This exceptional, full-color Maya Press title -- produced by Alias, the software’s creators -- offers a brand-new approach to teaching modeling and animation using the characters from the Academy Award-winning short film The ChubbChubbs. You’ll find instructor-led tutorials, scene files, artist interviews, and Maya Personal Learning Edition on the enclosed DVD.

Alias’ Maya is the premier software for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering. This exceptional, full-color Maya Press title – produced by Alias, the software’s creators – is a brand-new approach to teaching modeling and animation with the characters from the Academy Award-winning short film The ChubbChubbs.

An Interactive Way to Learn Maya

This book was a great way to learn the concepts of Maya. It is colorful and engaging. The book uses fun examples to teach the reader about creating animations.

This book starts out with basic concepts and runs up all the way into complicated animation details. It would be a great book for any level - but absolutely perfect for someone starting out, and looking to become a Maya pro.

worst....guidebook.....ever.......

horrible. as some have said, names are misused, images are confusing,

greatly lacking in explanation. i’ve been banging my head against this thing for two and a half weeks and i give up. clunky workflow examples and frankly outdated pipeline. anyone interested in a book like this would do themselves a favor by checking out Gnomon Studios or Digital Tutors. they present more sophisticated and intuitive workflows. save your money and use the manual that came with your software as reference with the video guides available from the above mentioned companies. it’ll save you from the inevitable ulcers Learning Maya 7 will cause. p.s. been using EIAS since ’95. Not new to this game. hope the review helps.

worst....guidebook.....ever.......

horrible. as some have said, names are misused, images are confusing,
greatly lacking in explanation. i’ve been banging my head against this thing for two and a half weeks and i give up. clunky workflow examples and frankly outdated pipeline. anyone interested in a book like this would do themselves a favor by checking out Gnomon Studios or Digital Tutors. they present more sophisticated and intuitive workflows. save your money and use the manual that came with your software as reference with the video guides available from the above mentioned companies. it’ll save you from the inevitable ulcers Learning Maya 7 will cause. p.s. been using EIAS since ’95. Not new to this game. hope the review helps.

Apparently quite good

I gave this as a gift, but the recipient told me it’s an excellent resource and well worth the investment

Good for Starters

This book was used in my Intermediate 3d Animation course and it’s pretty good for the basics of rigging a bipedal character. However, the book tends to be inconsistent with some of its naming conventions for certain bones while rigging, which could confuse a beginner. For example, when they go through and tell you to name all your bones, they tell you to name the "knee" joint "up leg", then a few chapters later, they refer to it as the "knee joint" instead of "up leg."

Perfect

This is exactly what i was looking for, i think this is an amazing book if you want to learn....you have to get it.

Perfect

This is exactly what i was looking for, i think this is an amazing book if you want to learn....you have to get it.

needs more depth

after using this book for a while I find it needs to go into more detail on how tools work and common errors. For example the birail and curve editing tool are give about 4 sentencs but are used alot.

good examples of work flow but don’t feel like I’m mastering the program like an intermediate tutorial should give.

needs more depth

after using this book for a while I find it needs to go into more detail on how tools work and common errors. For example the birail and curve editing tool are give about 4 sentencs but are used alot.

good examples of work flow but don’t feel like I’m mastering the program like an intermediate tutorial should give.

Horrible book

Too many steps in this book are vague and don’t account for the fact that Maya doesn’t always give you the results you are aiming for. The author will explain 2 or 3 steps very well then he seems to give you very little info for the next step, as if rushing through it like "well you should know all this." He assumes too much and in the end I found myself frustrated and lost. I mean if you get the end results but didn’t understand the process you did to get there, then did you really learn anything? I go tired of spending 15 minutes staring and 2 pictures and trying to figure out what he did, since he didn’t have the brains to tell me in print. Feels like yet another pro trying to teach when he can’t remember what its like to be on the level of those he is teaching. If this were a class I’d have to raise my hand every minute and ask him to slow down. Oh, and NO I am not totally new to Maya and I’ve had very good luck with other books, so its not just some total noob venting. I’ve tried for weeks now to get into this book, there is just no way to do so as I see it.

In the end, I tossed my copy in the trash, where it belongs.

Horrible book

Too many steps in this book are vague and don’t account for the fact that Maya doesn’t always give you the results you are aiming for. The author will explain 2 or 3 steps very well then he seems to give you very little info for the next step, as if rushing through it like "well you should know all this." He assumes too much and in the end I found myself frustrated and lost. I mean if you get the end results but didn’t understand the process you did to get there, then did you really learn anything? I go tired of spending 15 minutes staring and 2 pictures and trying to figure out what he did, since he didn’t have the brains to tell me in print. Feels like yet another pro trying to teach when he can’t remember what its like to be on the level of those he is teaching. If this were a class I’d have to raise my hand every minute and ask him to slow down. Oh, and NO I am not totally new to Maya and I’ve had very good luck with other books, so its not just some total noob venting. I’ve tried for weeks now to get into this book, there is just no way to do so as I see it.

In the end, I tossed my copy in the trash, where it belongs.

Advance Modeling for Dummies

My title is not a idictment of the book, but an appreciation for its clarity. I believe the authors were conscious of the need to appeal to a broad audience, and as a modeler with about four months of experience before purchasing this book, I found it slightly lofty, but useable. It simply requires a bit of commitment. The author’s are careful to highlight some of the pitfalls that can trip up the novice during the workflow. Alias has always been good about using real life projects as examples and teaching tools, and this book benefits from that philosophy.

Advance Modeling for Dummies

My title is not a idictment of the book, but an appreciation for its clarity. I believe the authors were conscious of the need to appeal to a broad audience, and as a modeler with about four months of experience before purchasing this book, I found it slightly lofty, but useable. It simply requires a bit of commitment. The author’s are careful to highlight some of the pitfalls that can trip up the novice during the workflow. Alias has always been good about using real life projects as examples and teaching tools, and this book benefits from that philosophy.

Fairly Useful but dense

This book is quite dense, for absolute beginners it may be overwhelming. If it weren’t a required text for one of my classes I’m not sure if I would’ve chosen it. To be honest, we are doing different projects than are in the book, so this is more as a reference tool than anything. You’ll want to at least be familiar with the menus and some functions before delving into this book. However if you’ve used Maya or Max before and want to learn more and polish your modeling techniques, this is a good one to start with.

Some pictures are used to show examples (end results) but screenshots of the progress and exactly what menus are being accessed and where they’re located would’ve been very helpful rather than listing out the instructions and showing end results.

However it does provide a lot of information which and who better to learn from than the source, Alias.

Fairly Useful but dense

This book is quite dense, for absolute beginners it may be overwhelming. If it weren’t a required text for one of my classes I’m not sure if I would’ve chosen it. To be honest, we are doing different projects than are in the book, so this is more as a reference tool than anything. You’ll want to at least be familiar with the menus and some functions before delving into this book. However if you’ve used Maya or Max before and want to learn more and polish your modeling techniques, this is a good one to start with.

Some pictures are used to show examples (end results) but screenshots of the progress and exactly what menus are being accessed and where they’re located would’ve been very helpful rather than listing out the instructions and showing end results.

However it does provide a lot of information which and who better to learn from than the source, Alias.

GREAT book

This book is really awesome. It goes deep in character modeling, with polys and nurbs.

You learn how to rig and animate your character, and you’ll create a walkcycle with your character and learn all about blend shapes.

I’m new to Maya, but I’m quite experienced in 3D (using Max). With this book and the others from the Learning Maya 7 series I’m learning way much faster.