6th Edition
How to Cheat in Maya 2026 Tools & Techniques for Animators
How to Cheat in Maya 2026 is more than a software manual - it’s a complete guide to working smarter, animating faster, and thinking like a professional. This edition covers Maya’s latest tools and features, but more importantly, it focuses on real-world workflows and the creative process behind great animation. You’ll find not just the how, but the why behind each technique, helping you build intuition and confidence in your craft. Whether you’re learning the ropes or refining your skills, this book is designed to remove friction, streamline your process, and let you focus on what matters most: crafting compelling animated performances.
Featuring advice, strategies, and best practices for:
- Configuring optimal Maya settings
- Testing and mastering your rigs
- Avoiding and overcoming common animation pitfalls
- Harnessing the power of Constraints, Layers and Cycles
- Employing physics, anatomy, and psychology to push your facial animation and polish to the next level
New to this Edition:
- Maya updates and upgrades to the Graph Editor, Time Slider, Time Slider Bookmarks, Dope Sheet, Light Editor, Ghosting, Blue Pencil … and more
- 4 new character rigs added to the How to Cheat in Maya series
- All new interlude articles covering everything from AI, the animation industry, selecting schools to demo reels
- “Tempo” - a workflow so revolutionary we’re calling it The Thirteenth Principle!
01 BEFORE YOU START
Where to Start
File Naming
Saving Files
Common Settings
Workspace
Common Hotkeys
Tool Settings
02 PRINCIPLES
Squash And Stretch
Anticipation
Staging
Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose
Overlapping Action and Follow Through
Slow In, Slow Out
Arcs
Secondary Action
Exaggeration
Solid Drawing
Appeal
Timing
03 THE THIRTEENTH PRINCIPLE
Animating with Tempo
How to Animate with Tempo
What We’ve Learned
Final Thoughts: The Power of Tempo
04 MAXIMIZING YOUR RIGS
Reference your Rig!
Controls & Anatomy
Organizing Controls
FK & IK
When to use FK vs IK
Technical Controls
Pickers, Shelves and Buttons
Common Tools and Menus
Rig Cheats
Animal Rigs
05 GRAPH EDITOR
Introducing the Graph Editor
Tangents & Weights
Interpolation Types
Inserting or Adding keys
Deleting or Removing Keys
Copying and Pasting keys
Graph Editor Toolbar
Cycle Curves
Useful Curve Tools
Curve Filters
Graph Editor Themes
Curve Bookmarks
Multiple Graph Editors
06 MASTERING TIME
Moving Keys in the Time Slider
Secure Your Keys
Time Slider MMB Method
Copied Pairs
Time Slider Bookmarks
Time Slider Color-code
Region Tool
Retime Tool
Dope Sheet
07 PROFESSIONAL TECHNIQUES
Blue Pencil
Ghosting Editor
Channels
IK/ FK Transitions
Motion Trails
IK Pop Cleaning
Auto Key for Polish
New Insert Key Options
New Reorder Rotations Options (Gimbal Lock)
Pivot points
Cartoony Animation
3rd Party Plug-ins
08 CONSTRAINTS & CONTACT
What are constraints?
Multi-layered Constraints
09 CAMERA
Filmmaking
Camera Movements
180° Rule
Jump Cut
Maya Camera
Camera Clipping Planes
Cheating to the Camera
Playblast
Making Your Playblast Look Great
Lighting for Playblast
Shadows for Playblast
Final Touches for a Clean Playblast
Playblast a Sequence of Shots
10 CYCLES
Cycle Basics
Infinity Curve Types
Timing and Duration
Stride Length
Stride Length of Walk Cycles
Offsets
11 FACIAL ANIMATION
Face
How to Show a Character Thinking
Micro Expressions
Brows
Eyes and Eyelids
Blinks
Offset Blinks
Eyeline
Line of Action: Head
Emotional Asymmetry
Lip Sync
Speech
Dialogue Diagram Exercise
Animating Lip Sync
Animate the body first or the face first?
Jaw Animation
Lips
Audio
Audio Editing
12 LAYERS
What Are Animation Layers?
How Animation Layers Work
Why use Layers?
Layering Strategies
When to Use Animation Layers (and When Not To)
Practical Applications in Production
Key Takeaways
13 POLISH
Polish
Untwinning
Secondary
Smoothing
Micro Adjustments
Roughing
Biography
Kenny Roy began his career in 1997 as a dustbuster on cel-animated features. He’s gone on to animate some of the most memorable characters on screen, from King Kong to Scooby Doo. Over more than 25-year career, he’s taught animation in-person and online and been a speaker at conferences and seminars around the globe. Kenny currently operates November Games in New Zealand where he lives with his wife and two sons.
Genevieve Freckelton is an animator and instructor. Genevieve started in TV commercials and network news, then moved on to feature films and television, credits include Tron: Legacy and The Adventures of Kami and Big Bird. Genevieve has been teaching undergraduate character animation in Autodesk Maya for over 10 years. Currently Genevieve is teaching at De Anza College.
