Best way to learn maya 7.0?

# 1 02-05-2006 , 03:53 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2006

Posts: 11

Hi!

I'm really new to 3D (and Maya). I have the books:

Learning Maya 7: Foundation
Learning Maya 7: The Modelíng & Animation Handbook
Game Art For Teens (for maya)

Is it recommanded to buy all the books in this serie too?

{
Learning Maya 7: The Special Effects Handbook
Learning Maya 7: Unlimited Features
Learning Maya 7: Discover The Game With Alias
}

...or is there another better (and/or easier) way to learn the program?

Thanks/ Robin

Last edited by robinthebest; 02-05-2006 at 04:29 PM.

Quote

# 2 02-05-2006 , 04:10 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2006

Location: United Sates

Posts: 79

for me, i don't think there is any easy way of learning Maya...you just gotta keep on using maya over time and learn from your mistakes. But I do think, however, if you can, get somenoe who's really advance at Maya to teach you one on one, then that'll be another faster way to learn maya. But I think having some of the books are okay and a good start to begin with.

9 months into Maya...and still learning...
0 experience with any other 3D programs

Quote

# 3 03-05-2006 , 02:23 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: Fairfield, CT

Posts: 2,436

time... time... time.

Practice makes perfect! I have been using Maya for about 2 years now, and still I am not pro at it!

So just learn how the main tools work, and then just do it over and over and over and eventually- you will get better as your experience grows.

Live the life you love, love the life you live

Quote

# 4 03-05-2006 , 03:46 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Oct 2005

Location: Va

Posts: 7

total newbie here as well

I purchased some video from some other site - sucked.

I like the videos here. I like McKinleys method of teaching that I even bought his book

The Game Artists Guide To Maya

look it up from his s/n

Quote

# 5 03-05-2006 , 11:05 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2006

Location: Portland, OR, USA

Posts: 17

Well, I have been using Maya for about 2 months… and I can tell you this… I am taking a 3d modeling class in collage, and the textbook for our class is Learning Maya 7: Foundation. Start at the beginning and work through every project in the book and it will give you a solid basic idea of what you are doing… then buy other books that cater to your needs/interests.

"I'd call that beastial masochistic necrophilia, but that would be like beating a dead horse."

Quote

# 6 04-05-2006 , 09:51 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Feb 2006

Location: Netherlands

Posts: 165

The best way to learn it is doing lots and lots of tuts,
And just do it very often!!!
Push all the buttons and see what happens.
Just explore.
Me 2 am still learning, (noobie over here user added image

)

Quote

# 7 05-05-2006 , 01:32 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: May 2005

Posts: 240

those books are best for the introduction DVDs. They introduce you to the interface which is mostly what you need to understand other tutorials.
Try to find a good video tutorial on just the interface. Then you'll understand better those books and other video tutorials that don't go into depth about the interface itself.

Quote

# 8 05-05-2006 , 02:09 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: Ghent, BelgiumBelgium, Ghent

Posts: 38

I have "introducing Maya 7, 3D for beginners"
I i realy like the way they teach user added image

i learned a lot of it user added image

Quote

# 9 05-05-2006 , 08:35 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2006

Posts: 11

Thanks everyone!

As I said I have two books from the Learning Maya 7 series... so I think I will buy the rest of them too (they're really good I think).

Learning Maya 7: Foundation
Learning Maya 7: Modeling & Animation Handbook
Learning Maya 7: Special Effects Handbook
Learning Maya 7: Unlimied Features
Learning Maya 7: Discover the Game with Alias

Also...why are the video-tutorials at this homepage soooo expensive? Just one complete tutorial (with all parts) is about 78 Euro... and that's heck a lot of money for just one tutorial... and I really want ALL of them.... cause they look extremely good... but then you have to be a millionare to buy them user added image

Quote

# 10 05-05-2006 , 08:52 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Nov 2004

Posts: 1,043

wow i am a millionaire didnt know that woohoo

Quote

# 11 05-05-2006 , 10:24 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: Ghent, BelgiumBelgium, Ghent

Posts: 38

Originally posted by mmoore5553
wow i am a millionaire didnt know that woohoo

Originally Posted by

lol :p

Quote

# 12 12-05-2006 , 01:58 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2006

Location: Portland, OR, USA

Posts: 17

Originally posted by robinthebest

Also...why are the video-tutorials at this homepage soooo expensive? Just one complete tutorial (with all parts) is about 78 Euro... and that's heck a lot of money for just one tutorial... and I really want ALL of them.... cause they look extremely good... but then you have to be a millionare to buy them

Originally Posted by

I would say (and I do not know, but I did spend about $350 U.S. here...) the reason that they are so expencive is simple... they are very very good! and worth every penny... I just wish I could afford them all as well... so I just had to choose the tut's tht fit my style.

"I'd call that beastial masochistic necrophilia, but that would be like beating a dead horse."

Last edited by mjcrawford; 12-05-2006 at 02:01 AM.

Quote

# 13 12-05-2006 , 08:18 AM

Moderator
Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

Originally posted by robinthebest

Also...why are the video-tutorials at this homepage soooo expensive? Just one complete tutorial (with all parts) is about 78 Euro... and that's heck a lot of money for just one tutorial... and I really want ALL of them.... cause they look extremely good... but then you have to be a millionare to buy them

Originally Posted by

Its because they show you step by step, where as a book just says something like, create a cube 8x8x8 make it into a sphere draw out edge loops etc, with a few little pictures which, in my experiance, can be a very hard way of learning, where as a video you can SEE exactly what to do and hear WHY your doing it that way.

Try and have a look at the books before you buy them as they might overlap in the subject areas, one of the best books i've got is Maya the complete reference, few mistakes in it but its got almost everything you need to know to get you going, it also has good background to why your doing something, which I found was missing in the Maya 6 Foundation book.

Cheers

Quote

# 14 13-05-2006 , 04:45 AM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

I would say the best way to learn maya is

1. get 1-1 training if you know an expert that is easily bribed

2. there are schiools and certification course but they are very expensive and unless you are a serious professional I doubt that is a viable option.

3. get video tutorials. It's much easier to watch and repeat then read a paragraph and look at a usually poor quality before and after image. I have some really expensive books on maya and most of the time I end up getting really frustrated because in one page they show a cube and then there are 4 sentences and the next image is like a fully sculpted model!

4. There are lots of free web based tutorials floating around. You need to do some web hunting and bookmark the sites.

5. books

and I agree with all the other posters that said it is all about practicing ALOT. I would also say pick one package like Maya and stick to that package only. All the packages offer basically the same tools. The key is to learn the workflow using one package. Master that package.

I tried learnig 2 packages and in the end I ended up unlearing both. I got all the GUI keyboard commands scrambled and ended up having to hunt through pull down menus.

Remember the user interface is just like playing a musical instrument. Your fingers have muscle memory. After a long session with Maya I find myself trying to alt-mouse click to zoon and pan while in a web browser! LOL

Good luck and stick with it.

The tutorials here are a really good place to start. Kurt B has a bunch of really good kits that cover modeling and texturing and even rigging and animation tutorails. His workflow is consistant and is a good pattern to learn (it's all about workflow).

The only thing he does that I could critisize is he does tend to do a lot of mesh tweaking between sections. But considering the volume of really top notch videos that Kurt puts out and the extremely reasonable cost of the packages and it's only a minor gripe.

For starters I would suggest the Tie Fighter poly modeling tutorial to learn the interface then try Kurt's free dog organic modeling tutorial then Kurts Dragon modeling tutorial. They are all easily done by a complete Maya novice and by the time you complete those you'll have a solid handle on 90% of the modeling tools in maya. The rest is all about lots of practice and seeing patterns in the way to build efficient and clean meshes.

Last edited by ctbram; 13-05-2006 at 04:49 AM.

Quote

Best way to learn maya 7.0?

Posting Rules Forum Rules

Similar Threads

Topics

Free Courses

Full Courses

VFX News