AmayaGuru
 

Been using maya for a little bit(lately more seriously)now and i luv everybit of it except uv mapping......yuuuuck but the thing is i keep seeing posts everywhere saying you can only become a master of afew areas and have general knowledge of the rest so does that mean that i eventually have to sit down and choose one discipline to concentrate on.............

All depends mate, if your going for a job then I would choose a field that your happy with and concentrate on that, but saying that thers no bad thing in learning as much as you can.

I can pretty much get about in most things in maya, (modeling, texturing, rigging, animating, fluids, dynamics, lighting, MEL and rendering, though a few of em I can just about get by and some of them and would never get a job in!) most of it has been learned as a requirement to creating a finished work and/or curiosity.

Suppose what I'm sort of saying is dont put all your eggs in one basket, keep searching and learning and find out where your 3d heart lies! but then keep a grasp of the rest of it.

well where i am most jobs are in the archviz area...i saved up quit my job and decided to concentrate on this my girlfreind wanted to pull my hair out when i told her about my plans but im confident i can land something in this field

Yeah, alot of people tend to master a couple of things in Maya, modelling and texturing, lighting and rendering, Animation, mel Python....

Some people though can gain a huge amount of knowledge in all areas very well, technical director and VFX supervisor types usually have profound knowledge of all areas the software, hence the position they're in. But its really up to you at the end of the day, how much you can take in and how quick you can do stuff....and how good you become

Yeah uvs can be a real pain to alot of people, but it comes with the turf of modelling and texturing...you cant make an omelette without breaking some eggs so....

at the end of the day just go for it, be focused, be prepared for some seriously frustrating times but above all enjoy it, its half the battle.

Jay

Im not a fan of UV mapping either.....

What do YOU think youre best at?

I would just suggest this litle plugin/mel script for maya. It's especially great for uvmapping organic models, i must say it's very simple yet extremly good, so defenetly give it a try:
http://www.cgindia.org/2007/02/roadk...wrap-tool.html

thanks Sil-Valeor tried it out its abit easier and less time consuming