I"d also be keen to know as I'm in a similar situation. What studio are you trying to get into?

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

I successfully applied for a one month internship at people's republic of animation. Its unpaid and starts monday, 9-5, 5 days a week. One of the key issues was me learning maya in time, which i assured i could do... im going to check as many online tutorials/ videos as i can, but just wondering off the bat if anyone knows anything in particular.

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Congratulations. I was thinking about applying for that but I can't really afford to go a month without income. Are they flexible at all with time or does it have to be five days a week for one month?

Maya will be tricky to learn in that short amount of time. What level are they expecting of you?

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

First of all, thankyou so much Tyson for that list.. I think I might print it out so I remember everything! @Steve- They were pretty relaxed in the interview, and did mention that though it would be beneficial for me to be there for the full duration that they were indeed flexible. They asked me to give them an idea of the things I would like to learn/be exposed to in that period of time and that I would be working on low-risk projects, with the directive that I do a lot of self problem solving and so on (ie not be a pain and interrupt their workflow too much). I see it as an unlimited pass for a month into seeing/understanding/working in a real environment. Whether I can actually do anything useful will be another issue

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Ok, so there's not too much pressure that's cool. So are they going to be training you at all or is it pretty much up to you to learn by doing? What did the say about the possibility of paid work afterwards? Sorry about all the questions, I appreciate the info. I've been weighing up my options recently and they mostly point to me learning Maya so I'm looking for the fastest and most effective way to do it.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

To be honest, i won't know til i start next week. I would lean towards the no category, as the studio is pretty small, but you never know. This month's worth of experience is a stepping stone for me to try for the paid intern spots at Animal Logic... so we will wait and see. At the very least it's a start.

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Ive just been on the learn maya as fast as you can journey and Ive discovered many wonderfull and frustrating things along the way coming from a max background.

heres a list of tips and shortcuts that come to mind that you might find helpful.
There are loads more too but its hard to think of everything, feel free to ask any specific questions because its been almost a daily ritual of discovering the max to maya equivalent as I encounter new problems.

Maya notes.

usefull marking menus for modelling. You will find quick ways of accessing things like edge ring and loop.
merge vertices, grow, shrink, convert selections etc. through these marking menus.

ctrl + right mouse = edit mesh menu

shift + right click = Mesh menu

Context sensitive shortcuts. hold the following keys to use various snaps.

X=grid snap

C=curve snap

V=point snap.

other shortcuts.

insert key = affect pivot only (toggle)

Shift+alt+D = delete history (pretty much collapse the stack)

ctrl+shift+H = unhide all

alt+h = hide unselected.

Ctrl+a = attribute editor toggle. (use this to get to the attribute editor and back into the channel box, for instance you will want to edit a new objects segments in the channel box and access other nodes from the attribute editor)

space bar+ right click = views marking menu.

hold shift to add to selection. (gets me every time when I'm swapping back and forth from max to maya)

hold alt+left click to arc rotate

and alt+middle mouse for pan (also hard to remember when swapping between apps at first)

for linking (or parenting) pick the child first, then shift click the parent and press p.

shift+P to unparent

ctrl+d to duplicate (no shift drag to clone like in max) remember to use the edit>duplicate special>option box if you want to copy an object with its history.

I suggest working with history on most of the time but just delete history from time to time when modelling to keep things clear.

ctrl+g =group. (press up to quickly pick the group)

Use the outliner window to quickly pick objects and manage the scene effectively.

double click a tool on the left toolbar to access its attributes in the attribute editor, such as say with the move

tool you can select the move axis. soft selection, reflection settings etc..

press b to toggle soft selection when in a component (sub-object) mode. press and hold b and click drag the middle

mouse button for interactive falloff control.

f= to frame. (zoom extents)

right click over an objects edges to access the component marking menu.

I would also suggest trying to customise maya to as close to your max short cuts as possible to give yourself a bit of a head start on the job. things like mapping the "m" key to the hypershade window
and whatever other things you have as second nature. you will surely go back to max at some point and its best not to completely unlearn good habits if it can be avoided right?

Hope some of that helps. and good luck to you both on the jobs, hope it leads to great things.

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Cheers Tyson. Bookmarked.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]

no worries, One more thing though, if you can afford to get the fairly cheap plugin for maya called Nex 1.5

[Link to draster.com]

it will take alot of the pain out of learning how to use maya when you already know max. there are loads of good modelling tools most of which add some of max's functionality as well as some stuff that max doesn't do
but arguably the best part is that it allows you to create max like shortcuts that are otherwise impossible to create in maya. such as being able to map keyboard shortcuts to the various viewports and many other things that are just not there in maya its strange that they havent just made these things possible in the latest version to appeal to a wider user base but I guess they don't have to worry about competition from max anymore.
My demo ran out and Ive started getting used the standard maya marking menus etc. but its really frustrating when you go back to max and have to stop and think about how to change views or something. the only way I can manage the problem is to try and use max and maya back and forth for different parts of my job tasks. train the brain to remember both sets of controls but its tough. I'm hoping to get nex for work but they are a bit stingy and i'll be damned if I'm going to buy it for them.

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I also found this tute on youtube about custom maya hotkeys, if that helps

[Link to www.youtube.com]

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[Link to jasminekurda.carbonmade.com]

Yeh, thanks.

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[Link to www.3dprevis.com]