Week 1 Introduction To Maya (Cylinders and Cubes)

Introduction to Maya

To open a scene:
1) File > Open Scen (Option Box)
2) Make sure Execute script nodes and Ignore Version are checked.

*In Maya, there only two types of File Extensions. They are only mb and ma. We are normally saving files as mb (Maya Binary), not ma (Ascii).
* Obj. files are object files able to be opened by Maya. You have to convert all materials to Obj. file format if you want to work with Maya for that oject.

Keyboard Shortcuts:
Keyboard 4 - WireFrame
Keyboard 5 - Hardware shading (Gray)
Keyboard 6 - Texture/Colour Shading

PC(ALT) - MAC(FLOWER SHAPE) + Left Mouse Button - TUMBLE
                + Right Mouse Button - PAN
                + Middle Mouse Button - TRACKING
                + Scroll Middle Mouse Button - ZOOM

To view a very large object:
View > Camera Attributes Editor > Near clipping Plane & Far Clip.

In 3D, there is a 3 point view. So there are not just x-axis and y-axis. There are x-axis, y-axis and z-axis found on the lower left of th screen.

Creating the most basic shapes:
Create > Polygon Primitives

To focus on a selected object:
Press the "F" KEY.
When you have created a new object, the new oject will be first selected and found at 0,0,0 at the very center of the screen.

To have the numerical values of the shapes, click at the top right hand corner LINED ICON.

Q = Selection
W = Move
E = Rotate
R = Scale
F = Focus

Ctrl + D = Duplicating the selected oject.

Space = 4 view portion toggle.