RECOMMENDED MAYA BOOKS & READS
 

Greetings friends!

I wanted to start a thread on what books on maya are great for learning and quick reference. We all tend to forget little details and things could go wrong in maya if not done properly for example for rigging purposes. I just bought the new "Learning Autodesk Maya 2009: Foundation" for quick reference. Is that a good read? What books do you guys recommend and would be good for your shelf at home? It would be great if you could list your thoughts.

Thanks!

BOOKS on AMAZON
 

I've been looking at some books but I've never actually went through them but here's a list of books those books that had some good reviews and ratings on Amazon.com & others:

-Learning Autodesk Maya 2009: Foundation (mentioned in previous post above)
-Learning Autodesk Maya 2009: The Special Effects Guide by Autodesk Maya Press
-Learning Autodesk Maya 2009: Modeling & Animation by Autodesk Maya Press
-The Game Artist's Guide to Maya by Michael McKinley
-The Game Animation Guide to Maya by Michael McKinley



These had good reviews:
-Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting by Lee Lanier
-Maya Professional Tips and Techniques by Lee Lanier
-An Essental Introduction to MAYA Character Rigging with DVD by Cheryl Cabrera
- Body Language: Advanced 3d Character Rigging by Eric Allen & Murdock
-Mental Ray for Maya, 3ds Max, XSI: a 3d Artist's Guide to Rendering by Boaz Livny
-Maya Visual Effects: The Innovator's Guide by Erick Keller
-The art of Maya - An Introduction to 3d Computer Graphics by Autodesk Maya Press
-Maya Techniques: Hyper-Real Creature Creation by Alias Learning tools
-Maya Secret of the Pros by John Kundert-Gibbs, Dariush Derakhshami

What do you guys think of these?

I also have the Autodesk Maya 2009: Foundation and am working through it at the moment.
I wouldn't necessarily call it a reference as it seems to be mostly a project-based tutorial/introduction to the various aspects of maya. It seems to be pretty good and I'm learning lots, but I'm excited to move past that onto bigger and better things :)

I also have the visual quickstart guide to Maya 6, which, although I haven't used it much, seems to be more of a reference type book as it goes through how to use each of the tools and things individually. I know it's a bit dated, but I figure most of the tools will still be relevant for 99% of what will be used (especially by a beginner like me).

Just my two bits (or two cents... which, now that I think about it, doesn't compare at all...)

Not really speaking from personal experience but most people say maya killer tips is a great book (i havent got round to it yet though)

I love books, all books, not only 3d art ones, I have a collection of around 500 or so novels, manuals, art books, graphic novels etc! Here's a list of some of the 3d books I've found really helpful so far, after spending several weeks wages! I found quite a few of them second hand so it's not always that expensive if you search around,most of what I've learnt so far have come from them.

Sybex:Mastering Maya 8.5
Sybex:Advanced Texturing and Lighting by Lee Lainer
Focal Press:Character Modeling in Maya and Zbrush
Sybex:Mentalray for Maya,3d max and XSI
Sybex:Maya Secrets of the Pro's
Understanding 3d animation using Maya by John Edgar Park
Creating striking graphics with Maya and Photoshop by Daniel Gray
Focal Press:An essential Introduction to Maya character rigging
Sybex:The Game animators guide to maya

Non Maya specific:

Sybex:Stop staring! Modeling and Animation done right
Animation Tops and Tricks by Shawn Kelly
Sybex:Digital Photography for 3d imaging and animation
New Riders:Digital Texturing and Painting by Owen Demers
Zbrush character creation: Advanced digital sculpting
Design First for 3d Artists by Geoffrey Kater
Digital Animation Bible by George Avgerakis

Hope it's helpful to someone!
Sorry,the emoticons came up for some reason,I'm guessing you can work out what letter it's replacing....

*shameless self-plug* I recommend my own books! :D Hope you like the 3rd once it's out!

The first maya book I bought was Jae-jin Choi's Maya character animation. That was pretty useful for charcater animation.
Discover the game with Alias- Alias Learning tools was useful
Both of Micheal Mckinley's books were good too. Hurry up and get it released Michael :P. looking forward to your new one.

Sun