Maya in a nutshell

Some thoughts on teaching a basic Maya class:

Maya- student is climbing two mountains, technical and creative;
each factor affects the outcome of the other.
Student may go off in different direction.

Students may have very rigid preconceptions of how their 3D projects should look
Some students become hung up on using very specific menu commands and/or procedures that distract them from easier work arounds.

Students are very resistant about buying Maya text books

Learning interface,

Modeling polygons; polygon components

animation, graph editor

lighting & rendering

Putting final reel together

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Subjects for projects, General catagories:

Monsters, soldiers, action
Cute characters
Castles, temples, furniture, landscapes, dungeons
Effects-fire, lightning, fog
Photorealism (rare)