Getting Started in 3D with Maya: Create a Project from Start to Finish―Model, Texture, Rig, Animate, and Render in Maya 1st Edition

In what has to be one ridiculously long title for a pretty straight-forward book, Getting Started in 3D with Maya: Create a Project from Start to Finish – Model, Texture, Rig, Animate, and Render in Maya is actually not a bad place to start if you’re trying to get into 3D. Adam Watkins manages to pack all the crucial steps of 3D modeling and animation into 9 concise chapters. I enjoyed the flow of the book, and felt that every important detail was explained. The author teaches just enough to get to the next step, and it’s all done in a logical order and progression. If you are just getting started with 3D, or if you know another package and are new to Maya, I think this is a excellent book to pick up.Watkins begins by explaining the general workflow and with the Maya philosophy (including a few somewhat comical hardware recommendations even though the book is only a couple years old). He continues with architectural modeling, organic modeling, UV layout, textures and materials, lighting and rendering, rigging and skinning, and finishes up with animation. Clocking in at around 448 pages, the book is not particularly short but I found I was able to get through it quickly. Each chapter was just the right size to read in one sitting, and the text was engaging enough to make me want to come back the following day.I definitely feel like I learned a thing or two by reading this book, and it has helped me to better understand the Maya workflow. Most 3D packages are huge, monolithic pieces of software, and no single book could cover everything. However, Getting Started in 3D with Maya covers the basic things you need to know in order to get started (so the book is true to it’s name). If I had one complaint, it’s that I thought the art direction could have been better. This book won’t teach you to be a masterful artist but I guess that wasn’t the goal or scope of the text. In any case, I would certainly be interested in reading more from the author as I feel he has a clear and honest style that is easy to learn from. Recommended.

While I was in Art school, I took a class in 3D Computer Modeling and I loved it. In our class we learned how to use Cinema 4D, instead of the industry-standard, Maya. Which was OK, but now that I am out of school, I was really interested in learning how to use the program I feel like I missed out on. I tried delving right in, hoping my experience with Cinema 4D would help, but it didn't, Maya was pretty different and I felt overwhelmed. I tried watching and reading tutorials online, but I found the prospect of listening to hours of video without actually doing the work, boring. Then I remembered I had a handy book I used in school for Cinema 4D and I decided I would try one for Maya too.I picked Getting Started in 3D, because it was from the same publisher as the Cinema 4D book (Focal Press) and it seemed to follow the same format. Having you delve right into projects, starting from the most simple states and getting more complicated as it goes. I am on Chapter 3 and I have learned and done more in Maya than ever before. The book is well explained, well paced and you feel like your working on this big project little by little which makes it incredibly satisfying and encouraging to keep on working. One of the defeats of the aforementioned Cinema 4D book was that it had small, inclusive projects, where more difficult topics (like animation) where introduced right away. That method of learning was frustrating at times and I ended up giving up many times. Where Getting Started in 3D shines is that it builds upon topics, having you work on a larger project little by little and I have yet to lose encouragement or interest in the project after a few weeks of owning the book.I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because a problem it has is that some of the screenshots are done very poorly, they're incredibly tiny, in a wireframe view that gets completely washed out with the blueish-gray background of Maya and some images it's impossible to see what the author wants you to see. So far I have gotten around by referencing the subsequent images to see what was done to the objects a few steps before, but still I find it unacceptable that the author didn't address these issues before the book went into publishing. Hopefully in future editions this issue will be addressed, and then it will become a great book.Overral, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn Maya, who has a previous knowledge of 3D and how it works.

If you are new to Maya or modeling, this is the book to get.I just received this book and started to read it and I have to say that I'm sorry I didn't have this book six months ago when I started the animation/modeling progam I'm enrolled in.The book starts by giving you a quick but through rundown of the main tools in Maya. It not only shows you how to use the tools, but gives you the why's of using specific tools. Thoughout the book, the author tells you why, you are doing what you do. After a chapter on how to use the tools, it goes into a chapter on Architectural modeling where the reader is guided step by step on building a set for a video game. The next chapter goes into Organic modeling of an alien creature-the one featured on the cover.Other chapters are :UV's and Uv Layouts, Material creation snd Texture Painting, Lighting and Rendering, Skinning and Rigging, and Animation in Maya. Also included are Tips and Tricks for working in Maya and Warnings and Pitfalls, which are things that you should lookout for while working. I've been working with Maya for less than a year and I'm still a newbie, and I found these to be very useful. So far, I'm impressed, not only by the content, but by how easy it is to read and understand. The author walks you through the projects, and then gives you homework to work on, so that you can work on what you learned on your own and use the skills on your own projects. As you read, you will find a link to the book's website, where you can download the extra files you might need to work on the assignments. And when I say this book is readable, I mean that I read it, while commuting by bus to work and I actually read it, unlike other books of it's kind, it was interesting and I can't wait to get started working on the projects.