Starting out Modelling

Deras

hey folks, like the title says: i am starting out modelling in Maya 2013, and have currently been using Youtube as tutor along with 3d.about.com

my question is:

do you guys have some recommended videos to watch for modelling and understanding Maya ?


ps. i am hoping to not spend money on this, as that would be preferrable by far.

thanks in advance for any help received!

SimonT

There are some very basic tutorials right integrated in Maya. They're coming with the startscreen i guess. I think Youtube should be enough for the start and like everytime: practice much is the most important thing. 20 DVDs of Gnomon doesn't help when nobody watches them and practices

Deras

well the thing is, i'd like a tutorial video that explains what the different things in maya actually is, like what is a Mesh, what is a Polygon, so on and so on.

i know i can google the things, but i think what i am requestin is "the über noob's way to Maya" :P

Deras

i found something called digital tutors, and going through it as we speak, hopefully this will answer my noob-ish questions

i am looking very much forward to playing around with this and being creative, and when i get good enough, i'll post pictures xD

praetus

3D Motive actually has a Introduction to Maya course which may help you quite a bit. It's broken into three parts so far. While 3D Motive is $22 a month I cannot recommend it enough as it has enhanced my own techniques and understanding so much. At the very least set it up for one month and learn as much as you can. Personally this is what I had intended to do myself but the new content is so good I just can't bring myself to cancel it.

Deras

awesome! thanks Praetus, so kind of you to reply, as this also answers my other concerns about 3D Motive and subscription and such.

i'll look into it, and hopefully i'll get somewhere with all this

twistedpolygon

Hey there glad to see another person interested in learning, my friend cannedmushrooms has tons of really great in depth tutorials on his youtube covering just about everything in maya zbrush etc

https://www.youtube.com/user/cannedmushrooms/videos?flow=grid&view=1

Deras

awesome! gonna look through them, i just stumbled upon some videos from Digital Tutors that a friend of mine had, so i'm gonna go over those aswell
- thanks for the replies and help folks

Zocky

Well, i would also suggest 3dmotive.com, for 22$ per month, you can really learn a great deal, i think it's really worth the money.

Still, maya's documentation can also be a friend.
When i started with maya, besides going over certain tuts at
http://www.learning-maya.com/
, i also went over each tool in modellling menu, and checked what you can do with it. What extrude edge does, what extrude face does, and so on. Sometimes, tutorials don't mention certain tools that can be great, so it may be good idea to go over those tools in modelling section manually, without tutorial, just with a help of maya's documentation.

makinmagic3

World of Level design on Youtube is pretty good, they have a series of videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoAjQDDKCmk

I learnt Maya by doing different tutorials (modelling, physics, particles, rendering...etc). Also remember to write down the keyboard shortcuts.