Maya 4.5 Fundamentals

To help students and interested artists explore and learn to use Maya, AliasWavefront took the unprecedented step of releasing a full, free version of its software. Anyone can download the installer (at 140MB, this download is not for the broadband-impaired) or purchase a CD with the installer from AliasWavefront for a nominal price. After installation, a one-year license of the software is free from AliasWavefront. The software is not licensed for any commercial purposes; it is for learning Maya only. This student version, known as Maya Personal Learning Edition (or PLE for short), is identical to Maya Complete, with a few exceptions:

• PLE cannot load or save standard Maya *.ma or *.mb files. It can only load and save files in its own *.mp format.

• PLE is watermarked ”every screen and dialog within Maya has a large repeating diagonal AliasWavefront brand that fills the frame.

• PLE will not allow plug-ins to run.

At this writing, only Maya 4.0 is available in the Personal Learning Edition, and only for Windows or Macintosh (as yet, there is no IRIX or Linux version of PLE). The *.mp-formatted files on this book's CD-ROM were created in Maya PLE 4.0, but should also load for PLE 4.5. Consult the book's web site where modified PLE scene files are posted if you encounter problems loading the scene files into Maya PLE 4.5.