Workshop Notes 1: Introduction To Maya

Liz Charpentier,  Arch 5420 Computer Animation & Storytelling , Exercise 2, University of Virginia, 2014. 

PART I: SIMPLE OBJECT CREATION

  1. Open Maya
  2. Make a simple nurbs object
  3. Create/nurbsprimitives/sphere
  4. Drag to create size interactive/or single click for default values

VIEW CONTROLS

  1. Mouse button forward/back – zoom in/out
  2. Alt left mouse button – rotate up and over, left to right
  3. Alt-right mouse button/move left right – zoom in/out
  4. Alt-middle mouse buttom – pan left/right
  5. Ctl-alt – low left/up right box – zoom in
  6. Clt-alt – up right/low left box – zoom out

MODIFY SPHERE USING CHANNEL BOX

  1. Select sphere.
  2. Select channel box
  3. Modify scale, rotation, translation by entering values
  4. Note coordinate system z forward, x to right, y is up.
  5. Translate x-3
  6. Scale y – 1

CREATE BOX USING HOT BOX

  1. Hold space bar
  2. Select Create/nurbsprimitives/cube

CREATE CONE USING SHELF

  1. Display UIElements/Shelf (go into modeling mode)
  2. Surfaces/nurbsprimitives/select icon for cone
  3. change channel box attribute for cone to -4.

CHANGING ATTRIBUTES OF OBJECT WHILE CREATING IT

  1. Select create/nurbsprimitives/cone and the check-box in cone selection menu.
  2. Change height to 3.
  3. Click with the left mouse button in the view window to place the cone in the model.

CHANGING ATTRIBUTES OF EXISTING OJECT

  1. Select a cone primitive with arrow selection icon
  2. Select “Inputs” tab from channels box
  3. Change value (height ratio to 4 on cone.
  4. Hit enter to complete.

ATTRIBUTES OF SURFACE TORUS

  1. Radius (half-diameter)
  2. Start sweep (begin angle of sweep clockwise)
  3. End sweep (end angle of sweep clockwise)
  4. Minor sweep – unfolds torus
  5. degree linear/planar or cubic/curved – less or more smooth.
  6. sections – divisions in U (horizontal) direction
  7. spans – division in the V (vertical direction)
  8. height ratio – ratio height to depth

POLYGONS

  1. Less data needed than nurbs (will not have radical geometry)
  2. Composed of faces, edges and vertices
  3. subdivisions = smoothness
  4. six types: sphere, cube, cylinder, cone, plane and torus
  5. create/polygonprimtives/torus
  6. use menu or hotbox (spacebar) or shelf

CHANGING POLYGON PRIMITIVE ATTRIBUTES (Varies per object type, not all attributes appear on all objects)

  1. In options box during creation/channels input box after creation
  2. Subdivisions height = # times surface divided
  3. subdivisions height/width/depth = divisions height/width/depth
  4. subdivisions axis = divisions of surface along central axis
  5. cap subdivisions = divisions of cap – concentric (cone, cylinder only)
  6. radius = half diameter
  7. section radius = torus section radius
  8. width, height, depth = overall width, height, depth
  9. twist = rotates facesaround tube of torus (vertically)

TEXT {SKIPPED DURING ACTUAL WORKSHOP}

  1. curves, trim or poly = (no surface, trimmed surfaces, modifiable surface, poly is surface with more modifiable options)
  2. create/text/box pick type, font, text -> placement by origin.
  3. Try making planar surface from cuves type object  (poly not selected)

NAMING OBJECTS

  1. Select object
  2. Click on name to Change it at top of channels box (or do this during creation)
  3. or change name with attributes editor select object/control a (icon next to IPR symbol)

PIVOT POINT

  1. Pivot point is origin of object
  2. hit “insert” (“home” key on Apple_and select move to move pivot point (then try a rotation)
  3. center a pivot point; select object – modify menu/center pivot

PART II: SETTING UP A PROJECT FOLDER

  1. File/Project/Window allows you to more interactively establish the project folder.
    2a. Under images type “images’ – subfolder where animations are kept.
    2b. Under “scenes” type scenes – subfolder where all scenes are kept
    2c. Or, rather than steps 2 and 3, use “default” option.
  2. File/project/set …. Establishes name (folder) and directory location and can be used to open
    an existing project and file.
  3. save scene at end.

PART III: SIMPLE KEYFRAME ANIMATION

  1. Create sphere, go to frame 1, type “s”
  2. go to frame 48, move sphere, type “s”
  3. hit play button
  4. see in   wireframe and shader mode (hit #4 and #5 keys)
  5. select rendering panel (display uielements/shelf/rendering)/ select globals
  6. Change rendering to low quality raytrace and image type to jpg.
  7. batch render