What will I learn from Mastering Maya: The Fundamentals?

Your education begins from the standpoint of the complete beginner, providing you with a guided tour of the user interface, and allowing you to familiarize and feel at ease with Maya’s many controls. From there, you will launch into the first of three very in-depth projects, each one building upon the last to carry you comfortably to the level of proficient Maya user as you create beautifully detailed animations. The projects are very comprehensive, and each and every step carefully explained to make sure that you not only understand what it is you’re doing, but exactly why you’re doing it and how each tool you use works within Maya!

Project 1: The Talented Ball
This project serves as a way to get your feet wet with Maya. This project expands upon the introductory videos by showing you how to construct, animate, and render your own digital scenes! The project focuses on every animator's rite of passage, a bouncing ball. However, instead of simply bouncing the ball across a basic scene, you'll spice things up by treating the ball as if it were a character performing for a talent show!
Project 2: The Abduction
The second project kicks things into a higher gear as you learn how to handle larger scenes that cover multiple shots, and include more complex objects, more detailed textures, and advanced lighting systems. You'll model, texture and animate an extraterrestrial invader as he sneaks into a moonit suburb to abduct a very unlikey subject. This project focuses very highly on animation workflow, showing you many techniques to simplify your animations while providing you with maximum control over your scenes
Project 3: When Mechs Attack
In this, the most technical of the three projects, you will learn how to handle vast scenes comprised of many different and highly advanced components. You'll take a deeper look at modeling, shading, and special effects as you create a scene that includes a towering battle robot that marches across a snowy landscape, destroying a building with a single blast from its mighty cannon. This project will introduce you to Maya's powerful particle system, enabling you to create a blustery snowstorm, along with your own pyrotechnic effects such as smoke and fire!

Watch over 2 hours of content for FREE!

Would you like to see just how good 'Mastering Maya: The Fundamentals' really is? We've provided the introductory lessons for free, so you can try before you buy.

These lessons will introduce you to Maya's user interface and show you the high level of quality and detail you'll find in the rest of the course. Please remember that these free videos are just a very small portion of this impressive 82-hour behemoth

What makes 'Mastering Maya: The Fundamentals' different from other training videos?

Training in Maya and 3D animation is becoming more and more accessible every year. Across the Web, in colleges and technical schools, even in your local bookstore, you can find volumes of knowledge in one form or another. What you can virtually never find is a comprehensive source of knowledge that is catered to the absolute newcomer, and capable of bringing anyone from beginner to intermediate/advanced levels of proficiency in Maya. The Mastering Maya: The Fundamentals program is engineered to do just that. Moreover, it is designed to keep the information flowing in a smooth, easy-to-understand manner that is engaging and highly entertaining! You won’t have to worry about boring monotonous lecture material; the instructors keep everything upbeat and on-target, whether you’re talking about simply navigating Maya’s interface or discussing highly technical special effects! Plus, there is nowhere on the planet where you can get this level of professional-quality education for anywhere near this price!

Are there any prerequisites for watching this content?

The only prerequisite for Mastering Maya: The Fundamentals is that you know how to use your computer. Nothing else is assumed of the viewer. The lectures introduce you to such rudimentary concepts as the nature of 2D vs. 3D space, and any past experience you may have with a 3D package is simply a bonus.

Can I complete this class with the Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE)?

Yes you can. There are some tasks that are performed in the projects that cannot be replicated using the PLE, though these do not provide a hindrance to the learning experience.

What version of Maya is used in the content? Will I need the same version?

The content was recorded using Maya 6.5. However, since the primary nature of the course is to stick to many of the fundamental aspects of the program, you will likely be able to follow along with virtually any version of Maya. Most of the basic workings of the program have not changed, though we cannot guarantee that all parts of the projects will work flawlessly using any version earlier than 6.5. Those using Maya version 7 will have no problems.

Will these DVDs play on a standalone DVD player?

No, the content will not play on a regular DVD player, it is intended for use in a PC that has a DVD-ROM drive.

What codec is needed to view the files?

You may view the video files with the XviD codec, which can be downloaded for free from www.xvid.org.

I heard that the videos are watermarked. Can you explain what this means?

In order to protect our content from illegal distribution and to safeguard your investment, we have implemented a video watermark system. The faint video watermark is on some of the videos, and will contain your name and address. The information on the watermarks will be used as evidence should the videos be illegally distributed.

Do you accept payment through PayPal?

Yes, we do, but only your account must be verified through PayPal and your shipping address must be confirmed. The only forms of payment we accept are credit card and PayPal.

How long will it take for my DVDs to ship?

Your DVD's must be custom encoded at our facilities to include your personal watermark. This process can take anywhere from 1 to 5 business days to complete, though most orders are shipped within 48 hours.

Why is shipping so high for the US?

Shipping in the US is approximately $15. This as a production and shipping fee, helping to cover not only the actual shipment, but also the process of encoding, burning, and printing.

Can I bill and ship to different addresses?

We only ship to the verified billing address. If other arrangements for shipping are required, we will need to verify the new location. This verification process is in place for your security, and for the security of our content.