CGNetworks News
CGToolkit to launch it's first book, “The Art of Rigging”.
14th July 2005

Hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed, ‘The Making of Leon DVD’ set, ‘The Art of Rigging’ is the first book in a three-part series that teaches the theory and practices used by professional technical directors in Alias Maya.

‘The Art of Rigging, volume one’, is a beautiful text printed at the highest quality in full color. The text presents what is often considered to be a confusing topic in a clear and concise manner that will truly benefit both students and professionals.
Because each chapter is designed to become progressively more advanced, readers can quickly find the information they need regardless of whether they are at a novice or professional level.

Included with the book is a DVD-based training course with over 30 video lectures spanning every major topic from the book. This DVD is an unprecedented value giving readers over nine hours of quality training material at no extra cost. The DVD features many Maya scene files, including many original creatures (and their rigs) that were designed especially for this book.

To help prospective technical directors learn how to harness the power of Maya's Embedded Language or 'MEL', every chapter in The Art Of Rigging includes full coverage of the creation of a custom script. Line-by-line breakdowns help to demystify complex script creation and will inspire readers to get started writing their own Maya programs. Seasoned MEL scripters will benefit from getting an inside look at alternative programming techniques. No current MEL texts include in-depth discussion of advanced techniques like file I/O, recursion, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices.

The Art of Rigging Volume One will go on sale at www.cgtoolkit.com for US$59.99. The second and third volumes are currently in production and will be announced at a later date.

Related links:
CGToolkit