Customer Reviews

Learning Maya 6 | Foundation

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

 

 

I started at the very beginning of this book with no 3D experience at all, and unfamiliar with how to use Maya. By completing this book, I feel like a pro. Obviously in reality I still have a long way to learn studio effects, but this book makes you feel comfortable in the program and allows you to get used to the feel of all the tools. Great lessons, great description of 'why' you are doing things, and covers all aspects of 3D graphics, from modeling to rendering. With this book by your side, you'll land on your feet and start running w/Maya and the 3D World.

First off I purchased the entire Learning Maya 6 series from Alias directly. It's been a long time since I've come across more incompetent people than the ones involved with their Learning Tools. They never were ever able to tell me what I had purchased, I had to wait until it arrived to find out. So if you are going to buy it, buy it here.

Second, I don't know why anyone else hasn't mentioned it (a reason why most reviews are worthless I guess), but the DVD is just about guaranteed to make you go blind. I am not an expert on how to make DVD's, but they did a terrible job. The index doesn't cover all the chapters (for starters), but most importantly the quality of the vids is so fuzzy that watching more than one chapter at a time makes me get a headache. What the vids show is just someone working with the Maya application itself, the vids are such poor quality that you can't see what they are doing or what menu items, etc are being selected, which again makes them almost worthless.

Third, this is not the way I want to learn. I assumed that the "Foundation" part of a series would explain in detail how to use things and build up (hence the word foundation) to the more specific books that follow. Instead, they are all just "follow me" type tutorials without giving much detail, if at all, as to why you are doing things. So instead of understanding why and when to use certain tools, you end up mimicing someone else's actions without really understanding why, not really learning anything.

This might be a good book to augment another book that I haven't found yet, that explains the Maya application itself and 3d fundamentals. Otherwise I think it was a waste of time.

This book, and entire series for that matter, is great you will learn everything you need to know about Maya and 3D modeling/animation in this series. it is geared more towards the novice/intermediate 3D modeler/animator, but it is very helpful to have some understanding of 3D and Maya before trying this book, especially if you want quick results.

This book takes you through the ins and outs of 3D but you don't start any projects right off the bat. i would recommend Maya® at a Glance - by George Maestri for the animator who has never done anything before, but this book will do the newbie a lot of good as well. it is part of the best series you can get to go from beginner to advanced in 3D animation (and i know... i have the whole series and close to 30 other books).

I hope this review was helpful to you, and if you have any questions feel free to ask them.

I anxiously waited for this new release to come out and what do I get? Pretty much the same information I did with the Maya 5 Foundation book, but with a few added lines here and there and a DVD with movie tutorials of the chapters on it. The same exact color pictures and tutorials. This is really pitifull. If you have the Maya 5 Foundation book and you want to save almost $70 then do so. A good rule of thumb is to wait until you have read a few reviews on a book before purchasing it. Needless to say it is going back!

I come from the engineering/computer field into 3D animation. This was the second book that I read. It is great. But it is not for the beginner - if you have never done 3D animation before, you will need a more basic book to start with, for instance "3D for beginners" by Dariush Derakshani. Maya Foundations contains 5 large projects for you to complete. All is explained step-wise and is easy to follow. The book lets you touch upon most of Maya. It takes some time to complete, but you learn a lot and you will be able to make small animated films after having completed the book.

Diving into maya 6 unexperienced, without an aid is terribly confusing, but diving into maya 6 with this book is not that much better -- it is like a nonswimmer being thrown into the deep end of the pool with a deflated lifesaver.

Sure, the directions are pretty easy to follow, but the problems arise when there are MISSING directions! I was having a headache trying to get something to work like it supposedly did in the book, when I realized that the author FORGOT to include a vital step! I would not have been able to get ahead if I had not figured out the problem on my own (through trial and error). Shame Shame SHAME on the author! Sorry we beginning users are not as professional and proficient in the program.

I give this book a C+ at best. Well-written simple directions mean absolutely nothing if they are not complete!

The information in this book gave me some essential skills. Unfortunately for the hours I put into completing it, it didn't do so very efficiently.
The main reason for this was that the instructions are incomplete / not explained well enough when it comes to the more "fiddly" tools. eg I had particular problems when making hierarchies of material nodes, it took many trial and error attempts to get the correct results. As a result completing the projects successfully was very frustrating at times, and I wasted a lot of time needlessly, because the instructions were not clear enough. Also, there was often sequences of complex instructions and little or no explanation as to what you are actually doing, or why...which is obviously important when it comes to absorbing the information.
Secondly, the book is described as "foundation level". This is a bit deceiving. Anyone unfamiliar with 3-D graphics will be in for a plunge.
Lastly, the book jumps quickly into animation, materials and rendering, while initially only touching on modelling. This isn't a flaw that's unique to this book. It has never made sense to me, because you will want to spend time getting a reasonable grasp of modeling before you attempt to apply materials and lighting to your creations, let alone animate them.
Not a bad learning tool by a long shot, but I'm sure there's more user friendly publications out there.

An excellent first book to use with the free download of "Maya Personal Learning Edition" from the Alias site.

This takes the beginning Maya user from learning the Maya 6 user interface through 5 projects of increasing complexity.

An updated edition of "Learning Maya 5 Foundation", the only difference is the minor changes in the user interface.