No modeling section!?
 

I just received my Maya today and am eager to start, but I downloaded some tutorials off of this site that say you have to go to the Modeling section at the top left corner. But on the Maya, there is no modeling section, just Animate, Polygons, Surfaces, Dynamics, Rendering, and customize. Ive been using maya for a total of about 15min so far and dont know what to do...

In maya 8.0 they switch modeling to polygons and sufaces.

still can't help but find it amazing that people shell out money for the latest version of maya AND for tutorials but have never touched it before...

Thanks starjsjswars, that helps!

NeoStrider - How am I supposed to learn, if I dont get Maya and the tutorials? Ive always had an interest in animation and movie making and I don't really give up easily, so I don't think shelling out the money for a previous version of Maya then upgrading to the latest version is the best option for me. And I'm using free tutorials provided from this site!

Agreed; Maya shouldn't be around $7,000 when it has next to no documentation :rolleyes:

Your kidding arnt you, you pressed F1? Its got lots of built in tutorials as well as good explaniations of what everything does.

I think that a lot of people would benifit by looking in the help files before saying they cant do something (general comment by the way as to be fair the changes in the menus would have buggered me up if I was just starting)

Yes... All the basic things confuse me, such as it doesnt say you have to open the move tool while moving isoparms, that was about 10min of confusion!? but im starting to get the hang of modeling!

As said above, F1 takes you through everything. The instructions do tell you to press this or use that.

My god when you open it there a 6 or 7 mov links that go over the UI in really simple terms. Im not against helping people out but please RTFM before you post.

I didnt want to jump in here but I have to agree with the last comment but I also see the other side of too.

I came from a Lightwave background into Maya so it was a huuuge learning curve as it was so different, my point being, yes the manuals are there for you to find out how things work, but heres the catch, if you dont know what something is called how can you find it out? Just some food for thought: Lightwaves version of Subds were called Meta nurbs, so...

If you are a noob and have a little or no knowledge it can be a little tough, but if you want it bad enough you'll find out one way or another. I dont mind helping dudes out either but they have to show they are willing to help themselves in the first place.

Lastly to any noob reading this: it will not happen over night, Maya is a monster bit of kit to learn and you WILL NOT learn everything. Ive been using Maya in my day job for 7 years now and Im still finding different ways to do stuff.

Jay

Perhaps saying "next to no documentation" was indeed a bad choice of words on my part.

I do agree that the documentation lists what each tool does, but it doesn't go into depth about everything that can be done in the program. Most of those things are posted in the sticky at the top of this very section of the forums!

http://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...threadid=15467

What I meant was...why pay $7,000 for a program, and aimlessly click buttons trying to achieve some result? If anything, the program should be free, but sites like SimplyMaya, should have some cost.

But of course, that's not the way things are; this site is completely free, but we've told eachother information for free, and all of it, collaborated into one site, is worth more than $7,000.

Well Said....


Jay

i tried using maya 5 a few years back and the documentation sucked. no clue what i was doing. i gave up. started back up when i learned of all the video tutorials out there. unless someone is showing you, you'll probably get stumped many times. i feel that it's almost impossible to learn from scratch using only the documentation and having no working knowledge of maya.

F1 is where I started. Never doubt what can be found in the Tutorial files. They DO teach you the basics of the app, and in Maya's case the very basic of basics, but its enough to get you going and get you started in using the app. Then I bought a book, far more in depth, finally I moved to video tutes.

Hiya people

Maya was a total...'duh wot' for me at first. Then I realised that even a computer god such as myself needed some help...no, shocking as it is that's the truth:rolleyes:
The tutorials here seem to be pretty good....he said having started to make a tree frog and feeling pretty cocky considering that he's only made the body and the jaw I am considering buying a book or two as well...any suggestions?
I'm not saying that, having started one tutorial I am now fully prepared to tackle anything but I at least feel that the program is beginning to make sense...a little.
No real questions yet but......Wuahahaha...they will come

Mon :)

Ive boughten 2 maya books so far, and the one thats been most helpful is "Maya at a glance" by George Maestri, very helpful and has many pictures so you know what the hell your supposed to be looking at...