CyborgChicken
06-08-2005, 09:33 PM
Looking for advice on training material.
Hey all,
I thought there might be something about this some where on the forums but nothing really got specific enough in the areas I’m curious about, sorry if this post seems repetitious.
I’m trying to get started in Maya, and I want to buy some training material However, with so much out there to select from it’s hard to know what exactly to get. I’ve divided it up into a few areas I want to learn.
Character modeling & rigging / Sub-D
I’m really not sure which materials to get, but what has looked good to me is the Hyper Real DVD Series from Alias and the Making of Leon from CG Tool Kit. Is this suitable for the areas I want to cover, is there better?
Texturing and UV mapping
I’ve mostly looked at the Gnomon DVD’s for this area, the Texture Mapping 101, Character UV mapping and Texture Painting Fundamentals. I heard some of Gnomon’s DVD’s have dropped in quality, and the “Texture Painting Fundamentals” being one of the newer ones, I’m curious as to weather it’s worth buying or not, It covers bump mapping and some other areas I’m kind of lost in, is this my best bet for learning how to make good textures? Are these the best thing you can get out there, or is there a better rout to learning how to do good seamless UV maps and Textures / Bump Maps?
Rendering & Shaders
This looks like probably one of the hardest areas in Maya to learn, the rendering trees are just extremely threatening looking to a Right Brained person. I’ve looked at the Gnomon series but the Digital Tutors looks maybe a little better in this area, their Mastering Render Nodes, Fundamentals of Mental Ray and Building Advanced Shading networks looks a bit more comprehensive then the Gnomon rendering DVD, but I’m a newb, so what do I know? Right? What should I look into getting? My main goal is to get a good “final gathering”/ render node/ shader network understanding; and generally be able to produce quality renders.
I would really appreciate any input on the dvd’s I’ve listed or any ideas on what might be better then what I’ve listed considering I don’t know much about all this 3D goodness.
Hey all,
I thought there might be something about this some where on the forums but nothing really got specific enough in the areas I’m curious about, sorry if this post seems repetitious.
I’m trying to get started in Maya, and I want to buy some training material However, with so much out there to select from it’s hard to know what exactly to get. I’ve divided it up into a few areas I want to learn.
Character modeling & rigging / Sub-D
I’m really not sure which materials to get, but what has looked good to me is the Hyper Real DVD Series from Alias and the Making of Leon from CG Tool Kit. Is this suitable for the areas I want to cover, is there better?
Texturing and UV mapping
I’ve mostly looked at the Gnomon DVD’s for this area, the Texture Mapping 101, Character UV mapping and Texture Painting Fundamentals. I heard some of Gnomon’s DVD’s have dropped in quality, and the “Texture Painting Fundamentals” being one of the newer ones, I’m curious as to weather it’s worth buying or not, It covers bump mapping and some other areas I’m kind of lost in, is this my best bet for learning how to make good textures? Are these the best thing you can get out there, or is there a better rout to learning how to do good seamless UV maps and Textures / Bump Maps?
Rendering & Shaders
This looks like probably one of the hardest areas in Maya to learn, the rendering trees are just extremely threatening looking to a Right Brained person. I’ve looked at the Gnomon series but the Digital Tutors looks maybe a little better in this area, their Mastering Render Nodes, Fundamentals of Mental Ray and Building Advanced Shading networks looks a bit more comprehensive then the Gnomon rendering DVD, but I’m a newb, so what do I know? Right? What should I look into getting? My main goal is to get a good “final gathering”/ render node/ shader network understanding; and generally be able to produce quality renders.
I would really appreciate any input on the dvd’s I’ve listed or any ideas on what might be better then what I’ve listed considering I don’t know much about all this 3D goodness.