Yes, that's Pluto in the corner.
This was my first time working with Maya, and it was an animation project to boot. Mind you, the .avi file seems to do... odd things on my laptop when using VLC to view the video:
I like the effect the washed out color and scan-lines gave it, though-- Takes me back to playing SNES games using an old Commodore 64 monitor.But I digress.
Just like with any software I'm thrust into, I found myself slightly overwhelmed with the sheer volume of menus, options, and hotkeys. As if I were a child recently dunked into the deep end of the pool by the older kids at the family reunion, far from the merrily-drinking adults, I clung to the tutorial as I would a floating shark. It was my lifeline, my friend, and my guide.
It also said at one point that, if a particular action didn't work for me, that Maya doesn't like me. So, it was a bit sarcastic, which I like.
Once I was able to get a handle on the menu system-- finding the various buttons, menu screens, and whatnot- I found myself quickly speeding up in the production process. While Saturn took me about ten minutes to put its animations together properly, each other planet from then on took significantly less time. I think this is because, while overloaded with tools and options, Maya does one thing really well: they still manage to prevent the 'excessive button presses per action' problem of some interfaces. The ease- and speed- with which a program can be used by a person can often be loosely boiled down to the number of buttons-per-action. In this instance, Maya was able to be used quickly and effectively once I was used to the tools in question.
Overall, I found it pretty fun. Tedious, since I was animating a bunch of balls spinning on their access while spinning around other, larger balls, but still enjoyable. I look forward to our next dive into Maya.
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