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Added 04 Aug 04 Updated 21 Aug 08
Publisher Sybex
Publication Date 2003-10-07
Paperback - 336 Pages
ISBN 0782142397
—3dtoday.com
Alias’ Academy Award® winning Maya 3D animation and effects software leads the industry in technological innovation. Film and video artists, computer game developers, and design professionals rely on Maya to create brilliant digital imagery, animation, and visual effects. Now you can enter this exciting, imaginative world and learn to build, render, and animate your own digital characters and scenes.
Brought to you from Maya Press, a publishing partnership between Sybex and Alias, Introducing Maya 5: 3D for Beginners is the ideal initiation to 3D and Maya. This easy-to-grasp tutorial, written explicitly for the Maya novice, offers up a practical and fun approach to learning Maya’s core features. Clear-cut, engaging lessons let you try out these features using working files provided on the CD. The CD and full-color insert also provide plenty of instructional and finished art.
Enter a New Dimension
- Get a solid grasp of the core Maya and 3D
- Learn to navigate the Maya interface
- Experiment with Maya modeling
- Explore the basics of NURBS, polygons, and subdivision surfaces
- Learn the nuances of shading and texturing
- Try your hand at animation
- Get a feel for Maya lighting, rendering, and dynamics
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This book is great. Maya is a beast of a program and just following instructions in a book will guide and teach you but it takes actual practice and thinking on your own to really learn and understand. That is exactly what this book does. It explains what is going on and then it is left up to you to finish with its guidance. There is no better way to learn. Frustrating at times but so worth it in the end.
This book is great. Maya is a beast of a program and just following instructions in a book will guide and teach you but it takes actual practice and thinking on your own to really learn and understand. That is exactly what this book does. It explains what is going on and then it is left up to you to finish with its guidance. There is no better way to learn. Frustrating at times but so worth it in the end.
While I found everything in the book to be general okay in terms of the intruction, the chapter on Inverse Kinetics should be avoided AT ALL COST!! Go take a class on that or something but do not try to do the inverse kinetics tutorial and save your self from hours of frustration and anger. Trust me on this, the instructions in the book on inverse kinetics DO NOT give the results that are described and you will be scratching you head until it becomes bald and staring at the screen until your eyes go blind.
While I found everything in the book to be general okay in terms of the intruction, the chapter on Inverse Kinetics should be avoided AT ALL COST!! Go take a class on that or something but do not try to do the inverse kinetics tutorial and save your self from hours of frustration and anger. Trust me on this, the instructions in the book on inverse kinetics DO NOT give the results that are described and you will be scratching you head until it becomes bald and staring at the screen until your eyes go blind.
There are many basic topics such as nurbs stitching that are not taught in this book. Worse of all, some times the instructions not even complete so you have to guess at random as to what you need to do to make the scene work.
There are many basic topics such as nurbs stitching that are not taught in this book. Worse of all, some times the instructions not even complete so you have to guess at random as to what you need to do to make the scene work.
I am 14 years old and I have always been interested in Computer Graphics and especially Maya. I only had a vague idea of managing this program, modeling, animating,... and this was just the book I needed!
I am 14 years old and I have always been interested in Computer Graphics and especially Maya. I only had a vague idea of managing this program, modeling, animating,... and this was just the book I needed!
I have been a Graphic Designer for several years and have become very efficient at teaching myself new programs with well written books. Unfortunately, I have found this book to be a bit confusing. It seem as though topics are covered with small bits of pertinent information missing. I had to use the Quick Start guide to fill in the holes of this book so I could continue to use it. Maybe this book should be reworked then re-released. I think it has the beginnings of a good starter book but for now its a struggle.
I have been a Graphic Designer for several years and have become very efficient at teaching myself new programs with well written books. Unfortunately, I have found this book to be a bit confusing. It seem as though topics are covered with small bits of pertinent information missing. I had to use the Quick Start guide to fill in the holes of this book so I could continue to use it. Maybe this book should be reworked then re-released. I think it has the beginnings of a good starter book but for now its a struggle.
In short: an essential read if you’re 1)getting into Maya for the first time or 2) getting into 3D for the 1st time.
I’m a Flash animator who has tried time and time again to jump into 3D - starting with 3D Max by taking a class... but eventually falling behind on the very next upgrade because I wasn’t able to internalize what was really going on behind the interface. This, I feel, is where the Derakhshani book succeeds; it is great for beginners because it explains not only the immediate steps to the tools in Maya, but also the greater infrastructure of why things work the way they do in Maya, in 3D softwares generally, and in the CG industry.
If you want *comprehension* then I this is absolutely the most solid book I have found. I say - 3D is a big pill to swallow so don’t make it harder than it has to be...
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