Maya 5 for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Rating:
Summary: This book is oke
Review: As we all know Maya offers endless possibilities for creating virtually anything in 3D. However, since onces imagination is the only limiting factor, you need a book that is not only helpfull in learning Maya but is also inspiring enough to get you going. I personally find this book helpfull in learning Maya, but it doesn't tell you anyting about how to create really good animations. Probably because it would extend the context of what this book intends to be: a handbook. So for quick reference, this book might be helpfull, but then so is the helpserver which comes with Maya...

Rating:
Summary: A great jump start
Review: Talk about "get up to speed quick". This book does a great job in skimming the surface of Maya with detailed tutorials and images. The chapters covers everything from Modeling, Lighting, Rendering and Dynamics. I worked with 3D MAX before and decided to make the switch to Maya, I am a strong customer to the Visual QuickStart Guide series and this book reinforces my decision. If you wanted to start using Maya quick, This is the book for you. I will be buying more books from this author in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly updated but with several mistakes.
Review: This book is a mere revised version of the previous volume. It has several places in the book that still refers to things in Maya 4.5 that have changes in 5. It is still a good refernce book even if some of the web links no longer work.