Customer Reviews

Introducing Maya 8: 3D for Beginners +CD

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I haven't really read a maya book for several years. Some of the past books from Alias|Wavefront (now Alias) like "Learning Maya: Character Rigging and Animation 2002" soured me a bit on Alias publishing.
This book, however, from the first glance begs to be opened and explored. It's print and publishing quality is leap years ahead of its outdated siblings.
Partnering with Sybex has proved to be hugely advantageous for the entire Alias library. This book is durable and should live up to the rigors of tutorial-based reading.
The first half of this book is focused on interface and modeling.
The chapters on interface may be overkill for most renders, since many of the tools in Maya are described in the Help line. Still, it is an all-encompassing and meticulous reference and should prove useful as a companion down the road; and even the author suggests moving forward at your own speed.
The chapters on Modeling are quite comprehensive, and in most cases should convert thorough readers into intermediate modelers.
The rest of the book is divided into shading, animation, dynamics, lighting...and these sections are covered with enough depth and direction to help the reader navigate through many of the obstacles that can derail and befuddle the Maya user.

Excellent Book. I highly recommend it. I am extremely knowledgeable with Photoshop Illustrator and other graphic art software, but had no knowledge or understanding of Maya. The book is easy to follow and explains the layers and menus very well. I did find some hic-ups in the directions, but it was easy to figure out and continue the step-by-step direction. This is a bible for anyone who is interested in gaining knowledge with this program.

I have had many problems with this book. Firstly, it takes 60-70 pages to actually get to the first tutorial. The author tells you all kinds of things that you don't need to know at that stage and just overloads you with information.

I have also had problems where the author says "just make it look like the one in the diagram" and the diagram is not clear at all. Sometimes it will be drawn in white ink on a light grey background (very difficult to see) and the author will refer to certain colours (obviously when he wrote it he could see the images in colour). I then have to guess at what the author means, only to find 5 or 6 pages later that he meant something else. I then have to go all the way back to fix it.

There is also an inconsistency in his writing. At times he will over-simplify things and at others, he will not give enough details. One such example was the second tutorial, where you assemble a train. Sometimes he would give the exact dimensions of certain parts and at other times he would not. You would not know that you got the length wrong until 4 or 5 pages later. It would seem that after giving us the basics, he expected us to be experts.

I gave up on the third tutorial, in which you build an axe. He vaguely said "move the CVs inwards" on the second curve but did not say on which axis to move them. I discovered a few pages later that I had moved them in on the wrong axis, so I had to go back and re-adjust them. It then gave me vague directions on detaching curves which did not work. I will now be buying a different book.

this is an excellent maya book, but there are some differences in programs. it was made specifically for the maya personal learning edition, as a maya unlimited user, i had quite a few troubles, as some options are different in the unlimited edition.

Great follow through from beggining to end.Lots of examples and very easy to understand. Just what a NEWBY to 3d or MaYa needs!

I've been toying with Maya for several years but never abie to get my head around it. That is until I discovered Introducing Maya 8. Lucid, Logical and even Entertaining. Dariush Derakshani's macabre sense of humor makes it a great read as well as a valualble learning experience. The tutorial projects are easy to follow and immediately present practical application which is lacking in most of the books I've tried to read on Maya. I was actually excited to move through the chapters with a growing confidence in my beginning mastery over Maya. I come from Painting and 2D compositing and was able to readily grasp the "nodal" approach which had eluded me with other dry Maya texts. Finally, a book which allows a 2D brain a transplant into 3D. If you want to quickly move into 3D with a fun and witty teacher..get Introducing Maya 8.

This book is by far the most user-friendly beginner's guide to Maya I've come across. It begins assuming no knowledge of 3D apps, and works it's way into some pretty sophisticated stuff concerning texturing, anmimation, modeling, etc. I think the key to it is the writing, which is peppered with smart humor which is well-timed. It reads like taking a class with an engaging young teacher, totally knowledgable yet fun. Highly recommend.

Learning 3d is not easy but this book helps and gives you some guidance on where to start and encourages you to learn beyond the Maya fundementals he covers. I know some 3d and After Effects work, but I'm new to Maya. The exercises teach good techniques, and though I found myself trying some of the exercises a few times, I learned how things in Maya come together. It can be hard sometimes, but I find the book is a good guide for starting out, and I like how the book is laid out to show you a little bit of everything in Maya and especially why some things are done the way they are. Other books don't get into why sometimes so you end up learning the motions but not much more. This book goes deeper and helps you understand things better. This is a good book to start with for sure.

Although my professor hardly used the book, it looks like a good resource to have. I'm glad that I bought it used; it arrived in very good condition.

This book is great for beginners in 3D animation and modeling. The book covers a wide range of aspects of 3D production and I would recommend it to the beginner who knows little to nothing about 3D animation and modeling.