Maya from Autodesk is a high-end 3D modeling and rendering tool. Many commercial productions of computer animation, such as Ice Age and Monsters/Aliens, use this tool. And, many professional artists spend thousands of hours immersed in this tool.
I heard that Buzz King, a colleague at CU Boulder, was teaching a class on Computer Animation using Maya as the primary learning vehicle. I thought that this is a class would be good for me to understand Maya and the latest techniques in 3D modeling.
It has been a maturing experience. Let me share with you the maturing stages experienced and my reflections about Business Intelligence tools.
1) Complexity Kills Usability
My first impression is "you got to be kidding me!" No product could be this complex and still be commercially viable. The user interface has so many icons to click and so many levels to those icons. Most normal humans would take a look at this tool and immediately throw up. However, Buzz is a friend so I did attend the second class.
2) Rich UI Requires Patience
I eventually came to terms with the UI complexity, but only when I could achieve amazing results in 3 or so clicks. So, I thought... Maybe this complexity does have value and just requires a bit of patience. I quickly realized that learning Maya requires huge amounts of patience...with the tool, with yourself, and with your sore butt.
3) Clicking Hinders Learning
I learned next that your patience must be mixed with curiosity, or Maya degenerates into boredom and frustration. Behind all this complexity is an amazing tool! My instinct was then to click on all the icons. I thought, "There must be some interesting reason for this oddly shaped icon." I soon realized that undo does not undo everything and that actions are constrained by mysterious pre-conditions. Either way, the results were weird, or nothing happens, which is even more frustrating. I concluded that you really need to know what the icons mean. Think first; then click. The ready-shoot-aim approach does not work!
4) Concepts are Mind Bending
I next dug into the basic concepts embedded in Maya. Drawing pretty images is a small part. Understanding the rendering process and extending that to animation as a creative production is mind bending. My advice is... "Free mind, twist 67.3 degrees, secure mind". Preconceptions are my worst enemy.
5) Model Behavior, not Appearance
3D is not 2D plus an extra dimension! Solids in 3D digital modeling just do not sit there to be admired as a static object, like a scripture in a museum. Humans can not perceive 3D unless there is behavior... realistic changes in position, shape, texture, background, lighting, camera, and so on. Modeling behavior is many times more difficult than painting images. In other words, I need to leave my fond memories of PhotoShop far behind.
6) Need to be Artistic
I next experienced a humbling realization. You actually have to have some artistic skills, in additional to a huge amount of technical skills! Using Maya properly is more than learning the proper sequence of clicks. Maya eventually confronts you and asks, "Are you worthy to use me?" If not, Maya will allow me to rapidly create trash.
7) Modeling Reality is Impossible
My last maturing experience, so far, is the awareness that reality is impossible to model in a virtual space. Regardless of the power of your modeling tool, there will always be some mismatch between your virtual creation and the reality of that creation.
So, you can cheat! Do not model reality but model some fantasy where you can play God. Or, model reality only in a canned production, like a movie, where the audience cannot look behind the curtains or poke the players.
It is a struggle deciding how much realism is sufficient. The art is in the tricks to fudge smartly. As we move into virtual worlds as the dominant media (where we can look behind curtains and poke other avatars), dealing with this issue of sufficient realism will be critical.
Reflections
My maturing is not done. I have a feeling that Maya can inflict more maturing upon me. And, I believe that my experience with Maya is similar to learning to use properly any complex tool. In my area of Business Intelligence, there are lots of complex tools from vendors like SAP BusinessObjects, IBM Cognos and so on.
There is an industry consensus that pervasive BI is the goal. In other words, everyone in the enterprise should have the skills of using BI tools to improve their job function. In pursue of this goal, we have focused on dumbing-down BI tools to the lowest-common-denominator of capabilities and reserving more powerful capabilities for a few elite power users.
There must be a smarter approach that assists professionals to move gracefully through the maturing stages, as suggested above. If we expect most professionals to use a tool for years to perform their jobs, then it is inhumane for tool vendors to offer either simple tools having limited capabilities or complex tools having great frustration.
The issue of simple versus complex is not relevant. Assisting users to learn the underlying concepts applicable at each stage of maturing is the imperative. Think of it as an Adventure game in which new levels of difficulty are progressively revealed. This is new perspective for designing the help facilities for a professional tool.
Posted October 1, 2009 12:07 PM
Permalink | No Comments |