What Maya Tutorial Book Do You Reccommend?

[augustus]

I have "Fundamentals" and "Savvy". Savvy is much better. I also recommed "Exploring Maya 4: 30 Studies in 3D", if you're new with 3d too.

[Bubble Gum Jr.]

would it matter that the book is for 4.0 instead of 4.5?

[augustus]

It's not about how to use Maya, it's about how can I do that. It gives 30 example mini projects about modeling, animation, rendering etc.

[isome]

i agree, the saavy book is good. character animation for maya (by young kim) is good, but not very noobie friendly, some of the stuff is heavy...

[BadKarma]

i personally like Maya 4.5 Fundamentals with CDROM, it covers everything but only... well the fundamentals, which everyone should know.

and the CD is very good too talking you thru every tutorial incase you get stuck or confused... which happens to me ALOT ! :D

Yeah you should really get the book acording to the version number you have, for exmaple a 4.5 book will cover fluid effects, where as a book of version 4 will not.

BadKarma
:beer:

[mark_wilkins]

Particularly if you're working through books like these, you should know that many of the menu items have moved and changed names between major versions like 3.0, 4.0, and 4.5.

However, the underlying principles are the same, and you shouldn't be afraid to get a book based on an earlier version once you know your way around the user interface pretty well. If you ONLY look at books relevant to the current version of Maya you'll find yourself closing off good information that may still be relevant.

All I can say is: thank goodness MEL's staying pretty stable between versions. :D

-- Mark

[augustus]

I'm readin a book about Maya Dynamics now,Digital Effects AnimationUsing Maya, and it's written for Maya 2+ :D

[BadKarma]

oh yeah deffinatly ! if you know ur current interface fine, then by all means look over earlier books, other wise - if you still learning i wouldnt advise it lol :)

mark_wilkins: cheers for the "noise" mel command i looked it up n it worked better :D

BadKarma

[iC4]

Originally posted by augustus
I have "Fundamentals" and "Savvy". Savvy is much better. I also recommed "Exploring Maya 4: 30 Studies in 3D", if you're new with 3d too.

hm, "exploring maya 4: 30 studies in 3d" is the most bad book I ever bought.........:thumbsdow

I really like mastering maya 3 (I think there is a newer version too)

[mark_wilkins]

hm, "exploring maya 4: 30 studies in 3d" is the most bad book I ever bought.........

I liked it, however I think you have to know your way around pretty well to be able to make use of it. I found I'd just read one of the examples in the book and go implement the underlying idea my own way, to see how it worked, sometimes learning something in the process.

-- Mark

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