Product Description

The new edition of this perennial bestseller is the ideal initiation to 3D and Maya. Starting with the basics, it builds from the ground up, combining straightforward text with practical examples that make it fun and easy to learn Maya's core tools while introducing the latest Maya 2008 features. Follow clear-cut, step-by-step lessons while you learn by doing using a wealth of hands-on files provided on the CD. You'll also find compelling examples in the full-color insert.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58315 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 585 pages

From the Back Cover
Enter A New Dimension With Maya 2008

The Academy Award–winning Maya 3D animation and effects software is the top choice for film and video artists, game developers, and 3D design professionals. Learn to build, render, and animate your own digital models and scenes, and begin to develop professional-level Maya skills with Introducing Maya 2008.

This new edition of a perennial bestseller is the ideal initiation to 3D and Maya. Starting with the basics, it builds from the ground up, combining straightforward text with practical examples that make it fun and easy to learn Maya's core tools while introducing the latest Maya 2008 features. Follow clear-cut, step-by-step lessons while you learn by doing using a wealth of hands-on files provided on the CD. You'll also find compelling examples in the full-color insert to inspire you.

The enclosed CD features images, movies, and scene files that let you view material from the book. The support files will enable you to complete all of the tutorials. The CD also includes Maya Personal Learning Edition software.

• Learn to navigate the Maya 2008 interface

• Experiment with modeling by creating a hand, a rocket, and a locomotive

• Explore the basics of NURBS, polygons, and subdivision surfaces

• Discover the nuances of shading and texturing

• Rig a locomotive model for automated animation

• Create more natural lighting with mental ray® Final Gather and Global Illumination

• Use Maya's Render Layers and an Ambient Occlusion pass for greater reality

About the Author
Dariush Derakhshani is an award-winning 3D animator, author, and educator. He has worked on movies such as The Fantastic Four and Pan's Labyrinth, the South Park TV series, and numerous commercials and music videos. He teaches Maya and 3D animation and is the author of Introducing 3ds Max 9 and all the Introducing Maya books as well as coauthor of Mastering Maya 8.5 from Sybex.

Customer Reviews

Great book.
I have been doing visual fx for a living for 15 years and have read quite a few books over the years... This is definitely one of the better one I have used. If you have little or no experience with Maya and need to learn the basics, this is an excellent book. The tutorials are fun and very well explained. A great beginners' book.

Not good
This book drove me crazy. I've read several manuals for various programs and this one was the worst. Occasional typos can amount to a serious learning block with a program like Maya where it is hard for beginners to backtrack their errors. Derakshani assumes too much in constantly referring to commands in previous chapters without restating how to make them happen. Maya is quite complex and the book is way too oversimplified and lazily written. Thumbs way down!

Much reading at the beginning, fun as reward
This book just ROCKS! written in a telling style, with a bit of humor and generally easy to follow. I am happy that Dariush Derakshani explaines why he uses certain settings on functions, and what the results are if you don't do it that way.

only but a few small errors now and than, but nothing more than a wrong option button mentioned or so wich had more books about 3D programs I own so that is not realy a minus.

The first two chapter are nothing more but general information(naturally), wich may be boring and of point to some people, but thereafter the fun starts with especially chapter four in wich you will make a complicateted object of wich you can be proud of when you are finished.In that chapter also, you can find out that there is more than one manner to accomplish something. One time I could not find a function Dariush explained, and ended up using a differend approach, with the same result:P.

I am not yet finished with the book but sofar, I love it... I can see my understanding of 3D and Skills growing everyday.