Customer Reviews

Maya 6: The Complete Reference

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book recently and have read several chapters.

My opinion: -

There is some very good content for advanced uses of Maya in this book. Such as the camera projection techniques and the dynamics section is very good but fairly advanced (simulation of a an explosion and debris).

The chapters that I read would make me believe that if you cannot read "between the lines of an instruction" (if the instruction perhaps contains some kind of ambiguity) then you may be disappointed with this book.

I would say a MUST FOR ADVANCED USES OF MAYA (the camera projection tech/ and dynamics section are worth the price alone and the Nurbs patching techniques are quite detailed. The coverage of the book is quite broad...Using Mental ray with final gathering, fresnel effect texture mapping..using deformers with character animation, Pro ik rigs, ocean simulation example, crowd simulation example, re-target character rig example (the list is quite extensive).

BUT A DEF. NO FOR BEGINNERS...(There is a high probability you will get lost due to the possibility of unclear instruction.)

Advice for Maya users who get lost: USE THE ONLINE HELP ITS VERY GOOD. It contains some fairly clear tutorials. Also join some Maya help forums. Online questions/answers. Join Alias Membership schemes. Look to get advice online join some Maya help forums (post/answer questions/problems). Search Google.

Be careful which books you buy: There is not one book that can cover Maya as a teaching resource properly it's too complicated to explain. Too much detail is required. Go for a separate strategy, as Alias does with its education material. (If you want to understand Nurbs organic modeling then juts find a book on this topic only.) Make sure that you read all the feed back from people who have bought the material.

Finally: A good teaching book: requires clear instruction. Avoid any that you may

suspect has unclear instruction. Don't buy them. (You are looking for teachers of a subject not who they work for. Just because the author may be working at the top of his/her industry does not mean also they make a great teacher of the subject as well. This is a big mistake. Teaching requires great skill, experience and training. Look for good teachers not good industry reputations.

I was going nuts, losing hair, etc etc. Read on. I am a fairly bright guy, especially in the world of computer design, so I have decided to tackle the monster that is maya. Having done so, I poured through a couple of beginner books, and I could tell they just scratched the surface... so I purchased this book. At an extended glance in the book store, this book was promising. Nicely printed pages, good examples, good formatting, CD with tutorial files, etc.

But then I started working through it, systematically. Generally, the structure is: a chapter describing the theory, then a chapter with extensive tutorials.

the first type of chapter, the theoretical brand, is where this book lies on solid ground. This book goes into more depth than others on HOW things work, not just showing you why they work.

But then you get to the tutorials and new concepts are thrown at you, things are poorly described, sentences are literally cut off and half missing... and worse than anything, some of the tutorial steps are just flat out wrong. EVEN more than that, as mentioned above, the files referenced to on the tutorial CD are either missing or named differently. If you open one of THEIR projects from the tutorial CD, maya wont even find THEIR stuff.

The worst for me right now is chapter 14, texturing. I literally had to disect their tutorial file and my own file created based on their step by step description to see why my nice floor tile texture looked like a fuzzy mess. Well, it turned out that at least 7 steps that I have counted so far are don't match up with THEIR OWN file. The instructions are just flat out wrong. The file names to the bitmap textures are all wrong. And sometimes they tell you to name a node something, and then two sentences later refer to that node with a different name then they TOLD you to name it.

It made me feel stupid, like I was doing something wrong, when all along I was fighting a losing battle.

This book has great potential to rock, sadly it doesn't. Hopefully they'll come out with a Maya 6.5 update... but I feel ripped, I want my money back.

this book has some good info, but i'm finding it very slow going trying to decipher the often poorly worded directions in these lessons. this is an example from the nurbs modeling lesson:

step 3. Detach the surfaces and rebuild.

step 4. Rebuild the surfaces.

(didn't i just do that).

here's another . . .

step 1. Insert 2 isoparms in the U direction on both the top and bottom.

step 2. Insert 2 more isoparms in the V direction.

step 3. Detach the surfaces, you should now have a total of nine pieces.

if you follow these directions one way, then in step 1 you would insert 2 isoparms on the top and 2 on the bottom. then in step 2 you would add 2 more in the V, but you find that you're left with 15 surfaces. obviously what they meant to say is "Insert 2 isoparms, 1 on the top and 1 on the bottom . . . " then you look at the photo to see where to place them and the bottom is totally obscured, so you have to guess.

although when i just modeled something to look like the FINAL picture, ignoring the text, it came out fine, but then i'm kinda winging it.

i have learned some usefull tips, but i think you will need to glean through this book and take a little here and there, rather than follow it by examples.

Read about 200 pages of the book now and I'm finding it quite hard go on with it. There are just soo many errors, missing steps and unclareties, that the book is just a slow and killing pain to read. I have read other Maya learning materials, from various authers and publishers, and where some are really good (MEL scripting for animators, Stop Staring etc.) this on really s... up til now. (Sorry Guys)

I really hope the rest of the book is better. To the authors credit I think what they are trying to get across is quite competent, unfortunately they don't get across all that well..

Ok. I'll edit this review when I have read the rest of the book. I just wanted to tell people who, like me, hate errous training, to think twice or maybe wait for the 2. editoin.

Update:

Left the book alone for a while, then went to check out the sections on camera mapping and render passes. Some very cool stuff here! Nice choice of subject matter.

But.. These section are also made a really tough read by several things: Scene files missing from the cd. Materials, attributes, rigging and other things missing from the scenes that are there. Worst you are asked to light a model and that models normal directions are all over the place! (A model you have to render out in 14 diferent passes). Trying to succesfully light a peice of geometry like this, harly makes sense while you are learning..

Worst of all, it's been many months now since I bought the book, and I have still not been able to find any source of errata or missing files.

Who ever decided to put the book out in it's current state - "Shame on you!". I sincerely hope that the publisher will offer buyers of rev 1. a free trade in copy of rev 2. when/if it comes.

And for the people at dvGarage - You think this is good publicity?

I am somewhat disapointed in the reviews I read on this book. If theres one book to buy on Maya, this is it. I went through the tutorals in Maya foundation 6 when I took a class on maya in college. The foundation books by alias is great if you wanna know how a model was put together but it lacks the learning curve, The nuts & bolts. What you get in the foundation is a introduction to different types of geometry (b-slines, subs, polys).

"The complete reference maya 6" takes it a step further & really makes use of maya ability. Yes! I will say for a beginner this book will through you off. For example when the author gets into curves, you get your hands dirty patching/stitching the model where in the foundation book you stick to the basics. The aurthor shows you in the maya 6 reference book what to keep your eye on while building geometry which you will not find or at least I have not found in anyother book on maya. Modeling is easy, its modeling good that fits the bill & this book will show you the right way early on. You also get into HDR rendering, using reflections, production for those interested in taking there work into some video software. I would not suggest this book for the person who has never worked in maya even though you get the basics in the first few chapters. Once you get to the modeling part, it will throw you off without some know how of what is possible with modeling. For those that have the foundation book, this book maya 6 reference will fill in all those questions you had while working the tuoral book. I would also suggest "the art of maya" to add to your maya collection. For me I am waiting for the maya 7 update to this book, out of all my maya books I must say this book stands tall. Ohya, if you buy this book based on reviews, your selling yourself short. Buy it, if you dont like it by gosh you can always send it back for a refund. GOOD LUCK

This book is salvagable in a 2nd edition. Objectives and topics need to be consolidated and highlighted at the beginning of each chapter and not scattered throughout poorly reviewed tutorials. Many tutorials need rework (significant rework) before they can pass muster.

I have five years professional experience in 3D production and three plus years with Maya. I do not agree that this book succeeds in its mission, nor do I agree this book fails completely. Rather, I will say the book needs professional review and until that happens it should not be defended as a worthwhile text.

I lent this book to a co-worker and he complained that he could not get through the tutorials in several chapters. We sat down, discussed the authors' probable intent, and then went to the steps in the tutorials that my co-worker highlighted. As we struggled with the tutorials it became clear to me that the authors were not connecting with their audience, that they had failed to preview their intentions in the tutorials, and that the tutiorals were significantly flawed. I told him to forget it and to stick with the videos we have in-house.

Perhaps the print format is the problem, but if you are going to do a book, then do it right. Wait for the 2nd edition.

This book is not for beginners. 75% of the instructions are clear, its the 25% that will stop you dead in your tracks. They say things like connect this to that and snap this to the other thing. What is "other" thing supposed to be? I would not recommend for beginners, you will get disappointed once you get through 50% of the tutorial and be completely lost half way through.

I'm an animation student and I first come across this book at my school's library. As soon as I started to go through it, I decided to buy it. All the 3D software books I had seen before taught me nothing; either way too basic or way too advanced. This book covers most of the software, it explains things well and it's organized. It's definitely worth having.

This book is awesome and one of the best out their. It covers certain things that other books fail to do. Like, the key elements of texturing, particle effects, and fully understanding the hypershade menu alot more in-depth, and it doesn't stop there. Their is also excellent guides and tips on hard surface nurb patching, compositing, and really good rendering tutorial tips.

The overall book and tutorials are well written and easy to understand, even for maya beginners. Now, I have a wide selection of maya books in my library and I would have to say in my opinion that this is one of my top books, if not best because it sets itself apart from all others!

I must agree with the first reviewer. This book does set itself apart from the rest of the Maya 6 books. I personally own almost the whole series of Alias/Maya 6 (SYBEX) books and just this one book goes over everything the others do and more except the Maya Unlimited book. This is the first book I have read that actually have tutorials on cool modelling, not just some corny apple modelling or creating the side of a house.

The only downside is the fact that the CD does not contain movie tutorials. I have gotten a little spoiled from the Sybex books that contain Quicktime video tutorials. But on the upside the CD does contain the source files from the tutorial sections of the book. This book is definitely worth the investment.