Maya reference Books..which ones?

[wedge]

theres nothing in any book out there that is any better than the manuals that came with maya. i guess maya 4 fundamentals is alright, because it describes box-modeling with a poly-proxy (ala CPS or SubD)... but to be honest, there aren't any books out there that i'd highly reccomend.

[Octagon]

when i first touched maya john kundert gibbs maya books helped me quite a lot to see how more complicated things like characters are done in maya.
i own mastering maya 3 and really _can_ recommend it. there's also a newer gibbs book out for maya 4.5 (maya 4.5 savvy). i don't have it but judging from the maya 3 book it should be a good purchase.

matthias

[callon]

PureFire:

I too am new to Maya, and I'm slowly working my way through this wondeful beast. I have "Maya 4.5 Savvy" , "Digital Lighting and Rendering" , and "Digital Texturing and Painting," all of which have been well worth their weight in gold! You can get all three for a total that's well under 200 USD, but if you're strapped for cash I'd definitely check out "Digital Lighting and Rendering," as it is VERY helpful in understanding some of the theory behind 3d solutions like Maya as well as some of the basics, like differences between different kind of lights and how to illuminate a scene. I HIGHLY recommend all of these books, as they have been quite helpful to me getting my feet wet.

Of the three, the Savvy is the only one written specifically for Maya users. The other two are wrtten so that you learn general principles and techniques that you can apply to a variety of 3d solutions. Really good stuff in there!

Well, there ya go!

And just in case you're wondering, I have no affiliation with the authors. . .The books really are quite helpful!!!

Let me know if I can help you with anything else. :thumbsup:

Mike

[mark_wilkins]

Au Contraire, wgeddes:

I like to think that there's at least one good book on MEL scripting that adds something useful to the documentation...

:D

-- Mark
(don't... plug.... don't plug... don't plu ----
oops I plugged.)

[Rudity]

^
^
^
^
^ Yeah there's that book, its good.

[erik2003]

I also use Maya 4.5 Savvy and it helps me a lot to follow the tutorials.

[svenip]

can someone tell me which level savvy is?

is it more beginner or more to pros (not that i except that)

[mark_wilkins]

I think Maya 4.5 Savvy is suitable for beginners and has some intermediate material that's really nice also.

-- Mark

[qwerty_12345]

i find that Amazon.com is always a good place to look for book reviews, and of coarse if you find something good, you can always buy it there. alot of times you can even find people selling it used, often at half the cover price . i belive this link will get you there.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/s...5600245-0205436

[athosghost]

I've been working my way through "Maya 4.5 Fundamentals" and for a noob like me, it's pretty good. It was actually a bit cheaper (@ 32.00 USD) than some of the other maya books and the cd include's all the tutorial movies which I have found invaluable.

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