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After a hiatus, Luis Pages is back with his VFXLearning endeavor. I own his FX program and it's really really good. Now there's more FX, more Case Studies, more stuff.

Can't wait to see what he can accomplish.

Website: http://www.vfxlearning.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vfxlearning

Maya Dynamics Master Class , sounds like oxymoron or maybe brought from past by time machine .... How to write appropriate chain of expressions in order to match a push button solution in everything else, and such... Ok this one is discounted, perhaps there's good reason for that. And of course it can't go without at least one external plugin.

Anyway I'm just curios, is there anyone around, who really was able to jump into pro use of something like Maya or Houdini dynamics, just by following video tuts. Is it even possible in this case... Ok, some nice trick here and there, but, how someone is able to learn scripting through video tutorials, that's part I do not understand.

P.S. just noticed, they included project files, so it is probably usable. Still, going into Maya FX as an novice, sounds like suicidal mission, for my mind....

Well, you have to start somewhere, right?

I learned some good base when I took his course in 2013. Than I tried Houdini which is great, but I don't like Houdini.

I mean, I do, but I guess Houdini is for other types of users. So I migrated to studying 3ds Max FX which is easier because of a ton of plug-ins. But I still felt that the training in Maya gave me a good base.

But it's been a while since I did anything FX wise. Work and life happened, so, if he's back, it might be a good idea for me to start messing around again with it.

Hopefully he'll teach some interesting new use of Maya for FX or new examples. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I didn't suggested Houdini...
As far as I know, these days, what do you have in Maya in FX field, it seems to be an unbelievable mass of different systems and different ways of control. Particles are controlled by expressions in same way as it was 1998, not that much different than XSI old particles, XGen has own system of expressions and no any node at all, rest is more or less what you have on toolbar and that's it, OK there are some usable nodes for controlling the Naiad. How all that interacts one against another, do you need to script even plain re-order of operators or not, that's probably varying for each combination and Maya version.
So, in other word, yes, Max gives a way better control, even over external plugins, simply because everything is supposed to work as Max modifier, and to follow the rules given by Max.
Unless someone already spent twenty years in Maya FX, really don't see any reason why someone new have to learn all that for start (where learning can't go without 'historical' parts as only explanation). Expect if goal is to have only a bit of general knowledge, not using anything of all that in real life, let's say you want to be a boss, journalist or like.

Okay, yeah, I understood your point. Fair enough.

It's not that I won't mess with 3ds Max anymore, I just feel that this knowledge might help.


By the way, ahve you seen the new PhoenixFD 3.0 for Max? Free update for those who had v2.0. Amazing stuff, the viewport preview is way better than FumeFX or even Houdini.