Maya 4.5 Fundamentals

In this chapter, you have taken your first steps into the full Maya experience. You were introduced to the vast number of techniques and tools Maya has to offer and have become acquainted with a basic project workflow. By using just one of the many animation methods path animation you were able to create an interesting scene. Along the way, you learned about the following concepts and methods:

• Introduction to modeling The foundation of your scene comes from the objects you model.

• Working with groups You learned how to group separate scene components to make it easier to work with objects in a scene and keep them organized.

• Soft body dynamics You learned how easily you can deform a simple object to get a more complex effect and create motion.

• Basic animation You learned to use path animation as a simple way to animate objects.

• Adding shaders with Hypershade You learned how to import shaders and apply them to objects in your scene to add texture.

• Rendering You have seen how to set up a scene for final rendering and use Maya's FCheck utility to view the render.

It's always a good idea to stay organized as you work name the things you create; group objects, lights, and other scene elements when it makes sense; and so forth. It'll make all the other steps easier, as you've seen in this project when you hid objects or moved groups around. As you continue with Maya 5 Fundamentals, you'll find that working in Maya becomes easier with time. It's even fun because Maya simplifies the process of translating complex visions into reality. Moving on from here, you'll investigate each step introduced in this chapter's project: modeling, adding materials, lighting, animating, and rendering.