With the market squeezing editors more and more to become generalists, 3D animation skills are becoming highly valued. But learning Autodesk’s Maya—the industry standard 3D package—has been notoriously difficult. Until now. Hot off the moviola.com presses, our Maya Survival Guide will get you up to speed on the fundamentals of 3D animation using Maya in a little over 30 minutes (OK, well 38 minutes, but we’re rounding to the nearest 30).

What can you really learn in 30 minutes? Quite a lot actually. We’ve proven time and again with our Survival Guides that it’s the perfect amount of time to get acquainted with the essentials in a software package. Maya is no exception. You’ll learn how to get around the interface, add objects, place cameras and lights, adjust the material properties of your objects, animate and render.

Will you be animating the next Toy Story by the end of it? Doubtful. But will you know enough to create title animations and work with existing 3D models downloaded from the web? Absolutely.

Best of all—like everything available on moviola.com—it’s absolutely free. So take a chance on your next lunch break, and see if you can add mad 3D skills to your resume.

(Don’t have a license for Maya? Download a student version from https://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/maya )