Cheat Sheet for Maya 2011 Essential Training 6.

Organizing Maya Scenes Highlights: Outliner, Hierarchies, Hypergraph, Layers, Selection Masks

Working with the Outliner Window>Outliner or View Menu>Panel>Outliner to turn panel into Outliner in multipanel view. Lists objects by part, name, type Use Outliner Menu to hide or show lists of objects. Use Outliner to rename objects or to select objects by name: use descriptive names! Grouping objects Use Outliner to group: select object names and Edit>Group or Command+G. Remove object from group: select, MiddleClick, drag out between objects (observe single line). Place object in group: select, MiddleClick, drag over group name (observe double line). Creating hierarchies Select objects, MiddleClick and drag over primary object name to create an object set. Use Create>Locator and drag object set over locator name to generate pivot for animation. Use Select buttons in Status Line to select by hierarchy, object or component. Duplicating objects Edit>Duplicate and move. Edit>Duplicate with Transform or Shift+D remembers last duplication and transform to repeat. Edit>Duplicate Special and open dialog to create multiple copies and transforms. Duplicate Special can Copy or Instance objects. Instance references original for easy multi-editing. Select transform tool and move pivot (Home key) to help with complex Dup Special transforms. Understanding the Hypergraph Window>Hypergraph: Hierarchy and navigate like a viewport. Displays objects in set form. MiddleClick and drag objects to organize like Outliner. Frame icons in Hypergraph window helps zoom in on objects. Working with Hypergraph connections Window>Hypergraph: Connections displays object relationships history of how things are built. Hiding and showing objects Display>Hide and Show: complementary functions. Hidden object names gray out in Outliner. Can Hide by Selection, Unselected Objects, Geometry, etc., and Show with similar categories. Creating layers Use Layer Manager in Channel Box to further organize scene. Icons in Layer Manager create and move layers. Buttons at left of Layer name: Visibility (similar to Hide and Show), Template (shows object but cannot edit or render) and Render (can render object but not edit or select). RightClick on Layer name for a contextual menu for display options. Working with selection masks Restrict selection in complex scene by using icons in Status Line.

7. Creating Materials

Highlights: Renderers, Materials, Maps, Hypershade, Ramp Shader, 3D Paint

Overview of renderers Rendering Menu Set for access to specific rendering functions Render>Render Current Frome or Status Line icon opens Render View. Click dropout menu for renderer selection: Maya Software and mental ray renderers most commonly used. Window>Rendering Editors>Render Settings or Status Line icon to fine tune settings. Understand the basics of materials Render Menu>Lighting/Shading>Assign New Material (or RightClick on object for contextual menu) to apply material to selection. Shortcuts: 5 basic Maya shaders on Render Shelf: Anistropic (brushed metal or hair), Blinn (most used, lightly reflective), Lambert (matte finish), Phong (plastic) + Phong E (glassy). In Attribute Editor (Control+A) named shader node, can change the shader type, color, etc. Creating and applying maps In Attribute Editor named shader node, under Common Material Attributes, click on the Texture checkerboard icon to the right of Color attribute to access Create Render Node dialog. Isolate texture sets (2D, 3D, Env Textures, etc.) from list at left and select textures from list at right. Observe texture by hitting 6 key or Texturing in viewport icons. Use Attribute Editor to change parametric textures. Use input and output arrow icons to right of node name to navigate nested node parameters. Using bitmaps as texture In Attribute Editor shader node, click on the Texture icon to the right of Color, and select File. Back in Attribute Editor, click on Folder icon to the right of Image Name field and browse for image file. In file node, can adjust Color Balance, UV Coordinates, etc. Remember to create and use Project to maintain external reference to image file. Working with the Hypershade window Window>Rendering Editors>Hypershade contains panels for shaders, textures, and icons for created materials. Create standard materials for a scene and apply to objects: RightClick on material and select Assign Material to Selelction from contextual menu. Work Area panel graphs relationships among material nodes history of construction. Working with mental ray materials Materials with mi prefix ONLY work in mental ray renderer. dgs is a useful glass metallic_paint gives layered color cooktor gives refractive glass fast_skin gives subsurface light scattering for skin or marble car_paint gives flakes of color. Using displacement and bump mapping Assign a shader and, in Attribute Editor, scroll down to Bump Map to click on Texture icon, apply a texture or image file, and adjust depth in bump node (input and output arrow icons useful). Bump Maps do not deform surface to do this, use Displacement Material found in master node (again, input and output arrows) and apply in similar fashion to bump. Displacements add geometry, can make objects larger, can only be seen in rendering! Using the Ramp Shader Applies gradient color effects to surface for richer shading and special effects. Using Ramp Shader Transparency allows glassy effects without using raytracing. Using the 3D Paint tool Texturing>3D Paint Tool similar to Sculpt Surfaces interface. In Tool Settings, under File Textures, choose attribute to paint (usually Color), and click Assign Edit Textures to create size + file type. Use B key to change brush size and use brush parameters and paint operations to paint. When finished, must click Save Textures (must save scene first if not yet done).

8. Applying Textures

Highlights: NURBS + projection, Polygon + UVs, UV Texture Editor

Texture-mapping NURBS surfaces Maya maps a texture image, applied through a material, in a 1:1 ratio with the object. To transform application of texture, find place texture node in Attribute Editor or Hypershade, and alter Coverage, Rotate Frame, etc. With NURBS use Interactive Placement button and MiddleClick on red frame handles to transform. Projecting textures onto surfaces In NURBS, a texture image, applied through a material, defaults to full image being mapped. In assigned material Color attribute, click on Texture icon and select File texture, but RIGHT CLICK on File and select Create as Projection from the contextual menu. Browse for image and select. A Texture Mapper appears at origin and can be moved to interactively adjust projection, or Click output connection arrow in Attribute Editor, find projection node and, under Projection Attributes, click on Fit To BBox. Texture Mapper snaps to object and can be adjusted from there. Texture-mapping polygonal surfaces Polygonal textures function differently can apply texture to an individual polygon, for example. Select object Face, RightClick and apply a unique color to that individual face. Applying UV mapping Polygons different again Polygon Menu Set>Create UVs>Planar Mapping to create interactive Texture Mapper. In Attribute Editor, look for PlanarProj node for precise placement. Under Create UVs, find Cylindrical Mapping, etc. for various specific Texture Mappers. Creating a texture map with a Ramp texture use Ramp to create and apply with Mapping. Using the UVW Editor (ALERT: TUTORIAL CONTAINS ERRORS) Actually called UV Texture Editor! Apply texture and map, go to Edit UVs>UV Texture Editor (tutorial shows you Window>UV Texture Editor there are two places to find it but finding under Edit UVs is better because this menu group has additional UV editing tools for use in the Editor). With Editor open, RightClick on object and select UV to manipulate vertices in Editor. Can very precisely place vertices on a pixel-by-pixel level. In Editor, can use tools like lattice, shells, etc. to move UV coordinates on polygon surface. (NOT IN TUTORIAL) Under Edit UVs>, can use tools like Move and Sew, Relax, etc. to further refine UV mapping.