Maya curiculam for the millenials

bigdaddyonearth

Hi all I am starting my job as an instructor for Maya in a small academy, I want to do my level best to achieve international level of curriculum, so need support from the entire community on forming a wonderful roadmap to mastering Maya for the students, I am planning on teaching modelling as a core and other tools as a must know. Would also want to know the skills must have so it will be helpful for the student's placement in the industry also, So if any industry veterans wishing to help it would be grateful. Thank you in advance to all your help.

sacboi

May I ask, what is the extent of your experience, whether entertainment/related industry or otherwise?

Panupat

Back in collage, my first Maya class didn't have any specific focus and instead brought me through the entire animation pipeline from start to finish.  We got to do modeling, rigging, texture, make our character walk and did a bit of a lip sync animation. Model was simple, mostly geometric shapes. Our heads were just a nurb sphere where we squeeze some of the iso's together into mouth and make blendshapes out of that. We even did a bit of an editing in After Effects at the end and a movie file conversion for submission.

The end product was so primitive that no one would be proud of. But it really opened up my eyes who had 0 knowledge of any of that. Understanding the big picture was a big plus that helped me a lot in my later classes.

After that, our course no longer really focus on software but more on the specific process. For example, modeling class would be a mix of Zbrush and Maya. Shading class was Maya, Photoshop, Mental Ray (it's a long time ago) compositing class was... that node base software before Nuke... Fusion?

bigdaddyonearth

@ sacboi -"May I ask, what is the extent of your experience, whether entertainment/related industry or otherwise?"
thanks for the reply, and sorry for replying so late, I actually studied in the same institute where I work now since there was a shortage of staff
so I wanted  to step in and help them , but the syllabus or content they thought already seemed pretty enough to survive in the local companies and market but not internationally to me, so I wanted to change it to reach international quality, one of the main reasons for starting this thread was I needed help from the professional to help me achieve the same quality an experienced person in the industry would have if they had started teaching as I have no experience what so ever of working in the industry. (Right now I only teach basics of Maya and tools required for modeling and lighting only).

bigdaddyonearth

@Panupat

"Back in collage, my first Maya class didn't have any specific focus and instead brought me through the entire animation pipeline from start to finish.  We got to do modeling, rigging, texture, make our character walk and did a bit of a lip sync animation. Model was simple, mostly geometric shapes. Our heads were just a nurb sphere where we squeeze some of the iso's together into mouth and make blendshapes out of that. We even did a bit of an editing in After Effects at the end and a movie file conversion for submission.

The end product was so primitive that no one would be proud of. But it really opened up my eyes who had 0 knowledge of any of that. Understanding the big picture was a big plus that helped me a lot in my later classes.

After that, our course no longer really focus on software but more on the specific process. For example, modeling class would be a mix of Zbrush and Maya. Shading class was Maya, Photoshop, Mental Ray (it's a long time ago) compositing class was... that node base software before Nuke... Fusion?"


thanks for the reply, and sorry for replying so late, Since where focus fully on hard surface modeling is it necessary to teach everyone rigging and animation and the whole animation pipeline if they are only specializing in hard surface modelling?. And also in the future, if I get good at what I do planning to teach a mix of Maya and z-brush for modelling,quixel suite, photoshop, substance painter and shader map for the new course I am planning. And also in modeling for hard surface I just fist do a sword or some hammer then a gun with a few attachments then push them to the next staff, so would it be good if I teach even vehicle design or anything else along with it?.

Panupat

If you're going for hard surface, I suppose not. Class I mentioned was before we picked our specialization.

I think it may be worth mentioning CAD hard surface modeler too such as Fusion 360. Perhaps just an introductory session and let students explore on their own time if they so choose.