With more than 90 percent of film effects houses and half of the North American game studios using Maya in their projects, the pressure is on for 3D modelers to prove their Maya chops! It's not enough to just know how to use the program; you need to demonstrate that you can do so swiftly, efficiently, and with dazzling results! Here to ensure you do is a fun, full-colored guide that's been pared down to just the essentials: the hundreds of tips, shortcuts, and tricks the pros use every day to speed their Maya 6 workflows. Along with tips for customizing the Maya interface, polygonal modeling, rendering, and more, veteran author Eric Hanson also provides tons of insider techniques for working with Maya 6's newest features including tips for working with new tools like the Soft Modification Tool, Animation Retargeting, and High Quality Shading; advice for working with the new particle behavior features; cool new hotkeys; and insight into streamlining the texting process with Maya's new Photoshop integration, to name only a few. You'll quickly find that the techniques revealed here allow you to work faster, smarter, and more creatively!