Anyone Know Maya?

[JOKER_JOKER]

Well, I just acquired Maya 7.0 and after looking at all the things that can be done with it, I want to learn it. The day after I got it, I went to school where they told us who our mentors would be for our senior projects. For those of you who don't know what a senior project is, basically it's a project that you have to do during high school, and present it when your a senior. It has to either show that you did something for the community, or show that you mastered a certain skill. I'm in 11th grade, so I have plenty of time to do it. I want to do an animation in Maya, which will basically show off a lightsaber battle. My principal already signed off on this idea, so I'm good to go. However, I know almost nothing about Maya, only basic polygonal modeling. Is there anyone that knows Maya that can tell me if I can actually pull off this idea by February of 2007?

 

[FalconSS]

at alias's site they should have a TON of tutorials... at least they did in the 2.5-4.5 days... when it was aliaswavefront...

 

[JOKER_JOKER]

I just looked a few minutes ago and they have some good tutorials on there, but YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM! That's just sick.

 

[Blue Fox]

I just looked a few minutes ago and they have some good tutorials on there, but YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM! That's just sick.

If you can afford Maya, a tutorial or two shouldn't be a problem.
Have a look around here: http://www.cgtalk.com/

 

[Pkirk618]

good luck with that. I used Maya a while back for 3d modeling obejects for UT2004 maps--that didn't come with its own editor. It was tough. I believe at the time I had a video tutorial--it has been a while. Again, GL with this project...hopefully someone here could help ya!

 

[JOKER_JOKER]

If you can afford Maya, a tutorial or two shouldn't be a problem.
Have a look around here: http://www.cgtalk.com/

You don't pay for the tutorials individually, but for the rights to view them all.

As for being able to afford Maya, it was a present, so I didn't pay for it.

 

[Litfod]

When I had a student license of maya (admittedly about 7 years ago) it came with a pretty good "learning maya" book that's probably sold seperately now. The point is that although the tutorial projects themselves were painfull dull, they did a pretty efficient job of teaching you the way around the gui, shortcuts, that sort of thing so I'd recommend picking it up, or something similar, and just gritting your teeth and working through it.
Also the online documentation is pretty good and very comprehensive and has it's own set of tutorials.
I think you should be in good shape to come up with something reasonable in a year. Just stay focused. If the animation is your primary goal, don't get distracted modelling a ridiculously hi-res environment, that sort of thing. It's painfully easy to think you can do everything (modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting, effects) to a high standard and end up with something that's entirely rubbish.
Sorry, I didn't mean to preach Anyway, it's a great package, and very fast to work with (which I now do professionally) when you get used to it.

 

[JOKER_JOKER]

What do you think would be better, to pay the monthly fee for a bunch of tutorials, or to pay for a book or a dvd that explains it?

 

[Litfod]

Personally I prefer a decent book. Video tutorials are great for being able to clearly follow what's going on where a book might be a bit ambiguous at times, but books always cover more ground and if you're forced to figure out something that you don't understand, you get more out of it anyway. And the tutorials on alias.com (in the old days before they started charging for them) were ok but quite specialised for a particular task and often no use for anything else.
This is probably the current equivalent of the book I had:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...f=pd_bbs_1/102-1601621-1084123?_encoding=UTF8
Like I said, it wasn't very exciting to work through but you at least come away from it actually feeling like you could do something useful with what you've learnt.

 

[RoyalAssassin]

www.learning-maya.com

Give that a go, and good luck. I've been using Maya for almost 4 years and it's no picnic. There will always be something to learn, it's a ridiculously large program. You also don't need to pay anything to view some of the Alias tutorials, there are plenty on the site with only a bronze membership(free). Like said before, cgtalk.com is invaluable.

 

[Pkirk618]

what exactly comes with UT2004 edition on those extra DVDs?

 

[JOKER_JOKER]

Hey Litfod, do you think I would be better off getting this book for my purposes? Because, mainly I just want to do modeling and animation for my senior project. However, getting the book you suggested would actually give me a foundation with Maya. Or, perhaps both?

 

[rob2000]

you can try ebay or a few other places for maya training stuff.


simplymaya.com is pretty good, have some free tutorials and pay ones, but very friendly and helpful community. ill have to check out the other link someone posted.

pixel2life.com has a few tutorials, more for max. most of the polygon building is similiar between maya and max. so those tutorials might help a bit.


books are good, but can be a pain in the ass, if you forget a step. the book i just used we skipped around in class, and it assumes you did all prior steps and memorized them. so can be a bitch. animation is a bit easier in maya, but there is no video post like max, and that sucks.

also i think help in the program itself brings up tutorials built in..


the lynda.com maya discs are pretty good to.

but if you want to save money, check with the local libraries or online. my library carries about 22 dvds on maya alone, nothing on max though. over 30 books as well. which might be easier for you if usable. as most maya books are $50 or more.


just practice on your characters, and rigging them. making the lightsabers should be simple, so are a few of the effects. animating it and making it look good is another story.

practice a walk cycle and a modified walk to run cycle.

im still learning myself. after 4 months of maya, i feel like a noob still. which is not good.

 

[RoyalAssassin]

im still learning myself. after 4 months of maya, i feel like a noob still. which is not good.

Not to worry. After 4 years of maya I still feel like a noob.

 

[Litfod]

Hey Litfod, do you think I would be better off getting this book for my purposes? Because, mainly I just want to do modeling and animation for my senior project. However, getting the book you suggested would actually give me a foundation with Maya. Or, perhaps both?

Notice how they do a bundle of that and the foundation one As long as that one doesn't assume too much previous knowledge of the gui etc you probably wouldn't go far wrong with it and I'd guess it would spend more time in areas you care about and not waste time dealing with particles or whatever. On the other hand, I think once you get familar and comfortable with the basics of how maya works with construction history, the different editors and that sort of thing, you'll be able to pick up more advanced things pretty quickly either from looking specific things up in the (very good) online docs or looking up tutorials on the sites other people have suggested.
I agree with rob2000 about books sometimes being hard to follow if you miss a step or don't have the options for a tools set exactly the same way as the tutorial etc and yes you need to follow them sequentially, especially when one project follows on from a previous one. It's a chore, but once it's done you should at least feel comfortable finding your way around and following tutorials that might not explain every step in detail.
It is a huge program but there's lots of it you can safely ignore (for now) like particles, fluids, mel (to some extent) or paint effects. Plus they're increasingly loading it up with lots of cheesy, pre-baked effects like fireworks which you can safely ignore forever.