Customer Reviews

Digital Effects Animation Using Maya with CDROM (Graphics Series)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've read almost every graphics books (3D and games). So, let me give my analysis of this book.

My opinion is this book is a very GOOD book. I've seen other books that give all kind of false advertising - duplicate half of the manuals, copy articles from all over the places etc. (You will be surprise how many of these are lying around) Those deserve a one star rating. But this book is one of a kind that serve as a good reference for Maya. It doesnt take the manual and repeat them here, which is what I love about.

But, I believe because this is the first book on Maya, many people would probably rush to buy it without reading from the author that it is not a beginner book but one specifically written for effects wannabe. That probably explain why some of the readers are pulling out their hair while doing the tutorials. The other reason I believe is likely due to the printing errors. But hack, programs have bugs, system has flaws. There are more books that have more errors than this one! Besides, those errors are really minor.

So, my recommendation is very simple:

a. If you're first time Maya user, buy the learning maya book from alias wavefront. This one is not for you.

b. If you're experience user, but know nothing more than those from the manuals, buy this book. It has some really good theory and practice of effects.

c. If you like books that tell you and explain very thing step by step, this one is not for you.

d. If you dont mind people throwing the codes and answers to you and expect you to think, this is the book you should get.

This book is one of the biggest publishing jokes I ever seen. It is full of unattractive and boring tutorials. It comes with inadequate CD, and to top it all, it has plethora of MEL and expression errors rendering it pretty much useless. As many of you, I was exited to get my hands on the first book on Maya. The publisher description presented the book really well, and I bought the book right when it came out. I must congratulate to who ever wrote the synopsis, because I would love to have them when I have a bridge, or a lump of coal to sell. I expected a professional book, written for a professional. Instead I was immediately disappointed, and shocked with the mediocrity of the tutorial movies. Anyone, who is artistically inclined, would probably be put off by them. I decided, therefore, to look at this book from a technical point of view, since it clearly was not aesthetically pleasing. I jumped right into the tutorials, which very quickly became boring and somewhat hard to follow. The author seems to have a lot of digital effects knowledge, but he just can not present it well. The book is full of unnecessary screen shots, "tasks" and "note" sections, formatted with huge margins, and large font, ballooning it to over 500 pages. All this in apparent effort to make it more attractive for the reader, and make him/her feel like she is really getting something by buying it. In the end, however, there is a lot of publishing fuss and tricks we could expect from a high school paper, and not a lot of substance. This little substance, would still be useful for a reader, if the tutorials were not plagued with simple errors in MEL and expression scripts. It is incredibly frustrating to spend a lot of time figuring out why things are not working the way they should. This frustration doesn't even compare to how you feel when you discover that it was not your fault, but a simple typo, or mistake made by the author. Unfortunately, you will feel like that a lot reading this book. You will not only have to double check for your own mistakes when you type in the scripts, but also check if the author didn't leave any. Yes, I wrote "type in the scripts," because the CD does not include any of them. This might be fine with small, one or two line scripts, but I thought the reason for a CD in the back of the book, was just for such occasions. I also expected the CD to have scenes for each tutorial, shaders used, and other resources that could actually be useful. Instead we get few sample movies, sketches, plugin or two, and the always favorite, free models. Bottom-line - stay away from this book. It makes me mad that we have to pay ___ and get little in return. This book was obviously rushed through production, because of its many mistakes, half thought out tutorials, and week CD content.

This book is more suitable for intermediate and (maybe) advance user. For beginner, I suggest that you stick with the manuals. Only buy this book if you are already experience in Maya. I agree with the comment that the editor and proof-readers of the book did not do a good job. So, you will expect to see mistakes here and there. But you should get the latest updates from the book's website. If you're experience, you will be able to spot the mistakes and carry on with the tutorials. But if you're beginner, I wish you good luck! For effects wannabe, this book does present a good overall idea of what to expect and how to use Maya to work out those effects. Pretty decent!

I'm a student taking some graphics and animation courses. I bought this book for study of Maya since my school teach maya. Before I read the book I dont have any idea of production. But now, I got a much better idea of what happens in production. I agree that Maya is just a tool. And there are many things needed for a real work in a production environemnt. One thing about the book, I think the publisher did not do a good job by editing it. Also, whoever proofed read the book must be half asleep. This cause the book with several errors. But lucky the book is still contain good stuff. In conclusion, I recommend it to people who like to learn effects animation, especially using Maya to do effects and especially if you are student like me.

Perhaps this book deserves two or three stars, but I felt I had to offset the bizarre five star reviews that this book has been getting. Some of the techniques might be useful, but the final results of the tutorials are not worthy of the potential of Maya (except the cake tutorial). Most of the expressions don't work if you type them in straight from the book, and the printed screenshots border on useless. It would have been nice to have a little more explanation on WHY a certain shader utility was used or a certain expression, instead of just following the instructions. This is sure to be a favorite among warez users because of the lack of Maya documentation available though.

The book is very good teaching Particles, but there are better tutorials online. It was written for Maya 2.5. So, if your using Maya 3 or 4, there's parts changed.
I was required to buy this book for a class at RIT, I recommend anyone who is required to buy the book for a class or any sorts to see if someone else has the book. Because, spending money on an old tutorial book and getting frustrated is a no no, when your trying to learn a new program.
Hopefully, there will be an updated book in the future, now Maya has become a powerful particle tool.

This is an alright book with miss printed error like those that said below. If you know maya, it's quite good. But if you dont, it can be painful.

Finally got my hands on this first Maya book! What can I say?! Excellent! Coming from 3DMax background, I find the book's tutorials and tips and introductions VERY useful. Now I know why MAYA is THE TOOL to go! Buy it! You cant get a MAYA INSTRUCTOR for to teach you even half of these stuff!

The theory in the book is well covered and interesting. I find the tutorials simple to follow. Pretty much like what the title says "digital effects animation". There are some MEL printing errors, like "`" is printed as "'" which caused me some hair loss initially. But, if you'd gone through the Maya manauls, this book complements the manuals rather well. I contacted the author on two occasions, I got my replies immediately the next day. A book that comes with service support!

Early on in my career I bought this book hoping that it would give me some technical chops. It didn't. Now, to be fair, I bought it back in 2001, but still, I distinctly remember not liking it and thinking it was a waste of money. Why? I can't recall, but from what I understand there's plenty of other good books on Maya and mel out there.