Master Autodesk Maya - Course for Beginners

Explore the Maya viewport and the default perspective camera, learning how to tumble, track, zoom, and dolly using Alt, middle, and right mouse actions to frame your scene.

Explore the Maya user interface, including the perspective viewport with grid, the toolbox and shelves, status bar, channel box, history, layers, timeline, and scripting tools.

Master Maya's viewport navigation by learning how to rotate, track, and dolly the perspective camera using alt-clicks and the scroll wheel, plus camera tools.

Learn about Autodesk Maya orthographic cameras—front, side, and top—with fixed 90-degree views that cannot be tumbled. Access them from the toolbox, view four viewport angles, and maximize the viewport.

Master Autodesk Maya teaches you to set up a Maya project using the Project Window, creating a structured folder system for scenes, textures, and references, and switching between projects.

Learn to set up and manage Autodesk Maya projects using the Project window, creating organized folders for scenes, images, textures, and cache, and switching between projects.

Configure Maya's scene preferences to master the grid, units, and the 000 starting point. Adjust frame rate via time slider preferences to match 24, 25, 30, or 60 fps.

Master Maya grid basics and customization, from units in centimeters to grid size, subdivisions, colors, and axis visibility, so you can accurately place objects at the zero zero origin.

Explore Maya’s unit system, defaulting to centimeters, with options to switch to millimeters, meters, inches, or feet for architectural modeling, and read precise unit values on objects and the grid.

Set the scene frame rate in Maya by adjusting frames per second via the time slider, with 24 fps default and options for 25, 30, or 60 fps.

Organize objects in Maya by creating polygons, selecting and duplicating cubes, and grouping them into a table with precise scale and transform, using the outliner and viewports.

Learn to use Maya's outliner to manage hierarchy with groups and parenting, rename parts, and drag and drop components like a table and its legs.

Use display layers in Maya to organize scene objects and control their viewport visibility, by creating layers from selected objects and toggling normal, template, and reference modes.

Learn how to modify pivots and switch between world and object coordinate systems in Maya, using insert to relocate pivots, center pivots, and enable snapping for precise movement.

Learn how pivot points relate to world and object coordinate systems in Maya, and how each object's translate and rotate affect its x, y, z directions.

Master switching between object and world coordinates in Maya using the move tool, and manage parented objects to move them coherently with either local or world axes.

Move, rotate, and center the pivot in Maya; edit the pivot with the insert key, snap and reset pivots, and control object rotation and hinges.

Master Maya by editing animatable attributes with precision using the channel box and input history, adjusting translate, rotate, radius, height, and subdivisions for various shapes.

Explore how to access and modify attributes of Maya objects, using the channel box and attribute editor, and learn how object properties and animatable attributes drive transformations and shapes.

Learn to edit multiple attributes for a single or multiple objects in Maya using the channel box, switching between object and world coordinates, and reset translate, rotate, and scale.

Learn to use input nodes for precise transformation in Maya, adjusting width, height, depth, and subdivisions. Explore creation and shape nodes and interactive precision controls.

Master Maya's viewport display settings to speed up workflows by toggling wireframe, shading, textures, and lighting, and using shortcuts 4, 5, 6, and 7 for quick view modes.

Learn to control viewport lighting in Maya by using default lights, creating and turning on custom lights, and switching between all lights, selected lights, and no lights.

Learn to control Maya's viewport by switching shading modes—from wireframe to smooth shade, flat shade, and hardware shading—and use bounding boxes and x-ray view to inspect objects.

Use the heads up display to view polycount details—vertices, edges, faces, triangles, and UVs—for selected objects or the whole scene. This helps manage game-friendly polygon limits during modeling.

Create a cup model in Maya using NURBS curves, revolve the curve into a surface, extrude a tube handle, and refine with isoforms and holes for a rounded edge.

Master octopus tentacle modeling in Maya by creating curves and NURBS surfaces, extruding and scaling the profile, inserting isoforms, adjusting vertices, and tightening seams for a rounded organic look.

Learn to model a tentacle around a cup in Maya by creating and adjusting curves, extruding along surfaces, tweaking vertices, and using sculpt geometry tools for bulges and twists.

Learn to model octopus tentacles in Maya using curve and surface tools, loft, and extrude with holes. Refine details with isoforms, normals, and sculpt geometry for hard-edged realism.

Learn to model a soda can in Maya using polygon cylinders, bevels, extrudes, edge loops, and top ridges, and texture it with UV mapping and image references.

Model a soda can in maya by tracing a curve with epi curve tool, projecting it on the surface, splitting the mesh, and extruding to form the final shape.

Explore Maya's interface and workspaces, switch between Maya classic and expert layouts, and learn to navigate modeling, rigging, animation, and rendering tools with snapping to grids, curves, or points.

Navigate Maya's 3D viewport with zoom, pan, and tilt to preview and center polygons. Learn orthographic and perspective views, vertex/edge/face selection, and soft selection for symmetrical modeling.

Set the timeline start and playback range, create keyframes for translate, rotate, and scale, and use the graph editor to adjust interpolation from bezier to linear.

Add a spotlight in Maya to illuminate the locomotion cycle, adjust intensity and cone angle, and explore frame rate and playback settings (24 fps, real time) with Arnold Renderer.

Learn how to render with Arnold in Maya by adjusting lighting, applying hardware fog, creating atmospheric volumes, and exporting PNG sequences with transparent backgrounds.

Modify a narwhal model with curved pectoral fins and a refined tail for a Maya swim control, and learn to zero controls in the gliding posture for clean rigging.

Create a placer and a pivot using a nurbs circle, align pivots, parent the narwhal mesh, and zero out transforms for precise, controllable motion.

Learn to animate a narwhal swim locomotion cycle by creating an animation layer swim_cycle, adding tail, shoulder, and head controls, and keyframing a one-axis tail motion.

Offset the locomotion cycle by shifting the head leading and shoulders following, aligning keyframes with a -10 to 60 area and 0 to 50 playback for smoother results.

Export a playblast from Maya with lighting and a swim cycle designation, animate the camera, and note that the Maya ocean shader isn’t Arnold compatible for cheaper previews.

Animate a locomotion cycle by importing a PNG sequence into After Effects, creating a composition, and exporting an MP4 with optional anti-aliasing comparisons via Adobe Media Encoder.