Maya is a full version and Maya LT is an indie game developer version. What is the difference between Maya LT and Maya and which one should you use? In this case we are completely focused on Maya LT/Maya. But others are used such as Blender, Modo and Cinema 4D. The following two are game industry standard and have been for quite some time - Maya and 3dsMax. There are many 3d modeling programs used.
You have to learn Maya as a specialist.īe able to finally learn and use Maya LT/Maya for game environment art. Remember, you cannot learn Maya as a generalist. Sure there might be some overlap between using it for other disciplines, but we are only concerned with modeling for game environments.
Every video in "3D Game Environment Modeling/UVing Foundation" series is methodically designed to teach you Maya LT and Maya for game environment modeling and UVing. There is a system and purpose behind every tutorial created. If you follow this tutorial series, you will learn Maya LT/Maya for game environment modeling. This tutorial series came from a decade long process and frustration of attempting to learn a 3d modeling software. What you have in front of you right now is the complete beginner's guide to getting started modeling with Maya LT/Maya for Game Environment Artist.
The amount of time, effort and money I've spent learning a 3d modeling software to eventually use it for game environment art is unnecessary. You do not need to struggle for a decade, dabbling in modeling and various general approaches to modeling like I did. So going out looking for tutorials is impossible because you don't know what you should be looking for.
Meaning that you are not aware of what you should learn first, what you should focus on and what elements of Maya LT/Maya you should ignore completely for game environment art or any other discipline. The reason it is very difficult to learn Maya LT/Maya by yourself for any specific purpose is because you don't know what you don't know. You can use Maya to model, animate, UV, create shader, rig characters, render still shots, render full animations, create particle FX and dynamics. Maya LT/Maya is a very extensive and complex piece of software. But most of this could have been avoided and I could have saved a lot of time if I learned Maya LT/Maya for game environment art to begin with. It did help that I was familiar with Maya than if I was jumping into it for the first time without any prior experience. I had to go back to relearn tools and principles I missed or didn't know about. I encountered a big issue when I attempted to work on game environment assetsĪlthough I learned Maya for computer animation, I thought that my knowledge was transferable to game environment modeling but it did not. It is only now, in hindsight as I write this did I become aware of a very valuable lesson: "You have to learn and use Maya LT/Maya or any other 3d software for a very specific purpose." I still had to perform from notes, handouts and online tutorial.
Teachers would demo how to do something but then the class would be over, everyone would go home and I would still be staring at Maya's interface.
I still had to read books, watch online tutorials and go over paper handouts. Now, you do not need to attend college like I did to learn 3d modeling software. I didn't know what to do and if I were actually following the proper workflow for game environment art My first few attempts at learning 3d software. My learning process was then streamlined by projects with deadlines that I had to complete. First few attempts at learning 3d software