Each
lesson is designed to increase your productivity with proven time-saving tips
and with fun, intuitive, and hands-on projects. Popular topics covered in
"Introduction to Maya - 2nd Edition" include: a thorough understanding and
overview of the Maya interface, working with different surface types, modeling
with Polygon Meshes, sculpting NURBS surfaces, assigning materials and textures,
parenting objects, using Skeletons, effectively working with UVs, applying
rendering techniques, adjusting pivot points, utilizing the hypershade, Texture
Projections, mastering history, creating particle simulations, creating an
environment, and several additional lessons designed to give you a firm
understanding of Alias Maya and enhance your technical skills.
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Training Overview and Setting Up the Maya Project
We will look at the final project that you will be able to produce by
the end of this training kit, as well as explain the training workflow. |
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Working with the Camera and Navigation
This very important lesson will show you how to move and orbit around
your object. We will learn several tools and shortcuts like rotating,
panning, and dollying. |
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Using
Various Views and Panels
In this lesson we will talk about orthographic, front and side views,
panels, as well as learn about various layouts. |
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User
Interface Elements
Maya's User Interface is extremely consistent, and this lesson will talk
about the various UI elements and how you can turn them on and off. |
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Viewing / Shading Geometry
There are different ways to view the objects in your scene: wireframe,
shaded, textured, and lit. You will learn what's efficient and what's
more resource consuming. |
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QWERTY
Shortcuts
In this lesson we will talk about manipulating your objects using the
QWERTY keys. |
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Channel Box / Display Layer Editor
This lesson will show you how to make quick edits in the Channel Box
without actually using your tools. We will also learn about the Display
Layer Editor. |
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Modifying Tool Settings
Depending on what tool is active, this editor will show you the options
related to that particular tool. It is important to reset your tools to
get predictable results. |
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Using
the Attribute Editor
Everything in Maya is a Node, and a Node is nothing more than a piece of
information with various attributes. This lesson will familiarize you
with the Attribute Editor. |
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Using
the Outliner / Hypergraph
Both of the Outliner and the Hypergraph panels are very important for
organizing your scene and selecting your objects. |
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Grouping vs. Parenting
In this lesson you will learn the difference between Grouping and
Parenting. |
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Using
Maya’s Hotbox
Hotbox is an incredibly efficient gesture-based menu system in Maya, and
this lesson will explain how to use it. |
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Selection Masks
This lesson will show you how to use selection masks, which are very
useful when working in large complicated scenes. |
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Modifying / Creating a Shelf
In this lesson you will learn how to build your own shelf in Maya and
explore all of the possibilities available to you inside of the shelf. |
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MEL
Scripting
MEL stands for Maya Embedded Language, and Maya is built of lots and
lots of MEL scripts, which are the building blocks of this program. This
lesson will explain. |
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Building Custom Marking Menus
You have seen lots of marking menus inside the Hotbox, and in this
lesson you will learn how to create your own. We will also use MEL to
customize these menus. |
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Understanding Different Surface Types
In this lesson we will talk about surface types. We will discuss NURBS,
Polygons and Subdivision Surfaces. |
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Surface Components
In this lesson we will talk about surface components of the surface
types. We'll show you how to access these components and explain what
they are. |
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Setting Up the Image Planes
Image planes aid in the process of modeling by providing us with image
references of the object we are building. We’ll cover the steps needed
to load images that will act as blueprints of our Jet Bike. |
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Building the Main Engine
This is a fundamental lesson on how to draw curves, edit curves and
rebuild curves. The Revolve tool will then be used to convert the curve
into an actual surface. |
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Using
‘Duplicate’ to Build the Fan Blades
Since we need a large number of fan blades, we will build one and then
use the automated duplicate features to create as many as we need,
evenly spaced apart. |
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Working With Lattices
Using deformers is a standard practice in modeling. It follows the old
saying of "use whatever it takes to get the job done". We'll learn about
lattice structures and how to use them when modeling. |
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Shaping Surfaces Using Components
This lesson will cover how to build a large number of tubes connecting
the engine to the exhaust section. We will modify the object using the
control vertices. |
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Display Layers and Sculpting
Organizing your scene with Display Layers is the fastest way
to move from beginner to novice. This lesson will also cover the
sculpting process of building the Jet Bike engine cover. |
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Modeling Using Edge Extrude
The Edge Extrude function will be used to shape the surface of the
engine cover. We will use it to actually build the entire surface of the
cover. |
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Merging Vertices, Extruding Faces and Converting to Sub-D’s
When punching holes in surfaces, it is important to first merge parts
together, so no holes are left behind. We will also turn a surface into
a sub-divisional surface. |
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Creasing Sub-D Surfaces
Since sub-d surfaces can be creased, it makes sub-d’s a great modeling
surface type for mechanical surfaces. This lesson will start to focus on
adding creases and building bevels. |
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Extruding Along a Curve
This lesson will cover the process of building the engine bracket by
extruding faces along the profile curves. This is a fast way to create
many different shapes and surfaces without too much effort. |
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Adding
Localized Detail on Sub-D Surface
We will now talk about refining localized areas on the bracket and
creating the bolt holes on it. The process is similar on hard surfaces
and organic surfaces. |
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Shaping the Gas Tank With NURBS
We will sculpt the surface of the tank using a NURBS sphere. We will
then talk about how to increase the number of isoparms on the surface of
the sphere with the Insert Isoparm function. |
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Sculpting the Fender With Surface Sculpt Tool
Using the Sculpt Surfaces tool is a great way to use your drawing tablet
to sculpt a 3d surface, and the results can be stunning! |
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Building the Seats Using Primitives and Deformers
We will use lattice deformers for sculpting our surfaces to create
seats. This deformer is a standard tool that all artist should be aware
of when creating surfaces. |
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Creating Handle Bars With Curves
The handle bars will be created with a circle and profile path. Once the
surface is created, we will get into detaching surfaces and inserting
isoparms. |
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Lofting and Revolving
To create the exhaust pipes on the sides of the engine, we’ll use both
the Revolve tool and Lofting. More of the advanced attributes of the
Revolve tool will be discussed. |
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Merging Sub-D Surfaces / Intersecting Surfaces
Since we are using sub-d’s, we will use the Mirror and Attach functions
to join two sub-d surfaces together and create one surface. |
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Hypershade Overview
The main editor for shaders and materials is the Hypershade window. This
is a powerful editor that visually represents the materials, shaders and
all nodes in your scene. |
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Applying Shaders / Render View
There are many ways to add materials and shaders to your surfaces. This
lesson will teach you the basics of how to add these nodes to your
surfaces and how to render the scene as an image. |
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Creating Shader Networks
The process of creating a material and shader that is applied to a
surface is called Building a Shader Network. This network of nodes is
visually represented in the Hypershade. |
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Shading the Jet Bike
In this lesson we will create the base materials for all of the parts of
the Jet Bike. We will also cover some of the basic parameters of the
nodes used on the bike. |
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Using
the Ramp Node
Ramp nodes are the most powerful nodes in Maya. They can create a small
graph that can be plugged into many attributes. We’ll create and connect
a ramp node into the shading network. |
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Using
the PSD Node / Tweaking Textures in Photoshop
PSD (Photoshop) nodes can save you a great deal of time when you use
file textures. This lesson will cover how to set up the layer structure
and edit it in Photoshop. |
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Working With UV’s
All polygon surfaces have UV’s associated with each vertex, which
control the placement of the texture on the surface. We’ll cover how to
create UV layouts and open them in Photoshop for editing. |
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Creating a Car Paint Shader
Using the Layered Shader node, we will create a shader network that
allows us to overlay the logo on the bike, and also allows us to
globally change the color of the bike. |
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Overview of Maya’s Lights
This lesson will explore various light types and how they interact with
surfaces. This lesson will also explore the process of using lights to
create effects that would not be possible in the real world. |
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Overview of Maya’s Shadows
This lesson will start the discussion on different types of shadows.
Both Depth Map shadows and Ray Trace shadows have advantages and
disadvantages, which will be covered in this lesson. |
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Light
Linking in Maya
The process of controlling which items are lit gives you a great deal of
control. Using specific lights for certain objects gives you the ability
to localize effects and lighting rigs. |
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Controlling Tessellation Settings
Since all surfaces will be rendered as triangles, you have to understand
how objects are tessellated when rendered. We’ll explore different
options to achieve a smoother surface at render time. |
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Using
the Connection Editor
We will cover how to force a connection using the Connection Editor.
This is an intimidating editor when you first launch it, but is actually
very powerful. |
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Creating Displaced Geometry
Using textures to generate geometry is a very novel way of speeding up
the workflow of a scene by reducing the overall geometry. This lesson
will explain. |
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Organizing the Scene
You will learn how to organize the scene to prepare the file for
animation. This includes building master controls and secondary
animation controls. |
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Creating Clusters for the Exhaust
We will show you how to animate and control a pre-defined group of
vertices using clusters. Clusters can speed up your workflow when
animating or deforming the same set of vertices repeatedly. |
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Set
Driven Key Relationships
Set Driven Key allows you to connect one attribute to many others. Since
these attributes are not connected in any other way, very dynamic and
advanced connections can be made. |
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Using
Set Driven Keys for Secondary Animation
We will now cover how to use the Set Driven Key on our Jet Bike. We will
use the up, down, and side to side motion of the bike to drive the
engine and exhaust system. |
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Working With the Graph Editor
Set Driven Key connections can be edited using the Graph Editor. We will
explore how to adjust the slope of the relationships and how they are
visualized in the graph. |
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Cycling the Animation
Instead of creating thousands of keyframes to move the Jet Bike up and
down, we could just create a set of keyframes that cycle. This cycling
can be viewed and adjusted in the Graph Editor. |
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Creating and Binding Joints
Joint and Surface Binding tools in Maya are incredible. We will show you
how to draw joints and bind the surface to them. This surface will then
be able to deform along with the rotation of the joints. |
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Path
Animation Techniques
Attaching a surface to a path is the simplest way to control the
object’s movement in the scene. We’ll create a path, attach the Jet Bike
to it, and make adjustments to the path animation node. |
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Cameras and Camera Settings
Since our end goal is to render out a sequence of images, we will cover
how to set up a new virtual camera that will control the type of image
we capture. |
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Using
Paint Effects and Interacting Geometry
This lesson will cover how to create a small field of grass and have the
Jet Bike interact with the grass as it moves through the blades.
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Adding
Custom Attributes
Instead of animating the incandescence of the light directly, we’ll
create a new attribute and connect the two together using the Connection
Editor. |
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Tweaking the Animation
To control the speed of the object on the path, we’ll create motion
keys. These keys will give us the ability to modify the location of the
object on the path in relation to time. |
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Creating Smoke Using Particles
We will explore the process of building a particle system that will be
the smoke for the Jet Bike. This smoke trail will also have ramps to
control the size and color of the smoke as it ages. |
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Sculpting the Environment and Tweaking the Lights
We will add final touches to the ground and lights to get the basic
environment ready to be rendered. We will also build the shaders for the
ground plane. |
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Creating a Sky / Batch Render
This lesson will cover the process of building a procedural sky using
only Maya. There are many different attributes that will control the
clouds, sun and color of the sky. |
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Setting Up the Render Layers
Using render layers to control which items are rendered and how they are
rendered gives you, the artist, the most control when you are assembling
the final image. |
