Basics Lessons: Introduction|Creating a new scene

Basics Lessons: Introduction

Critical to learning any software program is some initial understanding of the basic concepts: how that

software's world works and the fundamental skills you need to work in that world. If you have never used

a three dimensional (3D) software application before, you may initially find Maya different compared to 2D

applications.

If you are wondering "where do I begin?", this chapter is the best place to start. We recommend that

you complete the lessons in this chapter so the essential concepts and skills presented become familiar to

you.

This chapter covers some of the fundamental concepts and skills for Maya in four lessons:

· Lesson 1: An overview of the Maya user interface

· Lesson 2: Creating, manipulating, and viewing objects

· Lesson 3: Viewing the Maya 3D scene

· Lesson 4: Components and attributes

Basics Lessons: Preparing for the lessons

To ensure the lessons work as described:

· Ensure Maya is installed and licensed on your computer.

If you have not installed Maya yet, refer to the Installation and Licensing manual that

accompanies your Maya software package. It outlines the requirements for installing Maya and

procedures for installation and licensing Maya on supported hardware platforms.

· If you have never started Maya on your computer before, it will start for the first time using the

default preference settings.

· If you have run Maya before, you should ensure that your Maya user preferences are reset to

their default setting. This ensures that the lessons appear and work as described.

Refer to Before you begin the lessons section in the Introduction of this book for instructions on

resetting user preferences to the default setting.

Basics Lesson 1: Introduction

Just as the driver of an automobile is familiar with the dashboard of their vehicle, it is important for you

to become familiar with the Maya "dashboard."

The Maya user interface refers to everything that the Maya user sees and operates within Maya. The

menus, icons, scene views, windows, and panels comprise the user interface.

Through the Maya user interface you access the features and operate the tools and editors that allow

you to create, animate, and render your three dimensional objects, scenes, and effects within Maya.

As you spend time learning and working with Maya, your knowledge of and familiarity with the user

interface will increase until it becomes second nature.

In this lesson you learn how to:

· Start Maya on your computer.

· Use the Maya interface so that you can begin to understand where and how to access the critical

tools to get started with Maya.

· Select the menu and icon sets within Maya.

· Learn the names of tools related to the icons in Maya.

· Create a new scene view.

This first lesson contains additional explanations of the tools and concepts compared to many of the

lessons later in this manual. We suggest you take some time to review these explanations as they lay the

foundation for understanding where things are in Maya.

Basics Lesson 2: Introduction

Using primitive objects to model 3D forms is a great place to continue learning about Maya. You can

create many types of 3D objects using Maya and then move, scale, and rotate them to create more

complex forms in your scene.

In this lesson, you begin to construct a classic temple using the primitive object creation tools in Maya.

The project is not very complex and provides you with experience in using some of the important object

manipulation and viewing tools.

As you continue to work with Maya, you'll learn how to visualize more complex forms using these basic

objects. Maya has many advanced tools and options for modeling complex forms, as you will learn in later

chapters.

In this lesson, you learn how to:

· Create 3D primitive objects.

· Select objects for manipulation and editing purposes.

· Move and rotate objects using your mouse.

· Move, rotate, and scale objects using numeric input.

· Duplicate objects.

· Change the viewing panels in Maya using a variety of methods so you can view your objects from

different points of view.

· Undo actions when you need to undo a particular task or step.

Creating a new scene

You begin your temple project by creating a new empty scene.

To create a new scene

1. Start Maya (if it is not already running).

When Maya starts, it automatically creates a new scene.

If Maya was previously running, follow steps 2 and 3.

2. From the main menu, select File > New Scene.

Maya displays the following prompt.

  

3. Click No.

Maya creates a new scene and delete everything that was in the previous scene.