Looking for a book to refine my Environment creation skills

# 1 18-12-2011 , 05:51 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2008

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Posts: 229

Looking for a book to refine my Environment creation skills

My situation: I'm between Beginner and Intermediate in many areas in Maya. I understand base concepts very well. I know how to find quick-fix answers on the internet, and when I can't, I resort to Simply Maya. But I'm going to have to step up my game, as the production team I work with is rapidly increasing the amount of CG set extension, and I AM the VFX guy, so I have to learn. This means learning environment modeling, texturing, animating, and rendering for period (i.e. 1700s, 1400s, anything before now), modern, sci-fi, and sometimes just plain weird environments.

I can't just learn by doing anymore. It's just not enough and there's not enough time, too much at risk. I need huge in-depth tuts. The best place for those are books. I need suggestions. My immediate assumption is I should get https://www.amazon.com/Maya-Studio-Pr...4187138&sr=1-1 since it's even been mentioned at SM. But you guys may have better suggestions.

My computer isn't incredibly powerful (it's an i7 920 w/ 6GB ram hackintosh with Mac OS 10.6, no renderfarm) so I also need training in optimization given I will end up needing between 2-3 set extensions and 20-40 shots a month starting February. Which is, for an individual, kind of insane, since I'll be doing the greenscreen and cam-tracking work as well...

My thought is game-like environments will suffice, but my experience is that even low-poly with texture maps render a little slowly... not sure why... Anyway enough rambling. What books/learning-methods do you suggest? Thanks!

--
Peter Srinivasan
Producer

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# 2 18-12-2011 , 10:34 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

Have a look at this link, this is a SM members site look in the book section................dave

https://www.mtmckinley.net/

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Last edited by daverave; 18-12-2011 at 10:49 PM.

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# 3 18-12-2011 , 10:42 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

Posts: 3,228

I would recommend Mikes book best money you'll spend in terms of time saved.

Dave user added image

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 4 19-12-2011 , 01:04 PM

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Join Date: Jun 2008

Location: Los Angeles, CA

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Well, I guess my research took me to the right place... and by research, I mean searching amazon for "maya envronment" and clicking the spell correction user added image

Okay. There was more than that, but mostly to verify that Mike's was the right choice. I guess I'll be going with that. Hopefully in January I'll have time to work through most of it! Without sleeping.

Thank you, SM. I hope to ask less and answer more one day. I really want to give back to SM. You've helped me directly and indirectly (forum searches) through many tricky spots in the last few years.

--
Peter Srinivasan
Producer

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# 5 19-12-2011 , 01:18 PM

SM Tea Boy
Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Prague

Posts: 3,228

Well in the new year we have a few tutorials coming out on advanced interior lighting in Maya.

So that might be useful to you as well.

Glad we could help out. best of luck with your projects
Dave user added image

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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Looking for a book to refine my Environment creation skills

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