Customer Reviews

Maya 8 Character Modeling (Wordware Applications Library)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm ammending the rating of 3 out of 5 to 2 out of 5. As I'm continuing with chapter 13 I am finding it rife with bad instructions. When you are trying to learn something as hard as rigging this is the worst thing you can do.

On pages 402-403 the author is saying to lay out your leg joints in the front view. Then on page 406 he's saying to select the two knee joints and rotate them on the Z axis. This makes it swing in an unnatural left to right. If the author had said to layout the joints in the SIDE view then the Z axis would swing like a knee should.

The author tells you to create your spine joints. Then after you've done that select the pelvis joint and Freeze Transformations. This should zero out all the translate values to make it easy to get back to the default position. This does not zero out the translate values, only the rotate & scale.

Also on page 401, instruction 8 tells you to parent neck_2 to the jaw joint. There is no "neck_2" that is the "head" joint you're instructed to create in step 6. SOMEONE from the publisher should check these things before they publish.

Maya is hard enought to learn by itself. Trying to weed through bad instructions make it twice as hard to learn. I can not stand that I paid $45 for a book that is constantly telling me to do the wrong thing.

I'm coming from Maya 4.5 to 8.5. Yes the modeling/sculpting part of the book has been informative. You should NOT use this book if you're learning to rig. The title says what it is good at, Modeling. Get another book for rigging.

great help with character modelling, the concepts are explained in a clear and precise manner which is quite suitable for beginners in this area of 3d modelling. Though the version it was written for is outdated, the concepts explained can be used in any version of maya and also with other 3d modelling tools like 3dsmax etc.

This book is written in a way that is easy to understand. Although I have not completed all the chapters,I have encounted only minor problems which took a little time to sort out. It was my misunderstanding rather than the book being poorly written. It is the most informative book on character modelling I've come across. I'm only new to modelling but I would recommend this book to anyone.

One disappointment was the CD that comes with the book. No audio. It would be nice to have the option to follow the CD and have a step by step explanation so the Cd could be run side by side with the application without having the need to refer to the book constantly.

I had the pleasure of having Gary Oliverio be my instructor in 2007, when I first got my hands on this book. I use this as my modeling bible. Any model I created using these techniques, came out fantastic. It's easy to put your own creativity into the model once u get the basic model created. The paint tool for moving cv's is phenomenal! Try to avoid just moving cv's around manually..that will take forever and be blocky... It's great for modeling but rigging, it sucks! I used his rigging techniques and my models got screwed over...they kept breaking, very difficult to animate. I was able to do something but it wasn't easy... For rigging, I think I was suggested the maya 8 handbook..had a picture of an interesting character on top..I didn't use it much because I had videos to follow from the class but was told by the instructor that that book has everything you would need to know. Rigging is not easy at all but not impossible.

Gary wasn't a rigger necessarily, he was a modeler for Midway Games. Modeling & rigging are two different specialties. I use a mac so it can be used easy for that. I didn't use any of the files other than the goModTools mel script. One of the best scripts ever! It loads the same as it would in a pc. Great book for creating detailed models. They are built the right way, making them usable for animation. Like Gary said, you can make a great looking model but if it's not usable, it was a waste of effort. There is a certain flow in the cvs that needs to be created so eventually rigging it for animation would be possible. His techniques make that very possible.

In places, the author refers to individual vertices by describing them as over from that one, two over from that, skip one...very confusing. There are black and white screen shots showing the areas being worked on, but not the vertices in question. Would it have been so hard to go back through in Photoshop and CIRCLE the points and lines being referenced?

The book is good to get a perspective on a workflow for creating a character, but some parts are unusable.

It's like the author is talking to you and he doesn't sound like a tech freak. I'm not a professional I am a beginning beginner and I understand what is being explained. If you are a beginner I recommend this book. Even if you are running a different version of Maya this book is great.

Awesome investment for anyone serious about learning how to model a human figure. Packed full of information and step by step how to. There are a few points where you have to figure it out, but once past these, smooth sailing.

The CD would have been much better if it had sound with. The book and the CD do not fully match. When in doubt, follow the book.

I'd purchase again from this author.

This is a great book to learn character modeling with. Easy to follow and contains a wealth of information.

THIS BOOK IS RENDERED INOPERATIVE WITHOUT THE CD. THE CD IS WINDOWS ONLY. WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE MACS?