Can i learn maya on my own

Shamol, First of all, welcome to Maya. Second, good luck. I have migrated over to Maya after working in another 3d package for 17 years. Maya is by far the most difficult program I have ever used. I see the huge potential it has over the previous program that I have been using, but the learning curve is extremely steep. Maya has been described as a mean and unforgiving mistress. I totally concur.

I have left "her" many times vowing never to go back and yet the next day she calls beckoning me. I must say, it is hard to leave her for good. I suggest you watch as many videos you can on the web just to get acquainted to Maya's quarks. I don't use books because I am visual learner and I find it more effective to see and do the tutorials in real time. Bring a huge dose of patience with you as you learn Maya, because you will need it. Overall though, as you get more and more into it, you will realize the huge potential the program has.

That's the beck and call aspect of the program. Good luck. Message 3 of 4. I've been teaching 3D design and animation for about 15 years; I used to teach Alias when it was just one package, then PowerAnimator and now Maya. As a beginner, when it comes to using Maya, most people approach learning as a generalist because everything is exciting to learn, but, as you make more progress and you realize more things about the industries that use Maya like game development, VFX , and animation, especially, if you are learning on your own.

You will start to gravitate towards a certain direction because the underlying or the Basic skills for those fields are the same but to be able to say that you are learning Maya for a specific field like game development or animation you need specialized and focused training whether you are learning in art school or online through tutorials and video courses.

I would say that the intermediate stage is probably the longest stage of an artist development because he or she is still figuring new things out that are sometimes challenging to wrap their head around but eventually it will become an easy thing through consistent practice.

This stage is probably the longest and the most important because it defines you as an artist and what you will be working on in the future, and it completely depends on you as an aspiring 3d artist, it might take from one year to four or five years.

There are a lot of ways to define a professional. The professional has both of his feet in the field full time with a commitment for the long haul. In order to reach a professional level using Maya or any other 3d software, you need to make it your main thing or at least spend a ridiculous number of hours honing your craft to join the industry that you prefer to work in. You can join a studio that works on visual effects, game development, Or Animation studios and you can also work from home as a freelancer or any other way to sell your services to professionals in the industry.

For me one way to define a professional who uses a 3d software such as Maya is a 3D artist that produces work good enough in quality to be used professionally in the industry whether you work in a studio, work as a freelancer or sell assets like 3D models, animation characters, Materials or tools that other professionals use to help them do their job faster and with less effort. When you become a professional it does not mean that you will stop learning, I would say that the real learning begins when you join the industry because school knowledge is way more simplified than the real skills that can be learned in the field where stakes are high and you must generate results without excuses.

Now, we will discuss some of the differences of using Maya in different fields, how difficult they are, and what it takes to be good at each one of them. You see animation is not about animating characters only because there are a lot of stages we need to go through whether we are creating a feature 3d animated movie, a short film or even video game cinematics.

The main skills required are: first modeling which includes creating props for environments and of course characters. This is a classic conflict — Maya vs Blender. When you reach a certain level of expertise, you become software agnostic. You realize all the programs pretty much do the same things, they just call each tool by a different name and hide it under a different menu.

So how can you know which one to pick? What are the differences between these two packages that can help a beginner decide? It has most of the major features one expects from a 3D package. And because it is ostensibly aimed at beginners, the user interface and workflow could be seen as being easier to learn not that I agree. Maya is a cyclopean program. Shelfs work a lot like custom toolbars and toolsets that allow you to use frequently used commands without fumbling through menus.

Time is money when it comes to modeling in Maya, so setting up your shelfs is essential in maximizing your efficiency. These are marking menus. You can also gain access to a wide variety of modeling tools from these marking menus that go beyond simple selection. Combine these menus with custom shelves to start gaining some real speed with your modeling technique.

Because the Lattice tools are under the animation toolset, they are often overlooked by beginners who are trying their best to grasp the basics. However, learning lattices early can provide a powerful backbone of knowledge for fundamental modeling. Use the lattice command to control those changes in a natural way that handles many points, edges, and vertices at once. This is great.