Learning Autodesk Maya 2010: Foundation (Autodesk Maya Techniques: Offical Autodesk Training Guides) [Paperback]

I reviewed the 2009 version, then returned that in favor of this one since I have Maya 2010. Unfortunately this book falls short in the same way.

Some steps require basic knowledge of Maya or you'll get lost. At one point you create an object, then on the next page, you'll notice that the object has been moved above the plane, but there's no mention of this until it happens again later with another object.

There were a few steps that I was able to follow based on prior learning that made up for the lack of details in this book. Like the 2009 version, the book lost me when after guiding me through the production of a bunch of houses, it instructs you to create a cylinder which will be a light post. Cool. So you go into component mode and it leaves you, stating "shape the geometry as follows". Um, I am a b-e-g-i-n-n-e-r.

Again I referred to prior learning, recalling how to manipulate objects in component mode. I also thought that I was being too critical. After all, in a classroom, maybe a instructor would challenge the student to produce based on what has been taught. I don't mind that form of learning IF there's an 'answer' somewhere, like how to do it. I don't see a cross-reference.

My light post came out okay. But next, there was a more complicated object, and the instructions? Create a prism, enter a few numerical settings for the geometry then "shape the light as follows" referring to a photo of a completed object. HOW? I only made it to page 70 (of 600+) and I'm lost already. This from someone who took Maya for 2 semesters in college years ago, was able to create a complicated object following video tutorials online, and is a motion graphics artist.

I can follow good instructions, but I opted for this book to really understand 3D creation in Maya so that I can get an assignment and know how to build it, what tools to use and why vs. following tutorials with 'wow' factors based on advanced users' creativity that leave me having absorbed nothing suited for my less advanced skillset. I hope to find that book, but this isn't it.

This book is meant to be an introduction and foundation for learning Maya. It *is not* meant to be an introduction into 3D software. The book assumes that you already have some experience with 3D software in general. As such, it is not going to hold your hand and explain every minute detail general 3D concepts.

This book does a very good job of explaining how Maya works for the user who already has some 3D experience. It is not a 'beginners' book.

I bought this book to get up to speed on Maya to begin an internship - my prior experience in 3D is a semester of Lightwave which I threw myself into and absolutely loved. Before starting this book I looked through the Maya documentation and went through the free tutorials Autodesk provides. Other than that I had no prior exposure to Maya.

My experience differs from the one other review that's here right now, but I find a lot of the criticism was right on. I didn't have any trouble getting through creating houses, lampposts, etc. but this book does have an insidious tendency to leave out one piece of critical information. If it wasn't organized as a 'cookbook' this might be all right, but in this format it has the effect of taking you out into the woods and then leaving you there. Sections on character modeling and inverse kinematics were particularly guilty of this. In some cases you will find that the corresponding reference file (provided on the DVD) works better than what you get by following the instructions because it breaks some of the rules the instructions told you to follow.

It is still possible to get a lot out of this book, however, and redoing something a few times will give you a sense for what the instructions are trying (and sometimes failing) to get across as well as making you much more adept at using the hypergraph. Not the best learning experience, but effective nonetheless. There is a ton of good information in this book and it *does* manage to be very effective at teaching you something once and then just referring to it thereafter, which really tests your memory and helps to ingrain useful techniques that you will use over and over again.

It took me about six weeks (or 100 hours) to get through this book, and that includes redoing several things. It really ought to have been tested and proofread better, because it could have been great.