TechRevu Review

Mastering Maya 2009 by Eric Keller
Review by David Em
Sybex / Wiley Paperback ISBN/ITEM#: 9780470392201
Date: 27 April 2009 List Price $69.99 Amazon US / Amazon UK / Show Official Info /

If you want to explore the depths of Autodesk's Maya 3D animation software, you'll need a field guide. Here's one of the best.

Back in the dawn of time, software programs came with printed manuals. Now they do only rarely, and more’s the pity if you’re trying to learn a complex program like Autodesk’s Maya. Maya comes with an excellent CD that explains every feature in the program, but that kind of documentation works best when you’re already familiar with the software and know what to look for. The setup’s of limited use when it comes to understanding the underlying matrix of how the different parts of a deep program work together.

This is particularly important with an app like Maya that’s really a bundle of eight or nine related but distinct programs running under one hood, including modeling, animation, lighting, physical dynamics, rendering, and more. For that you need a manual that’s designed so you can both read it at your leisure to understand concepts, as well use its focused tutorials in concert with the program.

The best manual I’ve come across to get a handle on the many interconnected elements that make up Maya is Sybex’s Mastering Maya 2009 by Eric Keller with Eric Allen. The book’s worth its weight in gold, and that’s saying a lot, since it weighs nearly five pounds. It’s so heavy I had to cut it in half and rebind it to make it less unwieldy.

The book’s very well thought out with good attention to detail and potential ‘gotchas’. It covers all the major features of the program including character rigging, NURBS and polygon modeling, linear and nonlinear animation, particle effects, texture mapping, fur, hair, and cloth simulations. Keller devotes a couple of chapters to advanced shading and rendering techniques with mental ray, the world class rendering engine that comes for free with Maya. There’s also some introductory material on MEL, Maya’s internal programming language.

I very much appreciate the authors’ presentation of complex material in straightforward language that doesn’t get lost in jargon. The thousand page tome comes with a companion DVD that contains sample files to accompany each chapter’s lessons. If you want to get your feet wet and then wade deeper into the pool that is Maya, Mastering Maya 2009 is an excellent introduction to one of the most advanced creative tools on the planet. Recommended.

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