INTRODUCTION TO MAYA

Main Navigation Similar to Unity 3D Unlike Unity it is a right handed coordinate

system Used to determines whether a positive rotation is

clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Find out what the default unity of measurement is for Maya and for unity and how do they relate?

Viewport Navigation

Hold Alt (use Option instead of Alt on Macs)Alt + LMB – tumble (“rotate”)Alt + MMB – track (“side-to-side”)Alt + RMB – dolly (“zoom”)a – frame scenef – frame selected object

Reference: http://www.spherevfx.com/downloads/MayaHotKeys.pdf

Transforms

w – move e – rotate r – scale q – drop tool ‘insert/home’ – edit pivot (or hold down

d) *g – last move

Geometry Display Setting Viewport Appearance:

1 – rough2 – medium3 – smooth4 – wireframe5 – shaded6 – shaded + textures7 – lights (not default Maya light)

Hide / Show:Ctrl + h – Hide selectionShift + h – Show selectionCtrl + Shift + h – Show last hiddenAlt + h – Hide unselected

Object SelectionF8 – toggle object/component mode

F9 – vertices

F10 – edges

F11 – faces

F12 – UVs

(for polygons, convert between selection types by using Ctrl + the function keys listed above)

Snapping: Hold c – snap to curves x – snap to grid v – snap to point

Others z – undo! Ctrl + g – group Alt + v – start/stop playback Alt + . / , - next/previous frame g – repeat last tool (not for transforms)

Basic Polygons

Create -> Polygon PrimitiveSphereCubeCylinderConePlaneTorusPyramidPipe

Editing Polygons Combine Separate Mirror Geometry Smooth Split Polygon Extrude Merge Merge Edge Sculpt Geometry UV texture editor

Modeling

Polygon ModelingEasy for modeling objectsSubdivisions are what defines how many

polygons are on an object. Nerb modeling

Tricky and cumbersomeVery useful with curbs and surfaces

Combining/Separating• Mesh -> Combine• Mesh -> Separate

Mirror Geometry/ Smooth• Mesh -> Mirror Geometry• Mesh -> Smooth

Split Polygon/Extrude• Edit Mesh -> Split Polygon Toolo Edit Mesh -> Insert Edge Loop Tool

• Edit Mesh -> Extrude

Merge• Edit Mesh -> Mergeo Edit Mesh -> Merge To Center

• Edit Mesh -> Merge Edge Tool• Edit Mesh -> Merge Vertex Tool

Model Manipulation

DuplicateEdit -> DuplicateEdit -> Duplicated Special

Modify -> Freeze Transformation Window -> Hypergraph Hierarchy

Edit -> GroupModify -> Center Pivot.

Layer -> Create Empty Layer/ Layer from Selected

Maya Textures

Window -> Rendering Editors -> Hypershade

TexturesBlinnLambert*Phong

UV Texture

Windows -> UV Texture Editor Select object

Subdiv -> UV Snapshot…Select File locationSelect image format

○ PNG○ JPG○ TIFF

Files and Textures

File PSD File

Select file

Middle mouse drag onto texture to apply file

UV Texture manipulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dj_Kj5V4s4

Persp/UV Texture EditorImage -> Shade UVsRight Click -> UVsSeparated the selected UV into one for each

connected edgeAlign selected UVs

Image Planes View -> Image Plane -> Import Image… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYYdIQ7i1Go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du8-IqA4H6g&feature=related

Modeling assignment

Model A tirehttp://

www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/maya/tire/index.html

Model A carhttp://www.3dm3.com/tutorials/maya/350z/

Animation

Path AnimationAttaching an Object to a NURB-basic curve

to animate the object along the surface. Key frame Animation

Standard animation method. Nonlinear Animation

more advanced method of animation it is completely independent of time

Key frame Animation Linier Animation

You set keys for an object's extreme positions and let the computer fill in the in-between motion.

Dynamic AnimationApply physics to the animation and the bake the simulation.Havok physics engine.

IK/FK Animation (Rigged animation) Inverse Kinematics

○ IK is how the child node, as it moves, effects all the parents' position and orientation values.

Forward Kinematics○  FK refers to the effect on the child nodes as the parent

moves or rotates.