I just purchased Maya 4.5!

[wchamlet]

Anyway, not to sound too childish, I am a little excited to actually get a real version of Maya other than the PLE version I've had since April. I checked A|W's website and they said Maya 4.5 (OS X) ships on the 23rd, so I should have it soon, hopefully.

As to why I am posting this, I wanted to ask a question from anyone who either has purchased Maya 4.5, or is planning to purchase Maya 4.5 for Mac. What all comes with the software? Are there more indepth manuals than what comes with PLE? Or are they pretty much the same? I want to know because then I can make a decision on whether or not to buy any of the other Learning Tools that A|W has. I'm interested in all of them actually, but I want to start out small then work my way into more complicated features.

Any feedback from you people's would be very much appreciated. That is as long as it isn't bashing me for buying Maya 4.5 OS X version. That wouldn't be helpful.

Chad

[gmask]

You should get a printed version of the Manuals which is the same as the html documentation and I would think that you would also get the Learning Maya book and tutorials and maybe some Mac specific docs but nothing more than that.

[skullnation]

Just attended a A/W Maya 4.5 preview event in San Francisco last night. I'm not positive but I think you also get the getting started with Maya on the Mac DVD.

[thejp2000]

I purchased a student license of 3.5.1 back in February or March. When I bought it, the manuals didn't come with it, but I had the option of purchasing them for another $20 or so. I'm assuming if you're buying a full-priced version, they'll throw in the manuals for free. Anyway, I've pretty much found the online manual sufficient for my needs.

Education licenses of 4.5 won't be available until October so I'll have to wait. But at least they're giving it to me free. (All upgrades are included during the duration of a 1-year student license.)

And by the way, might I extend an official welcome to the Maya OSX community.

-JP

[wchamlet]

I got an email from A|W and they said I should have Maya by late next week. So I'll find out exactly what it comes with then.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, and thanks for welcoming me into the Maya OS X community. No one would know of any user groups around Kentucky would you? I guess Indiana and Tennessee would by OK too. I haven't really thought about joining a user group, but you never know what you could learn by meeting new people.

[polygonking]

My 2 cents...

If you plan on purchasing any videos from AW, stop right now.
They are largely crap.
The "learning Maya" materials are good, but just a first step.

I tell people to go with the online docs, and if they buy any videos, to get the ones from Gnomon3d.

Good Luck,
Scott

[wchamlet]

Yeah, I know about buying videos to learn 3D. It's good to learn feature sets, and animation, but I think I need more step by step tutorials in order for me to actually relate to what I am doing.

I've got 4 Gnomon videos (2 tapes and 2 DVD's) They are pretty good, except it leaves you wanting more. The patch modeling DVD's I bought were great in helping me learn how to patch model. But I would have really liked to learn how to do the whole body, instead of just the head.

So I think for now I am going to stay with the books, which have tutorials and scene files and all that. As well as all the online tut's I can find. Then, I will probably get some of the more advanced Gnomon DVD's that cover animation and dynamics, and so forth.

For right now though, I think all I'll use Maya for is to integrate things into my artwork. Maya's Paint FX is beyond amazing, and boy will it improve my background work!

Chad

[deke-kincaid]

They are not crap. Have you actually watched any of the dvd ones they have done? The dvd series they have been producing are very good with industry professionals from weta, kwcc, etc... Alot of the actual tapes are from maya 1+2, so they are less effective then gnomon tapes.

[wchamlet]

Well, if anyone cares, I got Maya 4.5 today. Then I found out about the silly activation key and boy am I upset. But first, let me answer my own question about what comes with Maya 4.5 for the Mac.

You recieve, not in any particular order:

A book that describes the new features of Maya 4.5 for Mac.

The Instant Maya book for Maya 4.5-including different tutorials with sub-d features and Paint FX

Maya 4.5 CD

Various Stuff on another CD that I can't look at yet...

... and an angry moment when you can't get an activation key!

And that's it. Other than a few ads for maintenance support... phhht!

I am upset with A/W's activation key setup. First off, my Mac isn't online. Secondly I don't have a fax. Third, by the time I got to do the third thing no one at AliasWavefront was "Available to answer the phone". So, I mosey on over to my parents to use their PC to get the activation key. I read in the installation instructions for Maya 4.5 that the online form would provide immediate results and I would recieve my activation key. Well, it didn't and it still hasn't arrived in my email. So, a $2,000 program is now installed on my computer, but I am unable to use it because A/W couldn't print out a simple sticker with an activation key... you know like every other software company in the world. :<

Needless to say... when I do get Maya in a working fashion... I'll have to get some of the Learning tools. Which, like I said earlier, answers my initial question in my first post.

Chad

[gmask]

The reason why they can't just put an activation key in the package is because an encryption has pto be generated based on your computers hardware.. the ethernet card address in this case makes the registration unique.

Hopefully they'll do you right shortly..

[deke-kincaid]

Wahhh, wahh, wahh, would you like some cheese with that whine? You have to wait a whole day to get the license, oh, no, what are you ever going to do.

Excuse the 12 year old inside of me

Discreet, Softimage, Sidefx, A/W etc... all use a similar kind of licensing for the last 15 years(thousands of other companies do it this way too.) As you use more expensive software(2k price range and up), you will see more companies using a similar type of licensing.

A/w uses flexlm which keys the license to your computer's ethernet mac address. So make sure your actually getting the info off your mac. The web client for sending the license request uses a javascript to get you MAC address off the machine, so if your running it on the pc and submitting it. It will be gettting the MAC address off the pc, not the mac and the license you get will not work.

[wchamlet]

So I was upset. You get upset too right.

I think I was just a little angry that I had the software right there... and I couldn't use it! Anyway, I'm over it. Now on to aminatin' n' stuff.

[wchamlet]

" The web client for sending the license request uses a javascript to get you MAC address off the machine, so if your running it on the pc and submitting it. It will be gettting the MAC address off the pc, not the mac and the license you get will not work."

They must have changed the way to get the activation keys, because I did get the numbers to install Maya 4.5 today. But I did it by using a PC. I had the wrong form I was filling out online, and I never recieved a serial number, because their server was down that provided it. After I got my serial number, yesterday evening, I went online on the PC and filled out the activation form, but I used the Ethernet number from my Mac, not the PC. I got the activation number this morning and finished installing. WooT!

I really like the new layout and it seems so much cleaner than 3.5.1. I've yet to do much with it because I had to go to work, but I have tonight and the weekend to feel out Maya 4.5's new features.

Chad

[deke-kincaid]

How is the speed in it, interfaces, etc...? I messed around with 3.5.1 on a g4 500 and it was pretty pokey. Are you using it with osx 10.2?

I would really like to move to osx in the future, especially since shake is there now.(Just need PRman and I am all set).

[wchamlet]

Let's see, my current setup is a DP G4 1ghz, 768 MB RAM, Nvidia GF4 MX with dual 17" CRT monitors, and OS 10.2.

Before I bought Maya 4.5 I only had Maya 3.5.1 PLE. So, now after installing Maya 4.5 on my computer, I've seen numerous improvements. One of them being an increased speed using the menus, like the Hypershade and Visor, and setting up image planes. It isn't as clunky as it use to be in 3.5.1 PLE.

I haven't really tested the rendering yet, but paint fx is at least twice as fast as before in rendering and realtime scene manipulation. Using the auto fill function, I was able to fill a rather large plane with grass quite satisfactory. In PLE that would have choked my computer considerably.

As for OS 10.2 and Maya 4.5, I've come across no problems so far. I don't know what kind of performance boost that can be gained with a better graphics card, but I'd think it would be much better than the 4MX I have right now.

Chad

[deke-kincaid]

thx for the info dude

[wchamlet]

Since I have last posted in this thread, I've done some more detailed work with Maya, and you can see the results in this thread that I posted in the Students Forum.

One pic and a link to my site...

It's not much, but I am rather pleased to be able to create an object and have it look that good with the amount of foreknowledge I have with shading and textures, which equated to none really.

I've found Maya 4.5 to be alot easier to use, and I really like the fact that A|W moved the help docs out of Internet Explorer and into OS X's own help center. It's so much more responsive and intuitive.