Dariush Derakhshani is an award-winning animator currently working on national TV commercials and music videos and teaching Maya and animation classes in Los Angeles. He holds a Masters degree in Animation from USC Film School and his work has won the Bronze Plaque from the Columbus Film Festival as well as accolades from the London International Advertising Festival and the AICP. Dariush is the author of several books on computer animation, including the popular Introducing Maya 6: 3D for Beginners and Maya: Secretsof the Pros, 2nd edition.
Dariush's favorite books:
UNIX for Dummies by John R. Levine, Margaret Levine Young -- A key book if you are new to Unix, I like the Dummy series in some cases because it doesn’t take itself too seriously and is easy access to teach you how to get around UNIX. When I first went to school on SGI machines back in the Stone Age, this book was a lifesaver.
Learning Maya 6 Dynamics by Alias -- They wrote the software, so they would know how to get around it. I enjoy going through this edition on Dynamics since there is so much to Maya’s toolset here.
CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference by Terrence Masson -- If you’re in the digital entertainment industry, this is a must read. Fantastic coverage of almost all the terms you’ll run into over your career.
Digital Lighting and Rendering by Jeremy Birn -- You don’t need an application-specific book to learn how to light. Matter of fact, Birn’s book lays out many essential topics for lighting that are crucial to understand in CG lighting.
The Art of 3-D Computer Animation and Effects by Isaac Victor Kerlow -- Great overview of what and who and so forth for the then-burgeoning CG industry and hobby.
Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age by Michael A. Hiltzik -- A very interesting account of the famous PARC operation, gives you good insight and perspective on how this stuff came together to form the backbone of everything computing in today’s life.
Digital Effects Animation Using Maya by Kian Bee Ng -- This was one of the very first available third-party books on Maya, and I was thrilled to get it and read through it and learn me a few things.
Mastering Maya Complete 2 (Out of Print) by Perry Harovas, Peter Lee, John L. Kundert-Gibbs -- I recommended this book to all of my Maya students at the time. This was the best and most comprehensive book on Maya at the time, hands down.
