Anyone familiar with Maya Software?

[drewloc]

I'm looking to extend my knowledge using Maya, and haven't had any luck finding classes or books locally that touch on what I need. I've found some things online that I could get, but didn't know if anyone has used any books, or had any recommendations for what they have used. Any help is appreciated! :beer:

[studbucket]

I've got a friend who took an animation class or 2 in college and loves doing animated movies and shorts. He said there was hardly anything he could find to teach him how it worked, then he downloaded Blender (free, open source alternative) and found tons of documentation and learned more from the tutorials than he did from his courses and says that while Blender isn't as polished, it's pretty good.

[MasterShake]

I've got a friend who took an animation class or 2 in college and loves doing animated movies and shorts. He said there was hardly anything he could find to teach him how it worked, then he downloaded Blender (free, open source alternative) and found tons of documentation and learned more from the tutorials than he did from his courses and says that while Blender isn't as polished, it's pretty good.

Blender is great, but Maya really is the best. I've mostly done 3d rendering for drawings with it but no animation. I've seen plenty of books on it at barnes and noble when I buy Photoshop and flash books. I'm going next week if I see any I'll write the titles down.

[sneakers]

I know who Maya Anjelou is.

[drewloc]

Blender is great, but Maya really is the best. I've mostly done 3d rendering for drawings with it but no animation. I've seen plenty of books on it at barnes and noble when I buy Photoshop and flash books. I'm going next week if I see any I'll write the titles down.

That would be sweet, I don't know what it is, but the barnes and noble here doesn't have crap. Appreciate the help Stud and Shake!

[Thnikkaman]

I remember when I was playing around with Maya a few years back that they had some pretty good tutorials bundled with the software. I also know a few different FPS games have had a free version of Maya to download and try that would allow you to create content for their games.

[MasterShake]

I almost completely forgot about Lynda.com. Its relatively cheap to use and you can learn tons. I taught myself Dreamweaver from this place. Its basically a bunch of video tutorials broken down into sections. Heres the one for Maya:

http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk0=112

My college has us use this site sometimes.

Also here is a book from amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Graphics-Animation-Using-Maya/dp/1584504854/ref=pd_sim_b_3

If you look at the related books they have more advanced versions as well.