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Randolf Beginning Maya Week 1 : Welcome & Tools Overview
Randolf Beginning Maya Week 1 : Welcome & Tools Overview
| Week 1 : Welcome & Tools Overview |
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| Written by Randolf Dimalanta | |
| Tuesday, 10 July 2007 | |
Welcome to Maya 8 Maya is very powerful animation and modeling program used in film, feature animation, video game, television. It is also used as a special effects tool. It has been used in feature films such as King Kong, Lord of the Rings, Advent Children and video games such as God of War II. This week, will begin by learning the basics and like any good chef in the kitchen, before she starts cooking, you need to know where your tools are and you need to know how to operate them. Week 1 This week, will be covering the fundamentals of the user interface. After today, you should know where everything is at. You may refer to this note page if you should forget (I know I will be doing so). You'll see that its pretty simple. User Interface (Please review pages 1 - 66 to view the basics of Maya's UI) Main Drop List Located in the upper left hand corner of the screen, this changes the different tool sets at the top of your screen. For example if you choose the Animation menu item, items related to animation such as joints and skinning will appear. This week, we will be using the Modeling. Custom Shelf These are a set of visual hotkeys that are located above the main screen. These are also customizeable. Remove items by MMC an item and dragging it to the garbage can. To add a hotkey, shift + control then select a menu item. To view different shelves, click the folder under the Main Drop List Menu mentioned above. Select one and you'll see that Maya comes with many that are prebuilt. Hover over the first ten of Modeling and Rendering, you may use these later. Keyboard Commands Space Bar Switches 4 panel mode to single panel. Panels Lets you choose perspective and camera views. Other Breakdowns located in the left column and and in the panels drop down menu. This lets you split the screen. Lets you split the screen. Navigating in your view. Alt + LMB Lets you rotate in a scene Alt + MMB Lets you translate in a scene Scroll Button Lets you Zoom In and Out Hotkeys 1 : Lets you view your object in low version mode 2 : Medium Version 3: High smooth version 4 : Wireframe Mode 5: Shading 6: Texture Mode 7: Lighting and Shadow Mode Manipulators Found in the left hand column W = Translate tool E = Rotate R = Scale Q = Makes the selection disappear. Z = Undo (Backwards) Shift + Z = Redo (Forwards) F = Centers and frames you object. Preferences Window > Setting Preferences Undo Create a Polysphere for the information that follows. The Channel and Layer Editors are located on the right side of your screen. Channel Selectors Shows information about your object. Select your sphere and practice rotating, translating and scaling. Look at the input values change. Type in vales from 1 - 100 and see what happens. Layer Editor Creating New Layers Helps keep your scene organized. Renaming layers. Adding objects to layers. Turning layers on and off. Template Layers Color Layers. Rename your object to stay organized. When renaming, be sure you have no spaces, instead use an underscore. Channel Input Channel Control Window > scroll down to channel input. This is where you can add number values to change subdivisions of an object. Outliner Shows all of the components of a scene. The Outliner also helps you select specific or grouped objects easily. Window > Outliner Timesliders Animation Timeline Scaling the Timeline Timeline Controls Working in a 3D environment, its not unusual for professionals to specialize in these different tasks. Some specialize in texturing Window Displays UI Elements to collapse and show the different controls. Duplicating Select an object > Control + D Grouping Control + G Use Up Arrow to select group heirarchy Let's Model Right click and select one of the menu items below to begin modeling. Practice turning and viewing your object using your keyboard and the perspective view. • Object Mode • Vertex Mode • Face Mode Cut faces tool Creating a New Project Always do this when starting Maya projects. It helps keep the elements in your project like textures. File > Create New Project > Name your project > Choose Default > Click Okay Assignment Model a Mushroom or an apple shape using a sphere or cylinder primitive. Homework Turn in this object and be prepared for an inclass test on the UI elements mentioned above.             |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 11 July 2007 ) |
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