glassblowerscat
Well-known member
Has anyone learned Maya using their free "Personal Learning Edition?" I've been thinking about doing it, but I don't know how much you can learn without getting extra resources.
Maya PLE
- Thread starter glassblowerscat
- Start date
TC
Resident Agitator
Re: Maya PLE
That's what I'm doing!
Pick up these books:
The Animators Survival Kit- Absolutely the most important book you could possibly read. Read it, learn it, love it. I can't stress that book enough.
The Animation Book- Also a great book, chocked full of resources and much more oriented to 3d animation.
Introducing Maya: 3D for Beginers- It will take you through almost all the aspects of Maya, and animation workflow in general.
My advice, the first thing you should animate is a bouncing ball, (aka, squash strech ball) you'd be suprised how many fundamentals you'll get down once you get it right.
That's what I'm doing!
Pick up these books:
The Animators Survival Kit- Absolutely the most important book you could possibly read. Read it, learn it, love it. I can't stress that book enough.
The Animation Book- Also a great book, chocked full of resources and much more oriented to 3d animation.
Introducing Maya: 3D for Beginers- It will take you through almost all the aspects of Maya, and animation workflow in general.
My advice, the first thing you should animate is a bouncing ball, (aka, squash strech ball) you'd be suprised how many fundamentals you'll get down once you get it right.
glassblowerscat
Well-known member
Re: Maya PLE
Now to figure out if I have time enough to do it... a much more difficult question.
Now to figure out if I have time enough to do it... a much more difficult question.
Rich Lee
I shoot Pirates.
Re: Maya PLE
[quote author=Policar link=board=fx;num=1100237191;start=0#6 date=11/16/04 at 10:31:26]Max is much better than Maya. Maya's interface is a nightmare.
But yeah, you can learn from it. [/quote]
what makes it better? just curious, im not a max or maya guy...xsi all the way, just curious as to why max is better. although i am working in maya at the moment.
[quote author=Policar link=board=fx;num=1100237191;start=0#6 date=11/16/04 at 10:31:26]Max is much better than Maya. Maya's interface is a nightmare.
But yeah, you can learn from it. [/quote]
what makes it better? just curious, im not a max or maya guy...xsi all the way, just curious as to why max is better. although i am working in maya at the moment.
glassblowerscat
Well-known member
Re: Maya PLE
I'll tell you one thing that makes it not better for many of us: Maya is OSX supported; 3DSMax is not.
And for the sake of argument, I think you'll be hard pressed to find as many production houses (e.g., Industrial Light & Magic) who use 3DSMax as use Maya.
I'll tell you one thing that makes it not better for many of us: Maya is OSX supported; 3DSMax is not.
And for the sake of argument, I think you'll be hard pressed to find as many production houses (e.g., Industrial Light & Magic) who use 3DSMax as use Maya.
Re: Maya PLE
I'm a max user and I really do not see them doing very well in the future unless a nice little price drop comes along. Maya, and XSI are both very affordable now, while max is way out of range. I'm sure the prices of XSI and maya can reach, or exceed those of max when you add on various plugins etc.. As for Maya's UI, it can be troublesome at first but it really works well once you get it set to your personal liking.
I'm a max user and I really do not see them doing very well in the future unless a nice little price drop comes along. Maya, and XSI are both very affordable now, while max is way out of range. I'm sure the prices of XSI and maya can reach, or exceed those of max when you add on various plugins etc.. As for Maya's UI, it can be troublesome at first but it really works well once you get it set to your personal liking.
Re: Maya PLE
Rich, I saw a demo of XSI and I was very impressed. The cloth and hair simulators were sweet, too, and seemed very intuitive. The subdivision surface modelling seemed pretty solid as well. It looks like a great product overall.
I don't like Maya because its interface is unintuitive and it doesn't always seem to function correctly. The subdivision modelling tools which are most useful are well hidden, and I've done a number of extrusions which resulted in bizarre abberations on the mesh, and modelling in general just seems very time consuming and convoluted within the Maya interface. Hypershade has a nicer looking layout than Max's material editor, but in practice it's clumsy and crowded.
Max is great because of its use of modifiers and their parametric properties. You can work with a lot of modifiers before collapsing them, and this allows you to place layers of information upon other layers of information in very cool ways. The modelling tools are excellent...I don't think anything beats editable poly, and the fact that when you select vertices they move to a relative location and not to an absolute location is wonderful. "Soft selection" is more powerful and you can select more than one vertex at a time and see a preview of what it will do. Character studio is also a beast, but hard to use.
Max just seems to have the best interface and best modelling tools and modifiers are a great way of working with a mesh. That said, it's a total rip off at four grand (thank god for educational discounts) and it lacks some of the clothing and hair simulation that make maya and xsi so cool and appealing. Reactor is sweet but it's not enough to justify the price.
I guess it's probably better to start with xsi now than anything else because it's gaining in popularity and it's cheap. Sadly, I know Max best, like it best, but cannot afford it.
Rich, I saw a demo of XSI and I was very impressed. The cloth and hair simulators were sweet, too, and seemed very intuitive. The subdivision surface modelling seemed pretty solid as well. It looks like a great product overall.
I don't like Maya because its interface is unintuitive and it doesn't always seem to function correctly. The subdivision modelling tools which are most useful are well hidden, and I've done a number of extrusions which resulted in bizarre abberations on the mesh, and modelling in general just seems very time consuming and convoluted within the Maya interface. Hypershade has a nicer looking layout than Max's material editor, but in practice it's clumsy and crowded.
Max is great because of its use of modifiers and their parametric properties. You can work with a lot of modifiers before collapsing them, and this allows you to place layers of information upon other layers of information in very cool ways. The modelling tools are excellent...I don't think anything beats editable poly, and the fact that when you select vertices they move to a relative location and not to an absolute location is wonderful. "Soft selection" is more powerful and you can select more than one vertex at a time and see a preview of what it will do. Character studio is also a beast, but hard to use.
Max just seems to have the best interface and best modelling tools and modifiers are a great way of working with a mesh. That said, it's a total rip off at four grand (thank god for educational discounts) and it lacks some of the clothing and hair simulation that make maya and xsi so cool and appealing. Reactor is sweet but it's not enough to justify the price.
I guess it's probably better to start with xsi now than anything else because it's gaining in popularity and it's cheap. Sadly, I know Max best, like it best, but cannot afford it.
Rich Lee
I shoot Pirates.
Re: Maya PLE
Policar, i have opened the max interface only once. so i cant say much about it. but modeling polys in XSI is effing awesome. its subds are soo easy to use. so many cool little tools to make things happen faster. its all about speed with xsi man. i am working on a project in maya right now...and man, do i miss xsi. seriously, it makes me apreciate it so much. anyway, the only thing that i can say maya has over xsi right now is a few little short cut things...like taping space bar in a viewport to make it large. also, the alt key is in a handy place to manipulate camera and whatnot. also the manipulator tools are realy realy nice in maya. xsi just got them, but they are a tad crude right now. anyway, just some minor shite.
good luck with xsi if decide to jump into it, and give me a hollar if you have any questions...
peace
Policar, i have opened the max interface only once. so i cant say much about it. but modeling polys in XSI is effing awesome. its subds are soo easy to use. so many cool little tools to make things happen faster. its all about speed with xsi man. i am working on a project in maya right now...and man, do i miss xsi. seriously, it makes me apreciate it so much. anyway, the only thing that i can say maya has over xsi right now is a few little short cut things...like taping space bar in a viewport to make it large. also, the alt key is in a handy place to manipulate camera and whatnot. also the manipulator tools are realy realy nice in maya. xsi just got them, but they are a tad crude right now. anyway, just some minor shite.
good luck with xsi if decide to jump into it, and give me a hollar if you have any questions...
peace
bgundu
Veteran
Re: Maya PLE
I worked at Alias for 6 years developing books and DVDs for people to learn Maya. I was the main author for the Learning Maya book, and the Art of Maya. I also created 5 DVDs starring me showing how to use Maya for beginners: Alias has now bundled them all onto 3 DVDs at a great price. BTW, I used the DVX on them.
http://www.alias.com/eng/education/learning_tools/maya_beginner/maya_beginners_guide_bundle.shtml
Bob
I worked at Alias for 6 years developing books and DVDs for people to learn Maya. I was the main author for the Learning Maya book, and the Art of Maya. I also created 5 DVDs starring me showing how to use Maya for beginners: Alias has now bundled them all onto 3 DVDs at a great price. BTW, I used the DVX on them.
http://www.alias.com/eng/education/learning_tools/maya_beginner/maya_beginners_guide_bundle.shtml
Bob
BLUESPIDER
DVXuser Ninja
Re: Maya PLE
Bob- you can hook me up right? We family right?
Bob- you can hook me up right? We family right?