Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners [Paperback]

Dariush Derakhshani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0782143539 | ISBN-13: 978-0782143539 | Edition: 1

"If you're just beginning to dive into the world of 3D, this is the book for you."
—Animation Magazine

Alias' Academy Award winning Maya 3D animation and effects software leads the industry in technological innovation. Film and video artists, computer game developers, and design professionals rely on Maya to create brilliant digital imagery, animation, and visual effects. Now you can enter this exciting, imaginative world and learn to build, render, and animate your own digital characters and scenes.

Brought to you by Maya Press, a publishing partnership between Sybex and Alias, Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners is the ideal initiation to 3D and Maya. Written explicitly for the Maya novice, the easy-to-grasp text offers a practical and fun approach to learning Maya's core features. Clear-cut, engaging lessons let you try out these features using working files provided on the CD. You'll also find an abundance of instructional and inspirational art on the CD and full-color insert.

Enter a New Dimension

• Get a solid grasp of the core Maya and 3D
• Learn to navigate the new Maya 6 interface
• Experiment with Maya modeling
• Explore the basics of NURBS, polygons, and subdivision surfaces
• Discover the nuances of shading and texturing
• Try your hand at animation
• Get a feel for Maya lighting, rendering, and dynamics
• Find out how to use Maya and Photoshop in unison

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Learning 3D software like Maya is a difficult task, so Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners is written to be a _primer_ for anyone young and old to begin learning 3D and Maya. Using explanations as well as examples and tutorials, this book is written to be a launching pad to explore Maya from. All the major facets of Maya are introduced and explored to give the reader a headstart; as a beginning point to help build a solid foundation to move on from. It is best used as the first step of learning tools, and as such is perfect for 3D teachers to build a course outline around.

I hope you will consider this book as a good place to *start* learning--or teaching--Maya and 3D.

From the Back Cover

"If you're just beginning to dive into the world of 3D, this is the book for you."
--Animation Magazine

Alias' Academy Award winning Maya 3D animation and effects software leads the industry in technological innovation. Film and video artists, computer game developers, and design professionals rely on Maya to create brilliant digital imagery, animation, and visual effects. Now you can enter this exciting, imaginative world and learn to build, render, and animate your own digital characters and scenes.

Brought to you by Maya Press, a publishing partnership between Sybex and Alias, Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners is the ideal initiation to 3D and Maya. Written explicitly for the Maya novice, the easy-to-grasp text offers a practical and fun approach to learning Maya’s core features. Clear-cut, engaging lessons let you try out these features using working files provided on the CD. You’ll also find an abundance of instructional and inspirational art on the CD and full-color insert.

Enter a New Dimension

• Get a solid grasp of the core Maya and 3D
• Learn to navigate the new Maya 6 interface
• Experiment with Maya modeling
• Explore the basics of NURBS, polygons, and subdivision surfaces
• Discover the nuances of shading and texturing
• Try your hand at animation
• Get a feel for Maya lighting, rendering, and dynamics
• Find out how to use Maya and Photoshop in unison

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Sybex; 1 edition (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782143539
• ISBN-13: 978-0782143539
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,612,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have, September 15, 2004

By 

David Conlon (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners (Paperback)

I am a graduate student at USC in the Animation Division and am a teaching assistant for s visual FX, and intermediate Maya class. I just started this semester using this book as a teaching aid for my students, and it was been 100x more helpful than any intro book Alias has put out. This book starts from the ground up, and gives a very clear and readable foundation on not only the digital image, but 3d in general. If anyone is serious about really learning Maya and 3d graphics, not just knowing where the buttons are, you need this book. Practical, informative, easy to understand, and is laid out in a logical fashion.

David Conlon

USC Cinema Television

Division of Animation and Digital Arts

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good starting point, November 22, 2004

By 

G. Bush "G" (So Cal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners (Paperback)

This book seems to me to be a great starting point for a new Maya user. I had previously tried to go through the Foundation book and got lost many times. After several months I tried this book and was pleased with the clarity of the information presented. I was able to work through all the lessons without much difficultly and feel as though I have a much better understanding of the program and how it works. I read every word of the book though. I you just do the lessons and skip the introductions it would be difficult to learn anything. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. I use a Mac and did not have any trouble follwoing along (the only trick was pressing the "home" key instead of the insert key to switch to pivot mode)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good primer, January 27, 2005

By 

Adobe User "AU" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners (Paperback)

I found this book to be a useful Maya primer, combining both practical lessons with a broad explanation of some of the theory behind using one tool or method over another.

Note that this book is a very general introduction and does not go into any one area in particular depth (I recommend the other dedicated Alias publications for that).

There are a few errors and places where the author seems to have skipped a step but nothing drastic. Perhaps the biggest issue I have with this book is that the illustrations are black and white (actually, more grey and white). Whilst I understand that this keeps the cost down, given that the default Maya interface is largely grey'ish in colour, it can make figuring out what has been "selected" on an object, particularly vertices or CVs, a little difficult. Perhaps in future Sybex could place color illustrations on the accompanying DVD.

Overall a good book and one that has certainly whetted my appetite for some of the more advanced features, such as dynamics and particles. I recommened reading this before moving on to the specialist books on modelling, rigging etc.