I have to be honest. I have not seen any good maya books in some time. They are rehashes of the same ones like "Introduction to Maya xxxx", and "Maya Foundation xxxx" but it's basically the same 10 year old book just redone for the latest version of Maya.
Personally, I feel the best way to learn the product is to follow project based video tutorials. Not just Maya specific ones either. What I want is to see different work flows and approaches to solving similar problems. You quickly learn that there are about as many ways to do things as there are artists and by trying each one you find what works best for you.
The key is workflow. Anyone can write a book that steps through each and every command and it's options. What you really want to see is how and when to apply those tools and options in a real world situation.
This however, brings up the main critique I have about almost all video tutorials. Lack of complexity. Because authors are encouraged to keep every tutorial down to a certain time for each lesson they are forced to simplify the projects. Each project can be broken down into the large shapes, the medium and small details and the fine and intricate details. In almost all the tutorials I have seen they focus on the large and medium details and then skim quickly over the small and intricate stuff. Which unfortunately is where all the real pop comes from.
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675
Last edited by ctbram; 13-08-2012 at 06:43 PM.