April 24, 25, 27 (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday), 2006

Maya Workshop
6-9pm
Instructor: Everett Kane
Fee: $350 (for the nine-hour course)

Maya is widely regarded as the most powerful 3D application in the world. It is a film and game industry standard for generating of digital characters, environments, and special effects. Fine artists use it to create experimental media in all formats.

The workshop will initiate beginners into a broad spectrum of commercial and fine art applications of Maya. Students will move step by step through increasingly complex exercises designed to foster comfort with the basic techniques that make 3D integration possible. The primary focus of the workshop will be the user interface and polygon modeling. Texturing, UV layout, lighting, and rendering will also be covered. No prior 3D experience is required. Students will develop a basic familiarity the interface, achieve the ability to model and texture characters and architecture, and gain exposure to a wide variety of production techniques. A backbone of design and art concepts will be woven through the practical tutoring to insure that students leave the workshop attuned to the wider possibilities of the 3D medium. The instructor will also provide a road map to the glut of online Maya resources and forums that 3D artists use to communicate with each other, develop their skills, and find free materials for projects.

Everett Kane is a fine artist, 3D character specialist, game designer, programmer, and producer/consultant for the film, design, and advertising industries in Los Angeles. He is the director of Location One’s education program. Everett’s clients include Nike, Weiden & Kennedy, Klasky-Csupo, Pixel Blocks, and DZI. For the last 8 years, he has been teaching 3D character modeling, animation, special effects, digital compositing, digital painting, fine arts, and experimental digital media at Art Center College of Design. He has also taught for The Academy of Entertainment Technology, the Gnomon School, the Pacific Institute of Art and Design and the USC Fine Art Department. Everett received a B.A. in Philosophy of Religion from Princeton University, a BFA and an MFA in Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design.

This workshop is for laptop users only. Students must have a 3-button mouse and a version of Maya already installed on the first day. A freeversion of Maya 6 Complete PLE (personal learning edition) can be downloaded here.

System requirements can be viewed here. Students who have already downloaded their PLE version and received their email software key may come in 1 hour early for installation assistance, if necessary.