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Rating: 
Summary: Not a good book for self-study
Review: Based on the title, I thought this book would be great for learning Maya through self-study. Unfortunately, it is not. It is one of the worst-written "how-to" computer books I have ever read (and I have read many, with experience in lots of programming languages). The book is weak both structurally and in the details. Structurally, the opening two chapters are all theory: the first main chapter is a full 30+ pages of introduction to the vast set of file menus of Maya, all with no concrete examples to work through! All this detailed discussion of the menus and buttons with no examples is essentially useless. It is always best to learn programming through detailed examples, so the opening salvo in the book is a pedagogical car crash. Even worse, once the book does start with examples (in Chapter 3), the instructions suffer as they leave out important details required to actually get the program to work (suggesting the book was written to be used in a classroom setting, where an instructor can tell you things left out of the book). For instance, you might be told to open a certain window that is embedded in multiple subdirectories but the book does not clearly describe how to get to the proper subdirectory. Not a good way to get started. Overall, a very unsatisfying experience, and I am on the lookout for a better book on Maya. This might be a good book for a class, but for self-study I do not recommend it. I give it 2 stars instead of 1 because the software that comes with the book is very useful (more useful than the book, in fact!).
Rating: 
Summary: 3d is this easy?
Review: I was mostly impressed with how Darisuh first breaks down the concepts around which 3d animation is based. With such a clear breakdown of the theory first, it makes the actual learning and manipulation of MAYA so much easier, especially for a 100% beginner like me. I never imagined that I would be doing 3d programming and animation, but Hey Mom - look at me now! Unlike most technical manuals, it is also very good reading, rather than a chore.
Rating: 
Summary: A good starting point
Review: Maya is a vastly complex and heavy software, whose mastery needs years of real-world experience. As a beginner who is simply "playing" with Maya as a hobby, I am obviously just having fun and have no professional aspirations with Maya. Regardless, I found this book to be well written, and a good introduction to Maya for the beginner -- whether professional or not. I have read many other books (of other subjects) that only list step after step of bland instructions with no room for self-initiative. This book's style is different in that it makes the reader think and work on his or her own and actually "work" the software to accomplish some portions of the excercises without repeated step-by-step instructions -- although this style may not work for some readers. I found the excercises to have a nice approach at teaching several fundamentals and tools together, for example the solar system excercise was a great way of showing the concepts of parenting and pivot points in one place. My engineering background helped me grasp some of Maya's concepts easier, but I still have difficulty with some other concepts and found myself repeating excercises or chapters. I think a few extra small excercises could also have helped. All in all, this is a great guide for the Maya beginner, I have recommended it to several friends who actually are in the creative art field.
Rating:
Summary: A book that can really help
Review: This book is extremely well written. Each chapter is explained thoroughly enough so that if you are truly a beginner opening Maya for the first time you will easily be able to follow instructions. The terminology used in the book is at a level where all can follow. He touched upon each aspect of Maya with enough detail to give a strong basis of understanding for the program. I especially like where he created a detailed model using primitives and simple modeling tools (i.e. catapult). He succesfully uses the same project to show several different concepts of 3D as you advance through the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read the chapter on Inverse Kinetics
Review: While I found everything in the book to be general okay in terms of the intruction, the chapter on Inverse Kinetics should be avoided AT ALL COST!! Go take a class on that or something but do not try to do the inverse kinetics tutorial and save your self from hours of frustration and anger. Trust me on this, the instructions in the book on inverse kinetics DO NOT give the results that are described and you will be scratching you head until it becomes bald and staring at the screen until your eyes go blind.
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