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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 01/08/2008 - Award-winning 3D animator TJ Galda has kicked off his new series of books on Character Rigging with an advanced book outlining how to create muscles and tendons using computer graphics software such as Autodesk’s Maya.
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The book is designed to make the techniques as accessible as possible, so that even beginners can create and animate lifelike muscles for their animated characters. Advanced Character Rigging is available through digital publishing site Lulu.com and major outlets such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
TJ Galda has worked as character technical director and studio technical supervisor on films like Fantastic Four, Shark Tale, Over the Hedge, and the upcoming Passengers, Passchendaele and Kung Fu Panda. He has also served at Electronic Arts Canada, during which he oversaw all art production on over 25 games at a time. Recently, Mr. Galda received the worldwide Autodesk Maya Master Award. In writing the book, Mr. Galda drew on his work in character animation, as well as his experience as an animation instructor, mentor, and lecturer.
Rob O’Neill, Director of the Pratt Institute Digital Arts Research Laboratory, offers praise for the book: "Advanced Character Rigging: Creating Advanced Tendon and Muscle Systems provides production proven techniques and practical insider information on one of the least documented aspects of character setup. TJ Galda is an expert in the field and has produced a welcome and valuable resource for the community. I wish he would stop giving our secrets away."
The book breezes through a review of major topics used in modern computer graphic characters. It then delves in to the meat of the topic, outlining how to create muscles and tendons in a simple fashion. These systems are typically quite complex in modern films, but Mr. Galda has found a new technique that reduces this complexity a great deal. Mr. Galda says: "After being asked countless times about techniques, and having conducted speaking engagements around the world, I saw the need for this series. Creating characters for today's computer animation films is complex, and these books strive to make that process as simple as possible."
Lulu.com is the premier marketplace for digital content on the Internet, with over 300,000 recently published titles, and more than 4,000 new titles added each week, created by people in 80 different countries. With Lulu offices in the US, Canada the UK and Europe, Lulu customers can reach the globe.
TJ Galda lives with his wife in Vancouver, BC, where he works in the Canadian film industry and mentors animation students at Vancouver Film School.
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info[.]tjgalda.com 
