with XGen. Then, you'll create a dripping mud monster using the Bifrost liquid simulation. Finally, you'll learn how to render fog and using Arnold shaders. By the end of this course, you'll know how to build a forest of your own and bring it alive with mud and water. Software required: Maya 2017.

About the author

Todd Palamar has worked in the computer animation industry for 23-years. His career started at a young age doing traditional special effects work on several direct to video movies. He later transitioned from film to games, working on numerous video games, including Sega of Japan's coin-operated title Behind Enemy Lines, as well as Dukes of Hazzard and Trophy Buck 2 for the Sony PlayStation console. Todd taught computer animation for 6 years at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. During... more

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