Maya 4.5 Fundamentals

Now that you've learned the layout of Maya, it's time to start creating and interacting with objects in Maya. This chapter will prepare you for the next chapter, in which you'll create a complete animation from beginning to end. To get there, you'll need a few more tools under your belt:

  • Creating scene elements Learn Maya's approach to creating the different types of scene elements you'll need ”objects, lights, cameras , and so forth.

  • Selecting scene elements Maya has several methods for selecting objects, lights, and other parts of your scene file. You'll need to know them all when your scenes get complex.

  • Transforming scene elements Maya offers a number of useful enhancements to moving, rotating, and scaling your scene elements.

  • Duplicating scene elements An easy way to speed up creation is to build elements by copying existing ones.

  • Modifying pivot points Rotating and scaling occur around a pivot point (a sort of "anchor"), so by adjusting this pivot point, you can control how an object or other scene element is transformed.

  • Hierarchy Scene elements can be set to have relationships to each other so that they inherit transforms made to objects above them in the hierarchy.

  • Extra display modes Panels can display a 3D view in a number of ways to help with visualization or speed the screen display of complex scenes.

Key Terms

hierarchy Connections between scene elements in which one object dictates the transforms of all objects below it in the hierarchy.

transform The combined position, rotation, and scale of an object; the information about where an object is, how it is oriented, and how it has been sized .

scene element A term we use in this book to refer to all the things you can make in Maya: objects, lights, cameras, and other entities that exist in 3D space.

parent The higher member of a hierarchy relationship between two scene elements.

child The subordinate member of a hierarchy relationship between two scene elements. The child can move freely , but any transforms made to the parent are made to the child.

pivot point The point around which an object rotates or scales ; also where the transform manipulator appears, and the reference point for the values that appear in the Channel Box. The pivot point is where the object "lives" in 3D space.

group An organizational option to create a new scene node or handle that represents a collection of scene elements and is the parent of those scene elements.

instance When duplicating a scene element, a special kind of duplicate that can have its own unique transform but echoes all edits (except for transforms) made to the original object.

snap An option that forces your mouse cursor to "jump" to specific points. For example, grid snapping, when enabled, tugs your mouse cursor toward grid points when you are moving an object. Maya also offers rotation snaps that force rotation changes to switch in fixed angle increments .

Hotkeys to Memorize

Insert key toggle Pivot Editing mode

Ctrl+q select with lasso

Shift-select toggle object selection

p parent

Shift+P unparent

x temporary snap to grid

c temporary snap to curve

v temporary snap to point

Ctrl+d duplicate

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