Ch. 1. The Maya interface -- Ch. 2. Quick start : creating an animation in Maya 8.5 -- Ch. 3. Polygonal modeling -- Ch. 4. NURBS modeling -- Ch. 5. Subdivision surfaces -- Ch. 6. Blend shapes : advanced modeling -- Ch. 7. Basic animation -- Ch. 8. Character setup and rigging -- Ch. 9. Character animation -- Ch. 10. Nonlinear animation -- Ch. 11. Lighting for animation -- Ch. 12. Shading and texturing for animation -- Ch. 13. Rendering basics -- Ch. 14. Advanced rendering with mental ray -- Ch. 15. Toon shading -- Ch. 16. Maya embedded language (MEL) -- Ch. 17. Paint effects -- Ch. 18. Rigid body animation -- Ch. 19. Using particles -- Ch. 20. Fluid effects -- Ch. 21. Maya hair -- Ch. 22. Maya fur -- Ch. 23. Cloth simulation with nCloth.