Learn Maya - A Beginners guide to Creating Realistic Scenes

In this lesson you will be given an overview of the Maya interface. 

In this lesson you will learn the differences in the interface of the latest release of Maya.

In this lesson you will learn how to quickly change your user interface layout using workspaces.

In this lesson you will be shown how to navigate around the viewports inside Maya. 

In Maya 2016 Extension 2 the Visor window is now called the Content Browser, you can find it in the Window menu.

In this lesson you will learn the different ways of looking at your scene using shading modes.

In this lesson you will learn how to hide and show objects.

In Maya 2016 Extension 2 the Visor window is now called the Content Browser, you can find it in the Window menu.

In this lesson you will learn the different methods of selecting objects.

In this lesson you learn the different model types and the difference between them.

In this lesson you will learn the various ways of smoothing objects.

In this lesson you will learn how to make and break connections in the Node Editor.

In this lesson you will find out what Maya projects are and how to work with them.

DOWNLOAD PROJECT FILES FROM HERE

In this lesson you will learn what Image Planes are and how to manipulate them.

In this lesson you will learn how to create polygon primitives and use a cylinder to create a wheel.

In this lesson you will learn how to manipulate your objects using the transform tools in Maya.

In this lesson you will create the base of the train using a box primitive. New tool:

Insert Edge Loop tool

In this lesson you will adjust the position of the wheel using the align tool and learn how to bevel edges on the base of the train. New commands and tools:

Align Tool

Bevel command

In this lesson you will create a hub cap for the wheel using a sphere.

In this lesson you will create the rest of the wheels using parenting, duplication and mirroring. New commands:

Group command

Parent command

In this lesson you will learn to use the extrude and bridge commands to create the engine room. New commands:

Extrude command

Bridge command

In this lesson you will create the engine with a cylinder primitive. You will learn some of the options we have not seen before. New command:

Cylinder options

In this lesson you will create the engine exhaust.

In this lesson you will create the roof of the train. New command:

Fill hole command

In this lesson you will clean up the scene by deleting history and creating display layers for organising the objects. New command and editor:

Layer editor

Delete history command

In this lesson you will finish the train by creating some carriages. New command:

Duplicate special command

In this lesson you will learn the basics of animation in Maya. New commands and editors:

Set key command

graph editor

In this lesson you will learn fundamentals on curves and create a curve to use as a path for the train to animate. New tools:

CV curve tool

In this lesson you will learn how to animate the train along the path. New command:

Attach to motion path command

In this lesson you will learn how to deform the train along the path. New command:

Flow path object command

In this lesson you will learn how to create a camera and setup a shot. New object and command:

Camera

Lock channels command

In this lesson you will learn about lights and light the scene. New objects:

Spot light

Point light

Direction light

In this lesson you will learn to setup soft shadows for the light and add a Arnold skydome light for ambient lighting. New editor:

Renderview

In this lesson you will learn to setup soft shadows for the light and add Final gather in Mental ray for bounce lighting. New editor:

Renderview

In this lesson you will learn about shaders and how to apply them to the train. New shaders and editor:

Blinn shader

Lambert shader

Hypershade

In this lesson you will learn how to render out your animation and configure your render settings for Mental ray. New commands and editor:

Render settings

Batch render command

In this lesson you will learn how to render out your animation and configure your render settings for Arnold in Maya 2017/18. New commands and editor:

Render settings

Render sequence command

In this lesson you will use the Maya fcheck application to view your animation. New program:

Fcheck

In this lesson you will learn an overview of the modeling menu set, this will also cover useful tips for selecting and working with face, edges and vertices.

In this lesson you will learn how to display various components that make up a polygon object. This includes showing normals and border edges for troubleshooting.

In this lesson you will learn common issues that arise when polygon modeling and how to fix or avoid them.

In this lesson you will create the basic shape of the book using a box, insert edgeloop tool and the extrude command. You will also use a lattice deformer to further refine the shape.

DOWNLOAD PROJECT FILES HERE

In this lesson you will refine the book and duplicate it to make more books. New commands:

Transform component command

Bevel command

Duplicate special command

Average command

Nurbs to polygons commmand

In this lesson you will learn how to use the revolve command to create the glass portion of the Hour Glass. New command:

Revolve

In this lesson you will make the wooden portion of the Hour Glass. We will use the duplicate special command to speed up the process.

In this lesson you will use create the candle holder starting off with the revolove command. New commands:

Bridge command

Polygon Extrude along curve

In this lesson you will sculpt the candle and create drips on the candle holder. New commands:

Sculpt polygons

nParticle tool

nParticle to polygon command

Create polygon tool

Reverse normal command

In this lesson you will create the Quill pen using the revolve command and extrude along curve. New command:

Chamfer vertex

In this lesson you will create the feather. New command:

Loft command

In this lesson you will create the chair frame starting off from a box. New commands:

Mirror command

In this lesson you will finish off the chair by add details in the chair back rest using the Bridge command.

Bridge with curve command

In this lesson you will learn how to unwrap the UVs for the book models.

In this lesson you will learn what UV unwrapping is and the end results that you would try and achieve.

In this lesson you will learn the basic tools to create UVs for your objects.

Planar mapping command

Cut UVs command

Move and Sew command

In this lesson you will learn how to create UVs and unwrap them using the Unfold command and Opitmize UVs tool. New commands and tools:

Unfold command

Optimize UVs tool

In this lesson you will learn how to copy UVs to another object. You will adjust your UVs for the different books.

Transfer attributes command

Unfold legacy command

In this lesson you will create a camera and import our objects to create a nice composition.

New commands:

Import options

Bend deformer

Snap together tool

Introduction on how to use this section.

In this lesson you will learn to use the Arnold renderview.

In this lesson we will create a fill light using and Arnold aiSkydome light.

In this lesson we will create a Key light using an Arnold Mesh light.

In this lesson we will learn how to use an Area light to create rim lighting.

In this lesson we will learn how to add atmospheric fog to the scene.

In this lesson we will learn how to add a background image using an imageplane.

In this lesson we will use the aiStandard shader to create glass and copper materials.

In this lesson we will create chrome and wax materials.

In this lesson we will create a feather material.

In this lesson we will add specular breakup to our materials.

In this lesson we will create a wood material.

In this lesson we will create a cover material.

In this lesson you will learn how to create a specular roughness map from your diffuse texture.

In this lesson you will learn how to use the aiJitter shader in Arnold to create colour variation on the book covers.

In this lesson you will learn how to add additional gold detailing to a book cover using the mix shader.

In this lesson you will learn how to remove grain from the image.

In this lesson you will learn what linear workflow is and where you can find the color management settings to adjust it in Maya. New settings:

Color Management

In this lesson you will learn 3 point lighting and setup a point light as the key light.

In this lesson you will learn what High Dynamic Range Imagery is and how to use it. You will also create a image based light and look at how to use it. New theory and object:

Image Based Light (IBL)

HDRI

In this lesson you will learn some more attributes in the IBL node and also look at how to improve the quality of the render. New settings:

Render settings quality tab

In this lesson you will learn how to use the Mental Ray part-volume shader to create atmosphere that the lights will light up. New shader:

Parti-volume shader

Trans-mat shader

Physical light shader

Render settings

In this lesson you will setup an imageplane and adjust its position using advanced settings.

New settings:

Imageplane

In this lesson you will learn more about the Hypershade and how to use it to setup shading networks and assign shaders:

Hypershade

In this lesson you will setup the flame shader with a Lambert shader.

In this lesson you will learn the various different ways to add texture to a shader.

File texture

File texture projection

2d procedural texture

3d procedural texture

In this lesson you will create some MIA shaders for the quill pen.

In this lesson you will create the shader for the feather.

In this lesson you will learn how to create a glass shader for the hour glass.

In this lesson you will adjust the lighting in the scene to create a brighter look.

In this lesson you will learn about subsurface scattering shaders and you will create a wax shader.

Subsurface Scattering (SSS) shaders

In this lesson you will learn how to use the solid fractal 3d texture with an MIA shader to create a weathered metal shader.

Solid fractal 3d texture

In this lesson you will learn how to create a weather book shader using a Blinn shader.

In this lesson we will learn how to copy our shading network and make variations for the other books.

Duplicate shading network command

In this lesson you will learn how to create a wood shader for the desk.

In this lesson you will create the a shader for the chair which will have a wood texture that is projected.

In this lesson we will review the lighting and shading setup in the scene.

In this lesson you will setup the render settings to output the final image. 

In this lesson you will learn how to create a dirt shader using the aiCurvature texture.

In this lesson you will learn how to make a shader that automatically assigns different colours to different objects.

In this lesson you will learn how to add gold detailing to the book covers.

In this lesson we will download the model and HDRI.

In this lesson we will setup our composition and lighting.

In this lesson we will apply shaders to our car and adjust them to look like different materials.

In this lesson we will create a material for the ground.

In this lecture we will render and adjust the final image.

In this lesson you will learn what the options in the move tool do.

In this lesson you will learn the remaining options unique to the rotate and scale tools.

In this lesson you will learn many different options in the transform tools including soft selection and symmetry.

In this lesson you will learn how to snap to different types of components.

In this lesson you will learn the various operations you can perform with the Duplicate special command.

In this lesson you will learn how to use the various Non-linear deformers and also the texture deformer.

In this lesson you will learn how to control the order of deformation, paint deformer weights and control what objects get deformed.

In this lesson you will learn the fundamentals of paint fx by creating a tree. After watching you should understand what strokes, brushes and tubes are and how to control the look of your paint fx.

In this lesson you will use different brushes to create grass and ground cover.  

In this lesson you will learn how to use mental ray physical sun and sky to setup lighting in your scene. You will also learn what shading parameters need to be changed to get more realistic results.