Review: VTC Autodesk Maya 2011

(originally published in 3D Artist Magazine)

VTC Autodesk Maya 2011

£79.95 and USD $ 126

Website

http://www.vtc.com/

Learn the fundamentals of Maya 2011 at your own speed with this extensive collection of mini video tutorials.

The Virtual Training Company Autodesk Maya 2011 course, presented by Jason Welsh, consists of 171 tutorials running for over 11 hours in total. Each bite-sized video is kept brief and keenly focused on Maya's tools, what they do, and how to work with them. Most videos generally average 4 or 5 minutes in length which is just enough to give simple and digestible nuggets of information, but this has a knock-on effect of inhibiting the training from entering into any real depth or exploring industry standard techniques. As a result it’s an insufficient investment for professional Maya users. Training starts at a beginner friendly level by exploring some key aspects of the UI before moving onto discussing navigation, as Jason explains, navigation is at the utmost importance in Maya and students give up the most because of struggling with navigation. However he then informs Windows users to use the wrong hotkey (Ctrl instead of Alt) when navigating. Whether this blunder, which goes uncorrected, results in customers giving up on the training - rather than Maya - is debatable. With the basics covered the training expands into some of the most commonly used tools for modelling - although glossing over NURBS as the presenter reveals he doesn't use them much - texturing, rendering, animation, rigging and dynamics. A concise workflow demonstration on creating a very basic poly modelled sword, which is then straightforwardly textured, functions as a main project. Some supporting files are included to accompany certain videos, such as the sword, but are lazily unorganised. Customers are encouraged to use VTC's own Windows and Mac compatible QuickTime based VTC Player for video tutorial playback, which handily supports closed captions to assist with clarity and benefit users who are hearing impaired. The player also allows playback at double-speed which is useful as the presenter speaks and works quite slowly. As the training is available either on CD or via VTC’s 'online university', which offers unlimited access to their entire collection of tutorials for a monthly fee, the videos themselves are disappointingly very low-res at 600 x 800. This is to cram the content onto CD and to ensure it works even for dial-up customers accessing lessons online. Jason remarks on this during a lesson on Layers when a setting update is slow to appear due to the resolution. Another advantage to purchasing online access is you can view the training on a laptop while on the move.

Summary

An uninspiring collection of lessons that will help you discover Maya’s toolset, but leave you wanting more.

Deformers are a part of Maya’s powerful toolset and can be used to save you plenty of modelling time if used correctly

With the knowledge of how a Lattice functions you can do many things such as reshape any character model efficiently

Once you have grasped the fundamental basics of Maya you’ll discover how to create and texture this short-sword