Learning Autodesk Maya 2016

Navigate the Maya interface and master the context-sensitive menu sets and the main menu bar. Use shelves, panel layouts, and editors to access modeling, rigging, and rendering tools.

Master the hotbox in Maya to access a floating, context sensitive menu system and marking menus for translate, rotate, and scale using right clicks and tool shortcuts.

Master navigation and camera control in Maya: use spacebar to toggle views, activate viewports, orbit with alt-left, pan with alt-middle, zoom with alt-right, and frame with F or A.

Create and manage Maya projects to organize directory paths, load scene data reliably, and keep external files within the project structure, including scenes, source images, and movies.

Explore how to create and compare Maya primitive objects—NURBS, polygons, and volumes—and learn interactive creation, control vertices, and subdivision surfaces for flexible modeling.

Learn to transform objects in maya with move, rotate, and scale manipulators. Use axis constraints, channel box inputs, and center pivot adjustments to rotate and move from a chosen origin.

Explore parenting and grouping in Maya: establish parent and child hierarchies with spheres and cubes, move and rotate with the parent, break links, and use null group nodes.

Explore the hypergraph, a node-based view of your Maya scene showing transform and shape nodes and their connections. Learn to navigate, manage parent-child relationships, and switch layouts for clarity.

Explore the outliner to view and manage all objects and nodes in the scene as a text-based hierarchy, with expand, reveal selected, and two-pane parent-child editing.

Import image planes in Maya to use background or reference images for modeling, color sampling, and tracing outlines, then position, adjust transparency, and view across perspectives.

Explore how Maya curves drive hair simulations, loft surfaces from multiple curves, and project or snap objects along curves, using cv, ep, bezier, and pencil tools to create nurbs curves.

Modify curve components in Maya 2016 using the C-v curve tool, learn start and end directions, and compare linear and cubic interpolation with control vertices.

Explore polygon anatomy by creating a primitive polygon sphere and examining vertices, edges, faces, and UVs. Learn why quads deform better than triangles and how extrude reveals geometry.

Master polygon component selection in Maya using multi component mode, edge and face loops, shortest path, grow and shrink, and selection constraints to control triangles, quads, and borders.

Scale a cube into a five-by-ten-by-five building, subdivide to create quad geometry, snap pivot to base on the grid, and delete edge loops with Edit Mesh to preserve quads.

Learn to refine a Maya 2016 building model by adding offset edge loops, extruding a shelf to show floor divisions, and shaping windows and a roof with thickness.

Set up the project directory and reference material in Maya, enable symmetry on the polygon cube, use quad view, and extrude faces to shape the crow while maintaining edge flow.

Explore extruding legs from a crow model in maya, adjusting faces with symmetry, turning off keep bases together, and aligning reference images while shaping toes and feet.

Explore edge loops in Maya, insert edge loops with edge flow, and refine topology to support extruding and wing shaping.

Learn to mirror geometry in Maya 2016 by aligning the pivot to an edge, mirroring along the correct axis, and merging with the original to complete both halves.

Explore how normals govern light reflection, compare face and vertex normals, learn to reverse them, and apply soft or hard edges for organic versus hard surfaces.

Explore sculpting geometry in Maya by preparing a clean model, using sculpting tools and brush controls, and refining with smoothing, mirroring, and detail brushes to create realistic form.

Learn to use Maya's bridge tool to create detailed fence segments by duplicating posts, aligning hole patterns, and stitching edges with adjustable divisions, twists, and taper graphs.

Use Maya's bridge tool to create curved bridges between faces. Edit the curve with control vertices, add divisions, twist, taper, and adjust smoothing angle for a refined fence arch.

Delete extra edges and weld vertices to prepare for bevel. Apply a bevel with six segments, adjust fraction, and use the multicut tool to create quads and a neat cap.

apply boolean operations—union, difference, and intersection—to sculpt geometry, create holes in a cheese grater model, and update results dynamically as you modify objects, duplicates, and transforms.

Learn to use quad draw tool in Maya's modeling toolkit to rebuild or create geometry on a live surface, with dots, shift to form quads, and relax or insert edges.

Master UV mapping by projecting and organizing UVs with planar or camera-based projections, and arranging shells in the UV texture editor to prevent overlap and fit the zero-to-one texture space.

Explore uv mapping for wings and legs, including planar projection, distortion checks with uv distortion display and checkerboard tiles in viewport 2.0, refine layouts using unfold, paint, and weld.

Mirror and lay out uv shells using planar and cylindrical projections, flip and sew edges, and pack them into the 0 to 1 texture space to prevent seams and bleed.

Apply materials and textures in Maya using Hyper shade to assign anisotropic shader, adjust color and specular highlights, and export a 2k UV texture for painting in an external editor.

Paint textures in Photoshop, export UV shells, and load the image via a file node into the color channel of an anisotropic material in Maya. Fine-tune translucency for realism.

Learn how joints form a skeleton to drive geometry, explore local space, and fix joint orientation using orient joint, parenting, and radius adjustments for clear rigging.

Create a full character skeleton in Maya by placing joints for the torso, tail, legs, and wings, using symmetry, orthographic views, x-ray joints, and edge-loop alignment to ensure proper deformation.

Bind the skeleton to the geometry using a geodesic voxel skinning method, adjust dual quaternion weighting, and paint weights to balance influence of multiple joints.

Fine-tune Maya rig weights with the paint weights tool after geodesic voxel binding, adjusting the left leg, root, and body influences, using grayscale or color maps to refine vertex influence.

Mirror skin weights across both legs in Maya by setting the correct axis and direction, using closest point on surface, and cleaning center line bleed with a zero-value brush.

Explore creating IK handles and how single chain and rotate plane solvers affect leg rigs, toe controls, and wing animation, plus building a control rig for easy selection.

Learn basic rigging by adding simple control handles, including IK handles, using layers for organization, and binding joints with orient and point constraints to create a movable, master-controlled character rig.

Master Maya's node editor to build joint-driven wing controls by connecting rotate X attributes through color-coded input and output ports, expand and graph nodes, and synchronize selections for precise animation.

Learn how to set keyframes in Maya by animating a bouncing ball with translate Y and a 1–60 frame timeline. Use autokey, key selected, and real-time playback at 24 fps.

Learn to animate a crow in maya 2016 by setting up translate and rotate with autokey, keyframing lift-off and wing cycles, and copying frames to smooth motion.

Use the dope sheet to view and modify animation at a top level, selecting outliner-identified parts and adjusting keyframes and timing across a 0–60 frame range.

Explore Maya’s graph editor, visualizing animation curves for translate and rotate channels. Use pan, zoom, and time and value snap to align keyframes to whole frames.

Advance your Maya 2016 graph editor skills by adjusting wing flapping keyframes, spacing frames, and refining curves with clamped tangents for smooth takeoff.

Explore refining a Krogh animation in Maya's graph editor by adjusting translate Y, tangents, and keyframes, introducing break tangents and retiming to control takeoff timing and wing flaps.

Learn to batch render in Maya by outputting an animation as a TIFF image sequence, configure render settings and project paths, and preview the results with F check.

Explore Mental Ray in Maya 2016 to create photorealistic exterior renders with a physical sun and sky and indirect lighting. Adjust render quality, gamma, and color management to reduce grain.

Explore the Maya 2016 interface and tools to build a crow from a reference image with extrusion, edge loops, bevel, bridge, and boolean operations; texture, rig, and render cityscape.