10+ Best Maya Tutorials For Beginners [2024 JUL]— Learn Maya Online

Learn Maya to create 3D computer graphics applications with the best Maya tutorials for beginners in 2024

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9 min readJun 7, 2018

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1. Introduction to The Animation Workflow in Maya for Games

Inside of Maya, learn the best practices for creating key frame animations, animating on a path, and editing your animations and utilizing layers. You’ll learn by example as we create our animations on a fully rigged character, and the process is presented from initial concept to key poses and final animation polish.

2. Maya 2020 Essential Training

Learn to create high-quality 3D models and animations in Maya 2020.

In this course, you will learn:

  • the core Maya skills — modeling, texturing, rendering, and animation.
  • basics such as selecting and manipulating objects, organizing scenes.
  • customizing the interface.
  • to create and apply materials to surfaces — adding color, texture, and reflectivity.

This course covers the core Maya skills — modeling, texturing, rendering, and animation — in a real-world project-based workflow that translates equally well to film, motion graphics, and game design.

Learn basics such as selecting and manipulating objects, organizing scenes, and customizing the interface. Next, review polygonal modeling, creating and refining meshes, sculpting, and NURBS modeling.

Next it’s time to create and apply materials to surfaces — adding color, texture, and reflectivity. Then integrate cameras, lighting, and depth-of-field effects using the Arnold for Maya renderer.

Last but not least, it shows how to add movement and life to your work with the Maya animation tools.

3. VFX Shot Creation from Scratch with Maya and After Effects

The untold story of Vicki Lau and her journey in re-creating a startling incident from scratch, using visual effects.

In this course, you will learn how to:

  • use Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe After Effects effectively, based on the case shot provided.
  • plan to shoot your own custom visual effects shots.
  • solve problems with real world film shots and post-production scenarios.

Learn how to create a visual effects shot from scratch by being a part of an unfolding, untold story.

learn by actually watching a short film story unfold whilst helping the main character of the story create the final visual effects shot through the step-by-step guide of the course to 3D modelling, texturing, animation, 2D tracking and compositing.

4. Maya 2017 — Create realistic images using Arnold renderer

Learn the fundamentals of Arnold renderer by rendering a realistic scene in Autodesk Maya 2017.

Autodesk Maya 2017 now comes with the industry standard Arnold renderer. Arnold is used by many visual effects and animations studios to produce stunning imagery for films and TV.

3 reasons learn this powerful renderer:

  1. Make yourself more attractive to potential employers.
  2. Take your work to the next level of realism.
  3. Easier to learn than nearly all other renderers.

This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn to use Arnold to create great images from beginner level. You will learn to light and shade a scene from start to finish, covering fundamentals along the way. This course will take you through a practical project rather than going over endless settings with a sphere.

5. Fast animation and rigging techniques using Maya 2017

Learn to rig a biped character and animate a walk cycle for film, TV and video games for beginner Maya users.

Autodesk Maya is the hub of animation companies around the world thanks to its powerful and flexible toolset. In this course you will learn how to quickly prepare your 3d models for animation in a process called rigging. You will then animate a walk cycle. The Human IK system is the rig we will be using to bring our character to life. You will also learn more advanced topics like applying and editing motion capture to your characters. These techniques will allow you to quickly create great looking animation to your film,TV and video game projects.

This course is specifically designed for beginner level but it is packed full of useful tips, tricks and tools to help more experienced users learn features that they are unfamiliar with. It covers some of the latest updates to the animation features in Maya including the new Graph editor, Quick rig and Time editor.

The skills covered in this course will not only allow you to create great work but also make you more attractive to employers for Animator, Pre-visualisation Artist, Technical Animator and 3d generalist jobs.

6. Learning Maya after knowing 3ds Max : Modeling

Want to learn how to use Maya after you already know 3ds max? Making the switch was never easier.

It can be hard feeling completely lost when you already know the fundamentals and the software is the only thing getting in your way. You may be pulling your hair out, because your speed and process have been thrown out the door. You may be knowing what you want to create but getting nowhere trying to accomplish it.

Most tutorials for learning Maya are fundamentals videos that are long and drawn out, covering topics that you already understand. You’re just looking for the information on how to transfer the skills you already have from working in 3ds max. You may be spending large amounts of time scanning through tons of beginner videos only to find the videos overlook the advanced techniques you use. Sometimes the techniques you use aren’t even available in Maya. This becomes irritating and wastes your time.

This video series is designed to get you up to speed inside of Maya and have you wondering why it ever seemed so hard to transfer between software in the first place. All of the main tools and techniques that are used in everyday video game art development (modeling, unwrapping, and baking) will be explained and cross referenced to what you would use inside of 3ds max. So if you’re in need of getting up to speed inside of Maya for a new job position or are a student looking to improve your resume to become more attractive to employers this video series is perfect for you.

7. Rigging 101 for Video Games — Maya 2018

Learn the tools and concepts to rig props and characters in Maya 2018.

Learning 3D rigging can be very confusing and time-consuming when doing it by yourself. I want to make the learning process easy for you, going through all the tools and concepts of rigging in very detailed videos.

You will do a series of rigs, from props to characters, to make sure that after finishing this course, you’ll have the knowledge required to solve any rig that is presented to you.

You’ll learn tips and shortcuts that will accelerate your workflow and make you understand the fundamentals of 3D rigging.

8. Python For Maya: Artist Friendly Programming

Learn to code with Python to work faster in Maya.

This course will take you from your very first line of Python code to creating advanced user interfaces with all that fluidity we expect of a professional. You’ll learn skills that will help you work faster by automating repetitive tasks so you can focus on the work you want to be doing. This can in turn also add incredible value to you on the job market and help you move up the ladder faster.

Whether you’re a beginner or already familiar with Python, there’s a lot this course can offer you. Projects are split up by difficulty and there’s a project for you whether you’re a modeller, animator, rigger or lighter.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Python Fundamentals: functions, classes, if statements, etc…
  • Advanced Python concepts like lambdas,partials, regular expressions, etc..
  • Writing User Interfaces with Maya Cmds and Qt
  • Writing data to disk and loading it back in to Maya as JSON
  • Creating command line tools
  • Setting up a professional workflow
  • The Qt interface framework: custom widgets, signals and slots, stylesheets etc

9. Maya 2017 Quickstart — Create a Low poly scene for Beginners

Create your own 3d world using Maya 2017 in this fun project based course.

Learn the basics and more in this easy to follow project where you will create a stylish isometric low poly scene. This course is designed for the complete beginner and doesn’t get bogged down in unnecessary technical jargon. It’s specifically shows you the fundamentals you need to create 3d geometry and output great looking images.

10. Create Professional 3D Models from Scratch in Maya 2017

Learn the skills to design, model and render 3D assets using Maya 2017 and Photoshop.

Learning 3D packages can be very complex and time-consuming when doing it by yourself.

There’s a whole section of the course dedicated to interface, menus, and tools, that way, students who are not experienced at all can go back as many times as needed.

But that doesn’t mean it will only be useful to new users. Intermediate to advanced students will find content in these lessons very useful too, as we go through the fundamentals of creating concept art and models using powerful modeling techniques and shortcuts.

In this course we will create a robot from A to Z. From drawing concept art images until presentation and final image enhancement in photoshop.

We will go through sketching the robot in photoshop using real photographs as reference and inspiration, blocking out a rough version of the asset, modeling all the pieces, rendering with Maya’s built in Arnold Renderer, and adding the final touches in Photoshop.

You’ll learn tips and shortcuts that will accelerate your workflow and make you understand the fundamentals of 3D modeling.

11. Learn Maya — A Beginners guide to Creating Realistic Scenes

Learn to create realistic models, texture, animate and render in Autodesk Maya from beginner level.

Explore the wonderful world of Autodesk Maya with this comprehensive introductory course. Maya is an industry standard 3d application used to create movies, games and graphics. In this course you will learn to create your own stunning imagery.

Learn the fundamentals of Autodesk Maya

  • Install Maya
  • Learn the Maya UI
  • Model and texture realistic objects
  • Animate you models
  • Light and render your animations so they look great!

Maya is an industry standard application that is used by many high-end productions. By learning it you make yourself more employable. It has a flexible and wide toolset that can help you create high quality work quicker. This course is specifically designed to ease you into Maya, showing you the most common and powerful tools. It is a project based course that will teach you practical skills that you can use in your own work. This course comes with all the project files you need and work in progress files incase you get stuck.

This course has five sections:

  1. How to install Maya

2. Maya Fundamentals — In this section you take your first look at Maya and the user interface. You will learn the different editors and the basics of create objects and manipulating them

3. Toy Train Project — In this section you will create a toy train model and animate it along a path. You will learn how to light your train and apply materials to it. You will finish by rendering out your animation and view it.

4. Wizard Desktop Project — In this project you will create a desktop scene that you can customise and make your own! Dive deeper into the modelling tools and create a series of objects to create your scene. You will learn about texturing your objects and look at various different shaders to make different materials. You will also learn some more advanced lighting techniques and learn how to add atmosphere to your scene and render out a final image. This project is flexible enough to let you be creative with your own composition, lighting and look.

Disclosure: We are affiliated with some of the resources mentioned in this article. We may get a small commission if you buy a course through links on this page. Thank you.

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