Maya Bookz

[nautilus]

Hi and welcome

I recomend these 2 books:

1. Maya 4.5 Fundamentals (http://www.trinity3d.com/M4F/)
2. Maya 4.5 Savvy (http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/4109)

Fundamentals has movies on the cd so you can watch each lessons (chapter). Its a a good book to get you started with Maya.

Maya Savvy is a book for more advanced users or once you get know Maya a little better. I would get this one once you have read Fundamentals.

Well i bought both at the same time :-)

[OsMoNd]

Originally posted by nautilus
Hi and welcome

I recomend these 2 books:

1. Maya 4.5 Fundamentals (http://www.trinity3d.com/M4F/)
2. Maya 4.5 Savvy (http://www.sybex.com/sybexbooks.nsf/booklist/4109)

Fundamentals has movies on the cd so you can watch each lessons (chapter). Its a a good book to get you started with Maya.

Maya Savvy is a book for more advanced users or once you get know Maya a little better. I would get this one once you have read Fundamentals.

Well i bought both at the same time :-)

Thanks alot, nautilus :buttrock:
i personally already check the M4.5F book in amazon.com
and it sure thrilling :applause:
too bad i can't take a look inside the savvy one in :hmm:
well i guess i'll buy the M4.5F first
once again, thanks 4 da input man

[augustus]

too bad i can't take a look inside the savvy one in

You can downlad a sample chapter from Sybex's site.

[OsMoNd]

You can downlad a sample chapter from Sybex's site.
ow yes, stupid me :p Thanks aug!

[PiXeLPuPPeT]

Just a quick question
What sort of work do you intend to aim for?
Character animation?
Post Effects ?
Game dev ?

I work with characters and have found the following one to be of good source..
A great book written by Jaejin Choi


http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0782141714/202-6595942-1732613

[robin]

Jaejin Choi's book is an absolute must if your serious about character modeling/setups.

I by total luck got it from my local reseller.:surprised

[PiXeLPuPPeT]

Indeed it is ...
I am locking myself away for the whole easter break going through it again ...
Very sweet info in it...

[18th_Devil]

also a good book to have handy is the maya 4.5 handbook...but with 5.0 coming out soon u might as well wait until maya 5.0 handbook comes out :P

and the inspired 3d books r good to have for beginners too...but their expensive so unless u have alot to spend buy the set but the best one i can recommend is the character set up one they have rigging and some MEL expressions in it.

maya savvy is by the same ppl who did the master maya series so if u've encountered those then u should get maya savvy i personally don't have it but i hear its worth getting...

and if u get more advanced in maya get maya: secert of the pros
very nice book.

[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/search-handle-form/103-5600245-0205436

[Jim Lammers]

Hi and thanks to those of you who recommended my book "Maya Fundamentals."

I'm starting work on the new Maya 5 Fundamentals book now. I'm thinking about how to improve it while we cover the new Maya 5 features like Mental Ray and also talk more about SubDs and UV unwrapping. It's hard because the book can't grow much bigger, and has to explain things so newer users aren't left out. But I would definitely appreciate your feed back on the book, a la "more this, less that" or "too dumbed-down/just right/too complex." On this last count the Amazon reviews for M4F are all over the place :hmm:

Anyway, feel free to email your thoughts directly at jim@trinity3d.com or here in this thread -

Jim
www.mayafundamentals.com
www.trinity3d.com

[qwerty_12345]

i guess since i mentioned Amazon.com, i should have also mentioned that peoples reviews of books are similar to critics reviews of movies, they should be taken with a grain of salt. i have seen really good books get some pretty bad reviews, and bad books get good reviews. so while ultimately it is up to the individual to decide if the book is worthy or not, it is still interesting to see what people think... and to Jim, i really like your book, and do think it is a great selection for people trying to learn Maya. i especially like the video tutorials on the C.D., often times seeing something done is the best way to understand it. if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million.

[OsMoNd]

if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million.
you can say that again :thumbsup:

[qwerty_12345]

if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million

[OsMoNd]

Originally posted by 18th_Devil
and if u get more advanced in maya get maya: secret of the pros
very nice book.
Yeah I already check it out in amazon.com and read some reviews
like you said it's a very nice book to know some secrets from the motion picture pros
but I'm wandering what version of Maya does the book cover?

[Jim Lammers]

If you are referring to Maya Fundamentals, there is a version for 4.0 (the original) and an updated version for 4.5 that came out in February. Here are the links:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735711895
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735713278

thanks,

Jim

Originally posted by OsMoNd
but I'm wandering what version of Maya does the book cover?

[Hugh]

If you're after programming for Maya, then the two books to look at are:

MEL Scripting for Maya Animators (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558608419/qid%3D1050828300/202-7808457-2936638)
by Mark Wilkins and Chris Kazmier

or

Complete Maya Programming: an Extensive Guide to MEL and the C++ API (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558608354/qid=1050828236/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/202-7808457-2936638)
by David Gould

[OsMoNd]

Thanks Jim & Hugh for the referencez :buttrock:
but i'm referring the book that 18th devil referred before
it's 'Maya: Secret of the pros' (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0782140556/qid=1050829252/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_9/102-9037872-0460159?v=glance&s=books)
and i'm wandering what version of Maya does the book cover?

[mark_wilkins]

"Secrets of the Pros" covers material that's not particularly version specific. Most of the screen shots are, I think, from 4.0, but that shouldn't really make that much of a difference as the book's more about how to do interesting things rather than where the menu items are.

-- Mark

[OsMoNd]

geez man i have met aloads great authors in this forum :thumbsup:
and they are so helpful :applause: Thanks guyz!

[platypus]

so... how far in-depth do the NURBs modeling tutorials in the Fundamentals book go?

I have been using Savvy, which is very good for the most part, but completely drops the ball when it comes to finishing off your nurbs character models. no explanation whatsoever of how to get the patch tangents in order, after stitching everything back together. cant get rid of the dang creases in my model. :annoyed: quite confusing.

may have to go pick up the Fundamentals book this afternoon.

suggestions?

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