Great Book
I bought this book to help understand nCloth in Maya and it was very helpful with explaining the different properties and how to create different effects. I can't speak for the other sections in the book but the chapters on cloth were very helpful for me.
Bent corners
I was actualy surprised at the way my items where packaged. Mastering Maya8.5 is a pretty big book and it ended up being shrink wrapped with another item and these items weren't boxed. In putting these two items together and packaging them the way they were the book ended up with horrible corner damage. This is the first time I have ever been dissapointed with Amazon.
This book is excellent!
I highly encourage anyone who wants to learn 3D animation with Maya 8.5 to get this book. It comes with a CD ROM that has many helpful source files that go along with the chapter. Each chapter gives you a thorough lesson in the many powerful features that Maya 8.5 offers.
Great for intermediate 3D users, even if new to Maya..
I bought this book along with "Learning Autodesk Maya 8: Foundation" here on Amazon, and have found Mastering Maya 8.5 to be a much better help. I am relatively new to Maya, but have a 3D background (and 2d of course), applying it to mechanical engineering applications using other Autodesk products for around 10 years.
My work experience (even though it is in a different field than what Maya is used for) has given me a leg up on learning Maya (sort of, as Maya is its OWN world entirely compared to all the other programs I've learned, as they are just for modeling, not animation, texturing, lighting, etc.). Just so everyone knows that my review on this book is also tainted by my work history.
Using this along with Gnomon Workshop DVD's has made me a lot more proficient at what I need to do for work in the real world a LOT faster than trying to use "Learning AutoDesk Maya 8, Foundation".
I would recommend it for the intermediate 3D modeler/artist over all the other books I've looked through in friend's libraries, especially if you are actually USING 8.5 as opposed to older versions of Maya, of course :)
Very very good advice immediately in Chapter 1, regarding learning Maya in general, "The Maya interface can be a bit intimidating, and it's not fair to expect yourself to pick it up right up and remember where everything is"... also "Try not to rush it.." Maya is a large mountain of a program, and this book has helped me along my path quite a bit.
For the new Maya user who has a 3d background in other programs, I would recommend this as a first book, even though it has the word "mastering" in the title. Also, the Gnomon workshop DVD's on Maya are very good also if you can afford them or borrow them from a friend.
Need more time!
This book isn't bad but you don't really get to Master Maya with it. Mastering Maya 8.5 does provide a pretty thorough overview. I had to fly through this book in 10 weeks because the college I attend is on the quarter system. It's a decent reference book, however, it doesn't give specific answers but gives the reader a more general idea. I bought Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting for the next quarter and it goes into detailed explanations for every project. Maya is an extremely intensive program and time is needed to really understand it. Mastering Maya 8.5 is a great foundation book that takes you through the most basic steps everyone should know before continuing further.
(7 reviews)
