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Christopher Nichols is an ex-architect that was a visualization expert at a large architecture firm. He currently is working for Digital Domain in Venice California on feature films. The views expressed in the article are those of the author and not necessarily those of CGarchitect.com or Digital Domain.

A few months ago, I was asked to write a review about an educational book on Alias / Wavefront’s Maya. The book is Maya 4.5 Fundamentals. Having been a teacher that taught Maya to architects, I was fairly interested in doing the review. However, I did find some difficulty in trying to figure out the best way to write a review of a book. The first challenge is going through the book. I don’t know if you have seen some of these 3D software books, but they are on the order of 500+ pages. Lastly, I had to try to figure out the best way to discuss how it covers its subject.

I decided to write about three subjects in this review. First, I will cover the general concept of self-education and how this book falls into it. Next, I decided to cover some of the “features” out the book and give a general outline of the subjects that are covered. Lastly, I will cover the subject of Maya in architecture and architectural rendering, and how this book helps in that subject.

So you are looking to learn Maya. Usually it involves a lot of effort and time for someone to do it. Furthermore, if it is not practiced soon after the lesson, very little is retained. Besides expensive classes, there are some cheaper alternatives that you can do on your own time. The latest craze is educational DVD’s. Gnomon has become very popular with its DVD series. I know that this is review about a specific book, but the subject of video education something I am interested in, and as you will see, it is also relevant. This method of education is pretty effective in many ways, but has many drawbacks as well. First it helps the laziness factor. Most people would rather plop in a DVD then pick up a 500-page book in front of a computer. Second, video is really good at showing workflow. Lastly, besides doing it yourself, there is nothing better then an animated and narrated interface to show a task. On the other hand, there are many drawbacks compared to a book. You can’t flip through video as easily as a book to find simple answers. You can’t always bring it to work and have it as a reference. Lastly, it costs a lot more. Gnomon DVDs are around $69 a piece and each one covers what would be equivalent to one chapter in a book, or sometimes half a chapter if it were a two-part DVD. Buying the Gnomon DVD set will set you back a pretty penny. A bundle discount intro packages is $269, and for the whole set it is $2350, but it still may be less than classes. For much less then a single DVD, you can have everything you need to get started learning Maya at your fingertips, on your shelf at work with plenty of stick notes marking all the pages you want handy.

Now the key is what book to buy. If you have been to the large bookstores or online to look for the right book, this can be a bid scary. There are lots of books out there. After the hordes of Photoshop books, the section on Maya is usually pretty dense. One factor that attracts you to a book is how they market themselves. What is going to make you pick A versus B? Usually it is the picture on the cover. But the best way you have to find out if this book is right for you is the title. I became curious about the subject, and tried to analyze this book’s reason for its title. By naming itself Maya 4.5 Fundamentals, it put itself in an interesting bracket. The word Fundamentals would appeal to different audiences. To a beginner, it implies that these are subjects that I need to know. To the more seasoned users, it may seem to cover things that they should know. It also seems to imply that it is not just a series of tutorials but may illustrate some fundamental facts that need to be understood.

Maya 4.5 Fundamentals did most of this very well. It offers some good insight into the program as well at general concepts of computer graphics industry, such as color theory and shot composition. Something that all digital artist should know, and those are indeed Fundamental concepts. However, the more seasoned user may not find any new insight to the program.

Let us now take a closer look at the content of the book. For the most part, it follows a fairly traditional curriculum. After giving you a broad view of the type of work you will be doing, the book jumps right into its first assignment that exposes you to many aspects of Maya. By covering lots of different aspects of the program, it allows the user to get more familiar with moving around. Generally, I don’t know of any user that really learns much more than how confusing a program is from exercises of this nature. But some may find it to be a good exposure.

Part II of the book covers the basics in a chapter-by-chapter basis, starting with Nurbs modeling, and then goes into the now more popular polygon and sub-division modeling. To those that are familiar with 3D packages, it only seems logical that Materials, Lighting, Animation, Character Animation, Cameras and Rendering are covered in that order.

The third part of the book starts to touch on what some would consider advanced features, such as dynamics and paint effects. The last chapter covers Efficiency and Artistry. This is a chapter that should not be ignored, no matter how eager you are at trying to get started on a project.

Two interesting appendices are added at the end of the book. They are geared towards those that are making a transition from Discreet’s 3ds max and Newtek’s Lightwave. While they can’t be used simply as is, they supplement the book by allowing you to make an easier transition with respect to the interface.

The book offers other features to help you along the way as well. At the start of each chapter, the first few pages are dedicated to helping give you an idea of what the chapter will cover, as well as some key elements and terminology that you should remember. These can prove fairly useful as elements before and after you read the chapter. Personally, I wish that the book had more of it since the rest of the chapter is somewhat wordy. Nonetheless, each chapter ends with a summery of the elements you should have retained which can help you remember the information better.

But wait there’s more! Yes when you get Maya 4.5 Fundamentals you also get a handy CD-ROM which has plenty of files to help you as you go through the tutorials. Included in those files are some great video files. The videos are narrated screen captures of the tutorials. In the book you will find references to which video corresponds to which tutorial. In all seriousness, there are hours of these video files and they are very useful and fairly high quality. I believe that they would rival a full set of DVD tutorials. Plus another bonus to the screen-capture method: it is sized so that you can actually read the text. They are provided to you in Microsoft WMV files, so you may not be able to view them on your Apple of Linux computers.

Now that you have decided on a book to learn, you may be asking yourself: “Will this help me my architectural design and rendering?” The key here is, will any book on Maya do that? Personally, I don’t think so. Let’s quickly cover some issues of Maya and Architecture. As far as I know, with the exception of some architecture school and Greg Lynn, Maya is really not used in any aspect of Architecture. Digital artists use Maya in feature films to build digital sets including architectural elements, but there are many tools, mostly precision tools that are lacking to most architects. The precision of Maya is designed to get you within a pixel, or half a pixel of accuracy, and it is not as easy to get within an 1/8 of an inch or 1 mm the way that most architects are used to. Also, there are few tools for importing data. All of Maya’s curves are based on Nurbs, while most other packages use regular splines. Is this to say that Maya cannot be used for architecture? I would have to say: absolutely not. However, if you are used to another 3D toolset, you may encounter a great deal of frustration, as many people have. That said, why would an architect want to learn Maya? It could be for many reasons: it could be job requirement, a change in career, or simply curiosity.

Does Maya 4.5 Fundamentals provide you with some good direction for those that have an architecture background? Two of the Nurbs modeling chapters involve the modeling of a house. To those that have done architectural modeling in other packages, it may seem a little strange to build a house using Nurbs, but this is not uncommon in Maya. This is not to say that polygonal modeling of architecture is not possible. In fact, these days, a great deal of the modeling that is done in Maya is polygonal. For this reason, don’t look at the chapters as the way to model architecture in Maya, but look at them in the way that they are titled: Modeling with Nurbs; the subject of a house is incidental.

If you are looking for a book to learn Maya, Maya 4.5 Fundamentals is a good bet. The suggested retail price of the book is $45, but can be found for $31.50 on Amazon right now. It covers all the issues that you need to get started. Do not ignore the very useful CD that has a great deal of support material including the enormous amount of video tutorials. Just keep in mind that Maya has a lot to offer beyond what the book is showing you. It is just the first step in a steep learning path towards learning the Oscar winning software - Maya.

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