Getting Started: The interface!

NOTE: VIDEO 2 is for next week. Watch at your leisure if you have completed everything else, including the homework.

BASIC MODELING TIPS
 

Videos will be provided in this class!  To view a video walkthrough of Maya's interface, please click this link!  Note: So your videos stay protected, they are currently unlisted on youtube. This allows you to comment on them and post questions for future classes without needing to worry about public meddling.  I will keep a list of videos in a sidebar once video #2 has been uploaded!

To Create a new Project: Go to File ---> Project Window.

• Click "NEW"
• Type a name for your project folder, select the destination (Documents, Maya, Projects)
• Hit Accept!

Basic Tools (items in red are useful tools are not using yet write them down in your notes for later):

W- move

E- rotate

R- scale

G- repeat last command

q - exit tool

b- soft selection

shift + . - grow selection

alt + b - change background color

f - fit to selection/frame window
a - show all objects on screen

ctrl + a - open attribute editor/channel box

ctrl + delete - deletes an edge loop( 2014 version and up only)
command + G - Group Objects Together!

1 - standard mode

2 - subdivision mode with cage

3 - subdivision mode

4 - wireframe view

5 - shaded mode

6 - texture mode

The UV texture Editor helps an artist assign custom textures to models!  We can create a PSD network that specializes in refined mapping of different types of surfaces and materials onto a model!

Types of Modeling Tools:

Basic movement tools (move scale and rotate)

Sculpt Geometry Tool

Lattices

Advanced Selection Tools (To Vertices, To Edges)

Convert > Smooth Mesh Preview to Polygons

Subdivision Modeling: Mesh > Smooth

The Channel Box gives us NODES to adjust our models at every stage of production.

The Attribute Editor lets us adjust shaders at every given stage of production.

The Layers Tab makes it easy for us to group objects!

• To use it go to Layer -> Create Empty Layer OR Layer -> Create Layer from Selected

Rendering a scene is done within our RENDER SETTINGS for our animation!