Rating: 
Summary: Good and Bad
Review: .I thought it was a good book. Most of it was simple, and any idiot could do it.
BUT there were some steps that were simply missed out that caused problems later in the lession, they were a pain to fix. Never the less they could have done some things better but most of it was good. It was worth buying .
Rating: 
Summary: frustrating indeed
Review: I agree with the first review, this book gets frustrating. I am a student and am still learning how to use Maya and I find in this book that it sort of tells you what to do rather than tell you what your doing. Also, lose the pronouns; every now and then the book starts explaining something and it can be hard to know what it's talking about because it expects you to know certain things you have already done. It does teach you the basic principles and techniques though, but you will probably have to read through a few times to fully understand it. I haven't read any of the other books, but i suggest to keep looking before deciding on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: An okay book
Review: I really looked forward to this book because of the reviews I read on it. I originally purchased the Maya 5 Fundamentals and to be honest, beside the boring DVD that accompanies the book, I like the Maya 5 Fundamentals book better. Admittedly the Maya 5 Foundation book got me a little further but the tutorial lessons have no personality. Just follow these steps to achieve this. No real explaination on why.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for learning Maya
Review: I'm guessing this book is what a quite a few Maya teachers use. It's easy to follow. Each and every step of the different lessons in the book is explained very explicit detail. I would recommend that if you're thinking of taking a Maya class you either get this book and go through it first. Or, compare its table of contents to the syllabus of any class you might be considering enrolling in. I think this book is probably a better deal than the cost of any Maya intro class a person might enroll in.
Rating:
Summary: Not for beginner
Review: It doesn't explain much. If you are a beginner of Maya, you will be confused and frustrated by it.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: it is the kind of books that gives you the in-depth practice you are looking for,really it is wonderful
Rating:
Summary: Obviously written by eleven people
Review: Learning Maya 5 is an excellent, frustrating, confusing, and somewhat productive book all wrapped up and bound together. The whole book is mixed up and ill-prepared with pictures that have no figure association (i.e. a paragraph would refer to figure 1.a). The lessons tend to be vague on certain steps that are critical for moving forward, not to mention the frustration on missing steps or improper English (the authors tend to say, "this" a alot without specifically saying what "this" is). And finally, the most bizarre part - if you start at page 1 and go blindly though 85 pages of some rather complex particle and dynamic lessons, you finally get to the basics and explanation of interfaces. Not a well organized book that is meant to discuss foundation to beginners. That being said, once you do skip to page 85, read the basics, then go on to the lessons, there is some very complex rigging and animation. While I'm impressed with some of the creations I made and lessons that I have learned, I wish that the authors would get off cloud nine and EXPLAIN what I did. More than half of the procedures confused the daylights out of the reader because it was a hand-holding walkthrough. Sure I can repeat the steps and have some idea, but without a concrete explanation on many of the steps, how can this truly be called a "Foundation?" More like, "Kind of Learning Maya 5: Expect Confusion."
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Book EVER!
Review: The book tries to work from a step-by-step process. BUT, the authors don't tell you where some of the buttons or menus are. Even after learning Maya I went back to the book expecting the tutorials be easier, but no. PLUS, they miss some steps that are vital.
P.S. Do Not go to Sam Houston State University for their Art program! Waste of Money.
Rating:
Summary: A very informative book
Review: This book is great for those just starting with Maya as well as those who have a little more experience in it. The book is broken down into projects that use the different components of Maya. Advanced users might not find this book too useful but beginners to intermediate users will find that this book is a real asset. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get into Maya.
Rating:
Summary: The best help so far
Review: This book is the best 3d tutorial book I have read yet. I am new to 3D and have tried 6 other books aimed at beginners. This book is so far the best in getting me to feel confident in using Maya. There are a few areas that I'm sure have not been updated as the software has changed, ie there are seemingly steps missing and a couple of things aren't exactly as they say to do it. Though the beauty of Maya is there are so many ways to go about doing something in Maya, and this book reinforces that, each project will show you how to go about to do similar operations in Maya, but each time will show you a different way to go about it in the software.
They best sorce of help for beginning Maya.
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