Maya basics

Welcome to DT-116, Introduction 3d Modeling, Texturing, and Animation using Maya.

Maya is a technical tool designed for creative people.
Many of the tools in Maya "feel" like real world construction/FX/filmmaking techniques.
Making mistakes is the only way to learn anything, so keep practicing and you will become better and faster!

Work in maya is saved in scene files, called maya binary (.mb) files.

It's up to you to manage your scene files and bring them with you to class!
By default, Maya will save scenes in documents/maya/projects/default/scenes.

Saving strategies:
Save often - at least every 15 mins.
Save a new version of your file (flower_v1.mb, flower_v2.mb, etc...) each time you make a major change.
Always store your work somewhere safe. Flash drive, drop box, etc all good options.


Getting around:


spacebar (tap) - toggle between fullscreen of current camera and modular view
spacebar (hold) - hotbox menu (allows you to access all of Maya's menus)

apple or alt key + left mouse button - orbit camera
apple or alt key + middle mouse button - move camera
apple or alt key + right mouse button OR mousewheel - zoom/track camera

Z key- undo

A key - zoom to frame the whole scene
F key - zoom to frame the currently selected object

4 key - wireframe shading
5 key - smooth shading
6 key - hardware texturing
7 key - viewport lighting on/off


Creating things, selecting and moving things:

Create>polygon primitives>have fun!

Once you have an object, click in the empty workspace to de-select it. Click on it again to re-select it.

Q key - normal "select" cursor
W key - move tool
E key - rotate tool
R key - scale tool

You can still "select objects" when you have the move/rotate/scale manipulator active, but using the Q key can make selection easier because you won't accidentally click on one of the manipulator handles and adjust it unintentionally.

When you want to select multiple objects, you can either drag a box around them in the workspace, or add them to the selection one at a time:

Shift+select - add to selection
Ctrl+ select - remove from selection


Shading and Lighting

Create>lights

I recommend using the directional, point and spot lights for now. You can really get everything you need out of these three lights to make amazing lighting.

directional lights - these create a "wave" of light rays that all travel parallel. They fill the whole scene, but only from one direction. Orientation is important when using directional lights, position is not.

point lights - sort of like a lightbulb that radiates in 360 degrees. Position is important when using point lights, orientation is not.

spot lights - they have a starting point, and travel in a cone in the direction you aim them.
Postion and orientation are both important here.

Tutorial Time

Creating an Old Farm

The Quiet Room

Cheese Plate

Creating CG Nature

72 magnificent Maya tutorials

CG Tuts Maya Tutorials

12 Principles of Animation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation

Thumbnail gallery

Check out Victor Navone's thumbnail gallery below. Victor works @ Pixar, so he knows what's up.

http://blog.navone.org/2007/11/animation-thumbnail-gallery-added.html

For Wednesday, please have your characters rigged, and at least a full page of thumbnails. The point of thumbnails is to explore actions with ROUGH sketches - NOT high quality drawings. Stick figures work great.

Stick figure theatre

Stick figures rule! Check out some of the links below to see some really great stick figure animations. Remember - stick figures take very little time to model, leaving you more time for...animation!

Link

Link2

Link3

This one is a bit long and could be "snappier", but the concept is great. Feel free to animate a cube for this project!

Link

In addition, check out Carlos Baena's animation gallery below. Carlos is an animator at Pixar, and almost all of his personal work is comprised of simple, short animations with 3d stick figures!

Carlos's Gallery

Neat animation test

Check out this super cool animation test. Simple character, simple scene, simple story = success.

Link

Mental Ray Tutorials

Link