Rating: 
Summary: SKIP THIS ONE !
Review: As the reviewer from Germany had stated, - I , too , was greatly disappointed. I am in between a newbie and intermediate user of Maya 4.5 and I expected the book to clarify some issues that were somewhat uneasy for me. Well.
Some books have great tutorials but lack profound detail on each command and each feature , Some other books have a great insight into the most obscure features of a program but intentionally lack of tutorials - That is OK bacause you know that beforehand and probably get to buy them both.The feeling I have with this book - that it has neither that not the other approach.
when I read it I get to know that Maya can do these and other things but I never get to actually see how. I expected (and maybe I shouldn't have) to learn about some hidden tricks or features in Maya. One of the most important things to me is the REBUILD command or how to correctly use NURBS in Maya (I have used NURBS a lot in RHINO) but it just does not do it in a profound way. There are also very few images so it doesn't even serve as a visual reference.
Maya is so huge that it is probably obvious that no book can cover it all but not covering the most important parts of Maya ?? I wanted a book that will take me above the huge manuals - This is definetly not the book for the job. this book is authorized/sponsored by Alias|Wavefront - I can see why - after buying this book you will RUN to buy Alias' books ! SKIP THIS BOOK ! SKIP THIS BOOK AND wait for another
Rating:
Summary: FFS
Review: For the love of maya, I have embarked upon a crusade to purge the world of any and all copies of this book. The tutorials are hopeless and the content is severely overwhelming. They throw thousands of different concepts and tips at you, but of course don't bother to explain any of them. Please, everyone.. buy as many copies as you can, then burn them all!
Rating: 
Summary: Is there a support group for this book?!
Review: I am a senior Computer Science Major, so computer systems aren't totally alien to me. This book personally is driving me nuts! Never having used Maya before, I have learned a lot! BUT!!! - It is a trial of patience for a new user to go through so much content before actually having a use for it (i.e. how to customize the menu's according to your style [for more experienced users that actually have some]). Expect to read a lot and do very little at the beginning. - I really don't think these books were ever tried out on the target market(s) before hitting the press. If you make a mistake, you'll probably just have to start all over again, or try reverting to some previously saved files. They don't warn of common pit falls. I have only been able to get about 2/3 of the tutorials done. - Even if you get the tutorials done there can be extreme frustrations. For instance you make this aftershave bottle (took forever to attach the curve's, and I never knew why it finally worked the last time), and then you look at the picture the authors put together... their picture is beautiful, but hell if I know how to make mine look like that. Spent about 2 hours just trying to make glass look like glass. The Maya file is not on the CD, just the picture! Very few of the nice pictures that show you how it can look are actually on the CD so that you can figure out why it looks that way. Same for the M tutorial in chpt 16, and all the texturing examples in chpt 17! I would go on, but you should understand by now- You're on your own cowboy. - Yeah that stupid head in chapter 5 would drive a buddist monk to slamming his mouse on the desk. There is about 2.25 pages of text telling you how to make this head... I'm still trying to figure out why I it won't let me select certain Control Vertices. - The biggest thing is when I went to the users community at Alias and they told me to just buy a new book and then ask questions! They knew of this book, they have been dealing with these poor people banging out frustrations and questions based upon this book. In summary, you can learn from this book, but it comes at a cost.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthy of the title "bible"
Review: I believe this book is great. It covers tons of tools and concepts, but most importantly it covers the "why" aspect of things. Most books and tutorials are just "do this, do this" but never bother to explain "why," this book does a pretty good job on the "why" end of things. I like how the author explains things, easy to follow and very well organized. The index is pretty complete so its easy to look up something that you forget later down the road. It sits on my desk next to my workstation at all times. The book also points out specific features that have been added in 4.5 along the way. If I had to do it over again, I would be sure to pick this book up.
Rating:
Summary: Rubbish
Review: I checked this book out at the store to see if it had much-needed tutorial updates. I have been going through Mastering Maya 3.0 for a while, and I had thought it was an acceptable book until I got to the bit about modeling a Nurbs head. Who were they writing this book for? Other Maya book authors? The way they present information in this book is to start off with kindergarten basics, and then expect you to instantaneously go from that to advanced neurosurgery at the end of the chapter. "Here are some blocks with different letters of the alphabet on them. Now write a novel about Man's philosophical struggle with life and the world around him, but through the eyes of a parrot that exists in the mind of a catatonic schizophrenic who has been frozen in a prostrated position for ten years." The above complaint relates to this book because this book offers no improvement over its predecessor. The tutorials are only helpful if you can do what they suggest already, in which case you're better off drinking tea and relaxing instead of bothering with this book. To sum up- I have a hard time understanding who they thought would benefit from Maya 4.5 Savvy. The truly savvy will skip it. Perhaps it will come in handy as crude toilet paper after the Fall of Modern Civilization.
Rating:
Summary: Don't get this book
Review: I have most of the Maya books that are out there and this has got to be the worst one I've ever picked up. First of all, this is supposed to be an updated version from the previous book for Maya 3. Just from skimming you can tell that they were very lazy about updating what they wrote because the tutorials don't integrate the new features that Maya has to offer which makes some of the tutorials outdated and frustrating (an example would be the nurbs head tutorial.) They simply lumped some new stuff at the end of the book with a few new paragraphs sprinkled here and there to justify having the title of the book be "Maya 4.5 Savvy". Furthermore, their tutorials are very vague and hard to follow. I have actually seen in some forums people quoting tutorials from this book asking others for explanations when something doesn't go right in the tutorial for them because they can't follow what they're supposed to do.
I think the biggest problem is that this book tries to be so comprehensive that it doesn't do a good job of covering anything. The chapters are too vague and then all of a sudden they expect you to follow their tutorial at the end of the chapter without having decent illustrations or pictures to follow what they are doing.
Most of the books for Maya that are out right now somewhat have this problem but I think this book has to be the worst.For beginners I would reccomend Maya 4.5 Fundamentals for its chapters and tutorials on Modeling. It has a CD included with it that is excellent because it covers all the tutorials step by step and is very easy to follow. It doesn't talk about animation too much though if that is what you are interested in. For an overall introduction to Maya, I would reccomend Learning Maya by Alias Wavefront (although it is pricey) because the tutorials are good and explains why you have to do certain steps instead of just following blindly. However, it's somewhat general and I would only reccomend it for people who are absolute beginners.
Rating:
Summary: Just bad.
Review: I should have read all the reviews here before I bought this book this morning. To be honest, the reason I bought it was because the forward is by Danielle Lamothe, who is the education product manager for Alias|Wavefront - in my mind meant that there was some assumption of quality - I was wrong. I sat all afternoon with this book only to discover that the way Maya 4.5 handles dynamics is not the way it is presented in this book - they must have been working with some pre-release version when they wrote the book. I have hit a big brick wall, and the book is useless. It goes back tomorrow.
Rating:
Summary: tutorials are incomplete with mistakes
Review: I've been using Maya for 5 years now and bought this book for extra skills. I cannot believe that Alias endorses this. I tried the walk cycle tutorial, which has technical mistakes, if I didn't have the experience I do, I would be completely lost. The hand building tutorial is so cryptic as to where to add faces to the thumb to make it look like the illustration shown that I want to throw the book out the window. I wish I had read these reviews as well, do not buy this book!!!!
Rating:
Summary: What is the difference?
Review: If you have already owned the "Mastering Maya 3", then what you will find in this book is: NO DIFFERENCE!
Rating:
Summary: Maya Masters at Work
Review: Maya 4.5 Savvy is an outstanding book, although it might not be for everyone it is still a remarkable book. I am fond of the the writing style that has been associated with the publishing company and couldnt wait for the book to publish. The book is organized and enjoyable to read (and im a new to 3d and MAYA). As a student in Florida studying Maya this book has me excited and enthusiastic waiting to get back home and work on it. Other than my cell phone this book is with me at all times. I dont recommend skipping pages unless you are familiar with maya and its tools... example in chapter 12: Binding under creating a rigid skin it asks you to create a nurbs cylinder and increase its scetion to 10 its span to 6 and height to 10 step 2. in the side view create a skelton chain... if you havent read the before pages than can u really complete this excercise... again if you are new to Maya than read this book from Cover to Cover if you are an advance user i believe that this is a great reference tool which is what books are for anyways references. If you would like more info go to the publishes website, there is a pdf sample (as of 02/03)... read it and see if this is something for you... it sold me on the book. 5 STARS
| 
