• Maya Tutorials
  • Quick Introduction
  • Polygon Modelling
  • Texturing
  • Character Setup
• Integration into a CVE
• Loading into DIVE

Quick Introduction

The User Interface

When you start Maya [1] you will see a window like this:

On top there is a menu, a toolbar and the Shelf. On the right you see the Tool Box with the main manipulation tools and predefined panel settings. In the centre of the window are/is the scene window(s), called Panel(s). If you move your mouse over a panel and hit the spacebar shortly, you increase that panel to a big window and vice versa.

(By the way, if you hold the spacebar pressed, you see a menu-like toolbox, which is called the HotBox. From here you can access all tools and options of Maya very fast. So, if you like, you could hide all user interface elements via Display->UI Elements and work only with the HotBox, saving much space for the scene window.)

On the right side, you find the Channel Box. It will show you the main parameters and options of your models, like position and rotation, and allows direct and precise manipulations, rather than using the mouse.

Preferences

At first you should go to Window->Settings/Preferences->Preferences and set in category Undo the Queue to Infinite ;-). From now on, you can undo each modification you made on your model if you are not happy with it. (To undo press z, to redo press Z (shift-z).)

Fundamentals

Go with your mouse to the perspective panel persp and bring it up as main scene window by hitting the spacebar.

• Try to drag the mouse in that panel with the left mouse button (LMB) while holding down the Alt key. The mouse cursor changes and you tumble the view.
• If you drag with the middle mouse button (MMB) and hold the Alt key you track the view in the panel.
• Using both, LMB and MMB, together with the Alt key you dolly the view.

Now let's create your first model.

Go to Create->Polygon Primitives->Cube. (If you click on the icon you can set some basic options for the geometry.) All new objects are placed in the origin and automatically selected. Press f to zoom the view to the new cube. You can press 5 to switch to Shading Mode and press 4 to switch back to Wireframe Mode.
If you select now the Move Tool in the Tool Box (or press w), you see the Move Manipulators in form of three arrows, one for each axis. Drag one arrow with your mouse and move it around. You see that the object moves only along the axis, corresponding to the selected arrow. If you want to move it in 3D space, drag the little yellow box in the centre of the manipulator. But this way it's often quite difficult to position an object to a certain place. Always tumble around your model to see how it is positioned in 3D space.
Select the Rotate Tool in the Tool Box (or press e). Now you see three circles as manipulators. Try them seperately to see how you can rotate your object around a certain axis. If you use the yellow manipulator, you rotate around the orthogonal axis from the current view point.
To scale an object you select the Scale Tool (or press r). Here you use the three little boxes to scale along an axis or the yellow one in the centre to scale in all directions at once.	<

Values for position, rotation angles and scale factors can also be entered directly in the Channel Box on the right side. You can also change the name for the current selected object, which is sometimes quite useful to keep the overview.

Another interesting feature of the Channel Box is the Inputs section. If you crated a cube as described above, you see an entry PolyCube1 (or similar). Click on it. Now you have access to all parameters, which have been used to create this cube, and you can change the dimensions and subdivisions after creation.

Important for rotate and scale manipulations is the so-called pivot of an object. The pivot is the reference point for these transformations. Usually, it is in the centre of an object. However, sometimes you want to rotate around another point and not around the centre, so you need to move your pivot. You do this by selecting the preferred Manipulation Tool (e.g. Rotate) and pressing the Insert key. Now, the manipulator has changed to a cross with a small circle. Move the pivot out of the object and press Insert again. If you rotate the object now, you rotate it around a point outside the object. (This is used, for example, to rotate an arm around the shoulder.) To move the pivot back to the centre, go to Modify->Center Pivot.

Try to add some other polygon primitives via Create->Polygon Primitives and play around with their transformations.

Colour

Open the HyperShade via Window->Rendering Editors->HyperShade or by pressing in the lower left corner in the Tool Box. A new window appears. Click on the icon in the upper right corner to get more space for the working area. On the left, you see a list of spheres[2], representing the default shaders. (Their main difference is the way how they reflect light.) Click on one of them, e.g. Blinn. A shader node appears in the work area. Do a double click on that node or press Ctrl+a to open the Attribute Editor. Here you can change all attributes for the selected material. Click on the grey area next to color. Choose a colour an close the window.

Now you changed the colour of your new shader node. The next step is to link this shader to one of your objects. You do this by dragging the shader node with the middle mouse button onto the object in the scene window. Press 5 to switch to Shading Mode to see the result, if you are in Wireframe Mode.

If you want to assign a colour to more than just one object, select them all [3] in the scene window, use the right mouse button when you click on the colour node in HyperShade and choose Assign Material to Selection. This way, you can assign a colour to every selected item.

Create more shaders with different colours and assign them to your objects.

Export to VRML

To allow loading your models into other systems, you need to export them into a standardised format that the target system understands. The VRML standard is a wide spread description language for virtual reality models and behaviour. You will use this format to import your model into a CVE.

To be able to export your model in VRML format from Maya, you need to load the VRMLExport plug-in via Window->Settings/Preferences->Plug-in Manager. Select both check boxes for vrml2Export.mll at the end of the list and close the window.

Hint: Before exporting, you should consider where to place the origin of your model. If you export your model from Maya, it uses the scene origin (0,0,0) as the origin for your model. This might have some consequences when using your model in other systems. Usually, models are placed, based on their origin, into the target world when they are imported.� If your model, for instance,� is located 2 meters left from the Maya scene origin, it will be placed 2 meters left of the import-position in the CVE. Another important fact is, that the origin of a model is often used as reference point for transformations (like the pivot in Maya). So, when you rotate your imported model in a CVE, it is rotated around its origin. If the origin is not in a defined position in the model, it might lead to unexpected behaviour. Therefore, you should think about a suitable position for the origin. For most cases you want to move your model back into the origin of Maya, before you export it.

Export your model to VRML via File->Export All and use Netscape with Cosmo Player to test it.

Important Short Cuts

© 2001 Robin Wolff - All rights reserved.