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!

A must have for Maya users!

I have 20 books about Maya and this one is a must have for Maya users. I started using Maya since version 3 and haven’t seen any book with so many useful tips all at once! You are going to find things here that you would never imagine Maya would do it! You won’t regret buying it!

Good practical info, a great addition to my Maya library

There’s so much to Maya that the doorstop books are jammed full of how-to-do-everything (which is certainly important!). But when it comes to just handy tips for working, this book is a great find. Now that I know everything I CAN do with Maya, here’s some advice about what I SHOULD be doing to make my work experience as efficient as possible.

Exactly what it claims to be...

Engaging and enlightening tips and tricks. Each shorter than a page, always with a corresponding screenshot, or photo. Nice resource to keep around your desk.

maya 6 killer tips

This book was a recomended text for an advanced animaiton class. As other reviewers have mentioned, it is not for the novice. However, if you have a few tutorals under your belt, there will be something in here for you, and the more you know, the more you’ll get out of it. I found it to be well worth the cost.

I HATE "TIP" BOOKS...

...but I absolutely LOVE this one. It is everything it says it is. I’m an intermediate user of Maya 5 and found every page had a meaty, time-saving killer tip. It does not waste time with step-by-step instruction, but rather describes the process to achieve a certain effect or technique. If you don’t know the Maya interface, this book is not for you. But if you have exhausted all the obvious functions, this book will turn the leftovers in your fridge into a gourmet meal. "Killer Tips" is intended for version 6, but as a version 5 user, in a few pages it was already worth the purchase. Humor is a little corny at times, but this book earns the right to dress whatever way it wants. Can’t wait for more from Hanson...Keep ’em coming!!!

Good book for people who know some Maya already

This book is a great book for people who already know Maya. The author uses some sarcasim to get some of his points across, but other than that very informative. Do not get this book if you are looking for a book with Tuturials, none is provided.

Learn with Confidence

As a complete newbie to anything Maya, I was hoping that Maya 6: Killer Tips would be different from the other Maya how-to books I’ve ventured to look at in the local bookstore (and promptly placed back on the shelf once my eyes finished glazing over.)
I was not disappointed; in fact I was bordering on elation. Here finally is a well-laid out, very easy to understand Maya 6 manual. While the authors state in the introduction that this book is designed for the advancing intermediate Maya artist, I had no problems whatsoever understanding what they were trying to show. This book is well illustrated, with clear screenshots showing exactly what the tip is saying.
The tips themselves are not highly technical, long-drawn out explanations that only a Maya programmer would understand. They are concise and are sometimes interspersed with humour. Humour can go along way when one is ready to send Maya to the land of "click the red x" never to be seen again.
Reading through Maya 6: Killer Tips actually made me feel some enthusiasm for attempting once again to conquer the Maya beast. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who uses Maya 6, from the newbie like myself to the advanced artist who thinks there is nothing more to learn about using Maya. This book is definitely a five star edition.
-Adaera-

Murderous, rampaging, maiming, Killer Tips.

I just recieved this book and I’ve already learned 10 new things, and I’ve only read 10 pages. If the bible was this concise I know I’d be a better person. I would however not recommend this book to begginners - who should be looking for instruction manuals, not ’Tips’.

A wealth of great ideas and brilliant solutions

I continue to find inspiration and new ideas from this book day after day. Each page has an insight or tip that you will likely not have considered before. It’s rare to find a book with so much production-oriented real-world knowledge. This is an essential book for any 3D animator’s bookshelf whether you use Maya or some other 3D application.