Customer Reviews

Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

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)

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.

I started modeling and learning 3D products 8 years ago, with now old and relatively simple Truespace and 3D Studio Max versions, and wanted to get a taste of Maya. I found that different 3D products offer different capabilities and that combining them can result in something new and original, and that some tasks are done easier in some than others. To get a head start I figured I'd get me a book. I have a pretty good experience with Sybex books (for IT exams) and noticed they have an entire series for Maya so I figured I'd start with this one (Introducing Maya 6, 3D for beginners).

The book is a fast-read, and it's complete. It shows you the basic techniques and features in Maya, but also how to apply them. Additionally, you'll get a rather complete introduction to 3D in general, preventing you from wasting time on basic lighting setups for example. I really like how this book shows you the practical side of modeling, texturing, animating, lighting, and rendering, and at the same time gives you a good idea of the real-world production process.

One of the modeling examples, the catapult, seems like a lot of work, but when you get this book, make sure you go through the entire tutorial. It shows you the common (at least for me) modeling technique and after you finish it, you `will' be able to create your own models.

As the title says, it's an introduction, it is for beginners. You will need to learn a lot more to get the most out of Maya, but it will definitely get you started in an efficient manner and give you a taste of Maya, and an appetite for more.

After reading the reviews of this book I was a little apprehensive but my fears proved baseless.
I can confidently say that this book has enabled me to graduate to an intermediate level Maya user.
The trick is to actually read the entire book in sequence and not just jump straight into the tutorials. I found the language used to be straight forward and easy to understand.

If you are new to Maya, or 3D visualisation, then I would highly recommend this book.

Excellent book for the new user, like me.Good job of going over controls and menus. Projects files included on disc. The book touches on all of the relevant subjects but doesn't get too complicted right off the bat like other books. There are inspirational pictures of other begining Maya user although I don't think they learned it all from this book.

I purchased this book to learn Maya. I am a Mac user and expected to have shortcuts and hot keys listed for both Mac and Window$ OS ... well, not in this book. The whole book is written for WIN users. The author mentions some little things here and there for Mac OS but that's about it. So if you are a Mac user get ready to figure out the hot keys on your own since there will be no Insert key to activate the pivot point on a mac keyboard and etc... very sad since maya is a cross platform application.

This book is an introduction to the 3D software Maya. The format was split between general discussion and step-by-step exercises. There is also a CD that included the exercise files and a copy of Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE).

First of all, I did find the step-by-step exercises to be quite frustrating. The steps could have benefited from more detail or even a few more images. I just found myself getting lost to easily. Sometimes experimentation or trial and error were the only ways to get through a particular step. I did spot a few errors - most related to entering values. Sometimes depending on the view (or perspective) the required values would be different. As a beginner, minor errors made things even more difficult then they already were. Surprisingly, the book's use of grayscale images didn't create any problems except on a few occasions. Ultimately, it took me a lot longer to finish the exercises and the book than I would have wanted.

One of the reasons I got this book is that it included a copy of Maya PLE. But, the included version is only 5.0. Which is strange since the book is supposed to be an introduction to Maya 6. I couldn't get it to install anyways so I ended up just buying Maya PLE 6.0 from Alias.

With the problems aside you will still learn plenty just by reading through the material. I found the general discussion to be excellent. There was plenty of good information about the animation production process and great insight about each topic. I was surprised to find out that one of my favorite animated comedies was created with Maya.

Maya is a large and complicated program. The frustrating exercises just complicated things further. Especially since this is supposed to be an introduction to the topic. The exercises just needed to be a little clearer or more specific at times. The book may have been intended to be used with a formal class. In the end, and not without some struggles, I was still fairly introduced to Maya and 3D.

I come from the computers/engineering field into 3D computer graphics. This was the first book that I read. The book delivers what it promises - it is a good first step for 3D newcomers. It is easy to follow - exercises are explained step-to-step wise and it covers the most basic features of Maya. The book prepares you well for the Alias-book Maya Foundations, which gives you enough background to start making small animated films.

Sure, this book covers some stuff, but a lot of the information you can learn online/tutorials. Also, I learned much quicker and easier using Digital Tutor's stuff (dubyadubyadubya dot digital-tutors dot com )

It's an OK book, but I regret that I bought it.