Basics Tut
 

I know this sounds really stupid and 100% noob but does anyone have any decent basics tuts? I want to get the jump on the modeling side of my course at college next year. I am currently using 3ds Max and want to see how well maya can clean up, but have practically no idea how to use it. any suggesions would be welcomed :)

Try the Cartoon Dog tut on here, that pretty much got me started ;)

We took the cartoon dog away with the new site, to make space for tutorials in newer versions of Maya and teach more diverse modeling techniques:)

But download what's in the free section it should get you started and give you an idea of what's going on. We're also adding tutorials here in the next few days.

http://simplymaya.com/autodesk-maya-...d=23&sub_cat=0

If you're looking for paid for tutorials on modeling in Maya this site has more than any other, and the content here is also the best for quality and getting results. If you look here you'll find the subcategories for modeling

http://simplymaya.com/autodesk-maya-...id=1&sub_cat=0

What's better to watch would depend on how much you already know in max, for beginners I'd go with the introduction to organic modeling, interior design or a low poly character as it gets you started and includes a few tools without being too much at once.
If you're already quite comfortable modeling I'd do the Sand Speeder because it includes so many different tools, or the Apache as it basically teaches you half of Maya in one tutorial but both these are long and quite difficult to complete for someone new to modeling. My favorite tutorial on the site is Chef Ramsay because it describes the production workflow in character modeling and takes rigging into consideration. As well it shows UV layout and texturing so you get a good overview.

Remember F1 for the Maya help files and there's also some free basics training on Autodesk's site which is good.

Best of luck,
Nilla

I just noticed a bunch of old tuts missing after posting that :P

I directed him to the interior design tutorial, as it looked like it could help him a bit, but he was tired so he hasn't done it yet :beer:

i suggest you look at the tutorials that come with maya. coming from 3ds max you may get bored of them because they do start with the basics but it's a decent start.
and it's relevant to the version of maya you're using too. so you wont have to ask us 'where is the modelling menu set' because you'd have figured out where the functions are when someone from an old tutorial refers to it.

Thanks everyone, you are very helpful :D
Ive started on the interior design one, and halve done about half of it.
Having problems trying to bridge some edges together (// Error: Invalid selection : polyBridgeEdge requires equal number of border edges to be selected for source and target selection.) Even though i have the two that need bridging :S
Hopefully I can figure it out soon lol

Best thing to do is follow some really simple tuts at first. The content you create in the tuts may be boring, but just use them until you get at least semi-confident with the tools, then just model something that really interests you, that's the only way you're going to see it through to the end, or however far it gets. So if you're anything like Acid (god help us) then model a cool car. Plenty of guys around here to help you out with that one!

Some basic tuts to start with sure, but after that, you need to start doing what really gets you going... what got you into this stuff in the first place. It won't matter how well you know Maya and it's tools, if there's no drive... nothing's going to happen.

As for good tuts, I don't know if your local library has the "introducing Maya" books, but they were great. Each one had a great step by step tutorial on modeling a semi-complex model using the most basic tools. I think one had a train and one a catapult. But there has probably been more since then.

OI! Nothing wrong with being totally awesome.

thanks, I doubt the library has any round here (most people in this town are...less....computer smart) but ive found a few good tuts around that ill definitely try now i've finished this interior one. I do want to start designing/modeling cars, so hopefully I can eventually get up to speed with that.
P.S, what exactly did acid do? lol

I've picked up on this thing with the modeling menu set and it's one of the reasons for why there's no longer anything in the free section that is done in versions below 2008 (not sure when the split came, I think it was 8) hence bye, bye cartoon dog:) I think the free tutorials on this site would be some of the first things a lot of people new to Maya see and therefore we want it to consist of shorter projects that are not overwhelming when you're new and also we want to cover all fields of Maya to give people a bit of an overview to start off with so there will be a balance of basic dynamics, modeling tips and tools, shading networks, bump and normal maps, lighting, mental ray and so on. For versions here we were thinking of doing some things in 2009 and 2010 as well as not everyone is on Maya 2011.

We did some general house cleaning and everything on the site is there because the workflow's accurate and it's useful content. For modeling some of the oldest things on this site are the Ferrari and Apache done in Maya 6 which is pointed out and they're both some of the best Maya tutorials I've ever seen. These two tutorials are not for beginners but intermediate users and at this point I think anyone can figure out the split in the modeling set and the edit polys being edit mesh which are the main changes. It's important to remember as well that tried and tested techniques remain in the industry and the actual modeling workflow does not change with version updates of Maya, version compatibility is on the other hand more important for dynamics where the menu set is completely different today than it was a few years back.

What we've set out to do on the new site is to split our training up the way it would be split in a production pipeline so you learn from the person best qualified. We'll also focus on producing training in the fields where you won't find much content for Maya such as lighting, 2d animation and add software that integrates with Maya. We will have some shorter modeling projects on objects as setting out to do a high poly character will leave you a bit lost if you're a beginner. Any suggestions for new training's very welcome here

http://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34736

Also I second that thing with Introduction to Maya, it's a really good book to have on the side of tutorials to get a more solid foundation and good text tuts in there. Have a look for it, it's not that expensive and it's really worth it I think.

I'm working on watching the in program tuts, and am also starting on a "car from scratch" tutorial that so far is pretty basic. I'm starting to get the hand of some of the functions that i used to use in max, and are way easier to use now (e.g moving verts). Ill look into the book also, and thanks for the help, such a warm welcome :D