Good, In-depth Maya 2016 Learning Books

[Anonymous]

Hello

For the event, I am asking what are some good, in-depth learning books I should pick up for Autodesk Maya 2016? I just recently got into using the program, and what I realized that it's harder than 3ds Max, becuase the college I go to doesn't teach Maya, and I'm trying to learn on my own so I can become better at using the program itself.

[trevor.adams · Accepted solution]

Hi JurunceNK,

Good question.  I found the best way to learn a new program from scratch is by first checking out what the program itself offers in terms of help.  For example, you can check out the Getting Started secton in Maya's Learning Channel on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD8E5717592CF5C26

And it's always good to have the official documentation on-hand while you're exploring the software:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2016/ENU/

In there, you'll find a Getting Started topic that can also get you familiar with Maya pretty quickly.

And once you get past the basics, that's when extermal resources become very valuable.  If you prefer videos for learning, Digital-Tutors (now, Pluralsight) has a bunch of Learning Paths to check out, whether you want to learn about animating, modeling, rendering, etc. in Maya, here:

http://www.digitaltutors.com/learningpath/subject/3d-tutorials

As for books, I can only recommend what I've at least skimmed through myself, and for Maya 2016 this one seemed pretty comprehensive to me:

http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Autodesk-Maya-2016-Official/dp/1119059631/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1...

I read a majority of the 2014 edition and so I'm assuming this one is simply an updated version of that.  I do want to stress though, there are a ton of other great books out there and this just so happens to be one I personally checked out myself).  I encourage anyone else reading this thread to chime in with other suggestions.

And finally, it's always easier to learn alongside the Maya community, so whenever you run into problems you can't solve or features you don't understand, these forums have some folks willing to take the time to help you out 

There are tons of great professional learning materials out there for Maya (Gnomon, Lynda, etc.) - I'd start with the basics (and there's a ton of free resources on video sites like YouTube and Vimeo).

A bit general, but I hope that helps!