Rating: 
Summary: Crisp, Clear and almost Complete
Review: Finally a decent documentation for Maya MEL/API programmers. Maya's own manuals are comparably lousy and the meager information available to newbies has to be verified and expanded during years of tedious trial and error programming. Most people simply follow in the footsteps of senior programmer colleagues who had to figure everything out for themselves and thus help propagate a culture of continuously reinforced bad code writing habits that do not make effective use of the full range of available tools. Especially the chapters on MEL and Expression writing are simple, clearly structured and easy to understand. The same can be said for the chapters on the Maya API, however, while the MEL and Expression sections do indeed warrant the use of the word Complete in the book's title the API section does not. I would have hoped for more information about some of the more exotic node types such as Shaders or Tool Contexts etc... This is where the Maya manuals fall short and where the book could have jumped in. However, with the book clarifying most fundamental aspects and structures of the API that missing information can be worked out by a skilled programmer. I'm glad I purchased this book and it will serve me well as a reference manual for both MEL and the API. Note to beginners: this book is not a fullblown tutorial but seems to be halfway between a tutorial and a reference manual. However, I've barely received my copy and I'm already considering it indispensible. My thanks to Mr. Gould!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice, very nice
Review: Hi..The content on Mel is very basic and does not relly cover much except the basic syntax.The API part is better and the explanation of the underlying architecture is awesome, somethin which is very essential when tryin the API.
If you are looking only for Mel then Marks book seems slightly better. But if you want a complete Maya programming(Mel and API) book as the title suggests this is the one. But dont expect anything really advanced .This one is for the beginners and thank god finally there is a book that can get people started into the API. It does assume understanding of the c++ language but the programs are explained and literally spoonfed. David is a pioneer in the field of Maya development and he has so much wealth of information. I hope he shares more of that in his second book.
Nice book...fills a void 4 stars.
Rating:
Summary: very thorough
Review: i had to spend a mini fortune for this book since i'm from india and this title is not availiable as an indian edition.
Buttt !!! it has been completely worth it.The author takes no chances with the level of confidence you have with maya programming/scripting.Every thing is explained like youre a two year old and the why's and how's are in abundance as well.
Although i havent finished the book i'm confident i'm going to be reading it another time because there is sooo much to digest.
i hope mr gould's next installment is bigger because he has so much to share and give.
buy buy buy
b
Rating:
Summary: Magically morphs other begginer's Maya books into doorstops
Review: I learned more from the first chapter of this book than from all of 'Maya Fundamentals' or 'Maya Character Animation'. If your a begginer planning on getting serious with Maya I'd recommend going through the 10 or so tutorials that come with Maya and THEN pick this book up (don't waste money on begginer's books). It elegantly expounds the real fundamentals of Maya - the fundamentals that you must know in order to really uderstand the program. Don't expect to be dazzled with the examples. This book will provide essential understanding of the most important principles of Maya - not tell you how to model or animate. After reading this small book you should be able to pick up any book that assumes technical knowledge and focuses on artistic methods of modeling, animation, texturing etc. to learn how to be a true Maya artist.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading
Review: If your just starting out with Maya, this book is essential reading. Chapter 2 (which describes how Maya actually works) is worth the price of the whole book. The only reason I think Maya is the best choice for an animation package is its scriptability and extensibility via MEL. If you paid hard earned money to buy Maya, you need MEL to get your moneys worth. This book has already paid for itself multiple times, and Im only half way through it.
Rating:
Summary: The book is what we want.
Review: Normally I cannot read any English documents more than 3 lines,
I cannot stop reading this awesome book.it's so clear,easy to read. and interesting.
The book is what we want. if you want to know the internal structure of Maya,
and beyond,
You need to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Well written and Interesting too!
Review: Technical books by and large are difficult to understand and sparse due to the fact that aside from class room instruction they are very difficult to absorb. This book is excellent and different. It takes a approach that is an absolute must for people like myself in that It explains the why and theory behind something first and fore most. This makes the "voo doo" of programming not totally disappear but shrink considerably. I have an extensive background in 3DS MAX and it's accompanying programming language. I learned to use MAX script via technical books about MAX script and non have been close to the quality that is in this one is. The major difference being that this book offers even the experienced user an understanding of why MAYA was built the way it is and how it thinks. Which as I learned is truly unique and awesome and worth the price of the book in and of it's self. Good job and Thanks, Jason Brummett
Rating:
Summary: Well written and Interesting too!
Review: Technical books by and large are difficult to understand and sparse due to the fact that aside from class room instruction they are very difficult to absorb. This book is excellent and different. It takes a approach that is an absolute must for people like myself in that It explains the why and theory behind something first and fore most. This makes the "voo doo" of programming not totally disappear but shrink considerably. I have an extensive background in 3DS MAX and it's accompanying programming language. I learned to use MAX script via technical books about MAX script and non have been close to the quality that is in this one is. The major difference being that this book offers even the experienced user an understanding of why MAYA was built the way it is and how it thinks. Which as I learned is truly unique and awesome and worth the price of the book in and of it's self. Good job and Thanks, Jason Brummett
Rating: 
Summary: Uneven pacing
Review: The book starts off real slow, stops suddenly when it reaches
the UI part, jumps into the API and then goes too quickly after
after the first few examples. There's also too little practical
MEL examples. If you are just starting out in Maya programming,
my advice is to look elsewhere first.
Rating:
Summary: what the Maya SDK documentation left out
Review: The documentation that comes with the Maya SDK is a great reference for individual parts of the API, but comes up short on covering the big picture of how and why everything fits together. This book fills that hole perfectly. Even though I've successfully written several Maya plugins by banging around with the examples and the API reference, in just a few hours with this book I gained a much deeper level of understanding about how Maya's internal framework is really constructed. If you're a professional programmer who's even thinking about working with Maya, buy and read this book before writing a single line of code. It will pay for itself in time saved.
| 
