BA3 - Maya Notes from Demos/Sessions

I have attended all the demo/workshop sessions throughout this project, and as such; have recorded the information that was given to us while working in those one and a half hour slots. This post is to show what I have learnt, as well as something I can look back on if I want to further study the Maya software. Even though I wish to go into 2D concept art, I think this information would prove very useful in the future having all the basics in one place.

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Keys and Symbols:

Hold Alt + Right Mouse: Rotate

F: Frame

A: Frame All

Alt + Left Mouse: Zoom/Dolly

F in Perspective Mode: Zoom Frame

Alt + Shift + Middle Mouse: Pan

Hold Right Mouse: Component Menu

Snapping:

Snap to Grid > Hold X while moving

Snap to Curve > Hold C while moving

Snap to Points (Vertices) > Hold V while moving

Snap while moving > Hold D + V

Layers:

V = Visible

V T = Wireframe Mode

V R = Reference mode for snapping

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Commands:

Activating a different view: Hover Cursor over seperate planes/sections

> Press space to change to that view.

Creating a project:

File > New Project Window > New

Saving a project:

Save Scene As >

File > Set Project > Open Scene

Extrude:

Edit Mesh > Extrude

Create Polygon Tool: Mesh > Create Polygon Tool

+ When the tool is active, clicking adds points.

> Can be useful for creating intial shapes or silhouette

> Can be snapped to the grid

> Can then be extruded up

> Remember to split it into quads/triangles

> Good for creating walls which can be extruded

Append Polygon Tool Edit Mesh > Append to Polygon Tool

+ Once the tool is active, you'll need to start from an open edge

> Used on an existing object to fill in holes

> Click each edge and then hit enter

Adding an object to a layer:

Layer + Right Click + Add Selected Object

Split Polygons:

Edit Mesh > Interactive Split Tool

Merge Vertices together:

Edit Mesh > Merge Vertex Tool > Hold and drag a vertex

Delete Edge/Vertices:

Control + Delete or

Edit Mesh > Edit Mesh > Delete Edge/Vertex

Freeze Transformations: Modify > Freeze Transformations + Resets the transformations back to 0, 0, 0

> Good for duplicating

Faces Remain adjacent:

Edit Mesh > Keep Faces Together

Insert Edge Loop:

Edit Mesh > Insert Edge Loop Tool

Click First face > While holding Shift, double click the next in the sequence

+ Make sure you are using quads - For loop/ring selections

Offset Edge Loop:

Select > Select Edge Ring Tool

Adding Curves:

Create > EP Curve Tool

Creating a Curved Set of Polygons:

Select Faces > Shift > Select Curve > Extrude

Ex. Cylinder > Get Rid of lower faces > Highlight plane > Hold Shift and click the curve > Extrude > Attribute Editor > polyExtrudeFace

Delete History: Edit > Delete by Type > History

Combine Objects:

Mesh > Combine

Separate Objects:

Mesh > Seperate (Can be changed after)

+ Splits all non-merged topology into separate objects

Center Pivot:

Modify > Center Pivot

Manually Set Pivot:

Hold D > Select Pivot

Delete Part of an Object (Inverting):

Mesh > First Select Other Object, then the one you want to delete > Booleans > Difference

Importing an Image Reference: Front view > View > Image Plane > Import Image...

Editing UV's: Window > UV Texture Editor

or

Split box in the corner: Right click > Persp/UV Texture Editor

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General Information:

+ N-Gon: Can be any number

+ The computer doesn't know how to seperate an N-Gon into triangles correctly

+ Lamber = Flat, Blinn = Specular

+ Shader = Code + Node Based = The future (Ex. Assassins Creed Black Flag (Shader) Water)

+ Remember the limitations of a computer

+ Don't worry about DPI

+ Emission Map: Glow

+ Whiter = Shinier

+ CPU Farms for Animation: Used in the Order 1886

+ Normal Maps make undetailed geometry detailed

+ Screenspace: Creates ambient occlusion

+ Perspective Planes are Orthographic Views

+ Shelf: Tabs , Polygon: Primitives

+ Tool Settings: Contains Falloff curve

+ Paper Net - Default Cube: Wastes Space

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Using References:

Deconstructing Shapes: Using Photoshop > Add Clear Lines on top of a reference as a guide - Think of pipes/extrusions/multiple divisions/curves/primitives

Reference Images: Use reference imahes with different orphographic views, or example; model sheets with feet that are facing forward and not down.

> Make sure the images line up

> Use rulers in Photoshop

Ex. Creating a Human

> Draw lines across the whole face

> Center of the eyes

> Eyes to Nose

> Nose to the middle of the lips

> Lips to chin

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UV Wrapping and Texturing:

+ Can take 30% of your model makeing time

+ Lay out the pieces inside the grid + You must unwrap at the end of the process

+ Creating UV's based on camera? Don't! Perspective will warp your texture! + If the surface is not completely flat, make sure the UV's are separated

+ 4096 x 4096 - Highest resolution for games

+ 28k - Highest resolution for movies

UV Theory

Problems which need to be solved: + Least Distortion

+ Optimal Texture Space

+ Number of Seams

UV Checker Texture - Colours

- Numbers

- Squares

Material Attributes > Changes all the objects in the space

Assigning Materials: Right Click an object > Assign Favourite Material > Lambert

Adding a Texture: Click Coloured checkered box > File > Folder

To See Texture: Click the little textured sphere next to the wireframe box

or Shading > Hardware Texturing

Planar Mapping: Keep Image Width/Height Ratio ticked , Z Axis

Ex. Planar Mapping > X, Y and Z > Move UV's away from center

Selecting the outer borders of the UV Plane

Right Click > UV > Click Vertices > Right Click + Control > To Shell

Scissors with Line: Separates the UV's

Face Photo:

Turns the texture on/off

Image > Display Image

Toggle Shaded UV:

2 Squares overlapping, one is blue, one is a wirefram

- This shows the polygons

UV Snapshot

UV Editor > Polygons > UV Snapshot Black Background Layer

Top Layer = Wireframe

Save = .PNG or .PSD

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Mapping:

+ Ambient Occlusion can be created using Mental Ray

Mental Ray - TURNED ON

Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug in Manager / Mayatomr.mll > Both Checked

Mental Ray

Menu - Top Bar > Rendering > Light/Shading > Batch Bake ( Mental Ray)

> Bake Shadows

> Use Bake Set Override

> Colour Mode: Occlusion

In Photoshop: Blending Mode > Multiply

#ba3 #studiowork #maya #notes