Introduction to Maya 2014
This in-depth Introduction to Maya 2014 tutorial is designed to help you get a solid understanding of the core features found in Maya and help you to ease your transition into this very powerful program. Software required: Maya 2014.
What you'll learn
This in-depth Introduction to Maya 2014 tutorial is designed to help you get a solid understanding of the core features found in Maya and help you to ease your transition into this very powerful program. Over the course of these lessons, you'll have a chance to learn about different aspects of Maya from several of our tutors here at Digital-Tutors. Digital-Tutors is the world's largest resource for Autodesk training, and for over 10 years, we've had the honor and the privilege of teaching some of the top artists and studios all around the world. And for the next several hours, we'll be giving you the most structured, well-rounded, and easiest-to-follow Maya training to help you get up and running with Maya 2014. In the first portion of this tutorial, we'll be getting you familiar with some of the vocabulary and foundational skills that you'll need in order to begin moving around and working in Maya. From there, we'll move into exploring some of the modeling features found in Maya, and we'll begin building the aircraft that will be our central project for the remainder of this course. Then, we'll go deeper into Maya and take you through the entire process of adding textures and materials to the vehicle, basic rigging, adding animated movement and animation controls, adding dynamics, and finally we'll learn how to add lights, shadows, and output our final animated sequence. Software required: Maya 2014.
Table of contents
- Navigating the Viewport 10m
- The Maya User Interface 15m
- Creating Maya Projects 5m
- Saving Scene Files from Maya 8m
- Viewport Shading and Selection Modes 6m
- Transforming Objects in Maya 9m
- Modifying Object Components 7m
- Using the Attribute Editor 6m
- Grouping and Parenting in Maya 8m
- Using the Maya Hotbox 6m
- Working with MEL Scripts 9m
- Creating Custom Maya Shelves 6m
- Modeling Section Overview 1m
- Adding Reference Images 6m
- Box Modeling the Main Body and Wing 9m
- Shaping the Wing with Deformers 10m
- Combining and Smoothing the Geometry 13m
- Adding the Windscreen 10m
- Extruding in the Under Side 6m
- Creating the Gun Ports 8m
- Building the Inner Gun Port Structure 11m
- Modeling the Cannon 6m
- Modeling the Guns 14m
- Cutting out the Front Section 11m
- Building the Ladder Using Nurbs 12m
- Creating the Repulsor 10m
- Modeling the Engines 10m
- Adding Detail to the Wings 9m
- Using Bevelplus to Add Detail 6m
- Adding the Bottom Dome 6m
- Building the Landing Gear 7m
- Adding Tubes Underneath 7m
- Hierarchy and Model Preparation 9m
- Rigging Section Overview 1m
- Cleaning up the Scene 4m
- Creating Control Objects 16m
- Working with Groups and Selection Handles 7m
- Custom Attributes 10m
- Connecting Attributes with Maya's Connection Editor 7m
- Controlling Attributes with Driven Keys 10m
- A Look at Our Gun Rig 2m
- Automating Systems with Expressions 10m
- Creating Joint Chains 11m
- Creating IK Handles 7m
- Binding Objects in Maya 6m
- Making Our Rig Animator-friendly 5m
- Animation Section Overview 1m
- Creating and Editing Keyframes in Maya 13m
- Managing Keyframes in the Graph Editor / Cycling Animation Infinitely 11m
- Auto Key and Simple Expressions 8m
- Animating Objects Along a Path 10m
- Starting on Our Flight Sequence 18m
- Finalizing the Movements of the Ship's Body 15m
- Using Secondary Action to Finish the Animation of the Ship 12m
- Adding a Shot Camera 17m
- Wrapping up Our Work on the Flight Sequence and Creating Playblasts 0m
- Lighting and Rendering Section Overview 1m
- Working with the Maya Render View 13m
- Overview of Various Light Types 9m
- Common Attributes of Maya Lights 15m
- Changing the Render Stats of Objects in Maya 5m
- Lighting Our Aircraft Scene 13m
- Using the Attribute Spread Sheet 13m
- Increasing Render Quality and Adding Motion Blur 9m
- Rendering the Final Sequence from Maya 16m
About the authors
Justin thrives as a lead modeling author at Pluralsight. Growing up, Justin found a deep interest for the computer graphics industry after watching movies like Jurassic Park, Toy Story, and The Abyss. His ambition would lead him to work at Sony Imageworks in Los Angeles on movies like Monster House and Surf's Up. Justin has also had numerous articles, tutorials, and images published in 3D World and 3D Artist. As an author, Justin enjoys collaborating with fellow authors, especially on project... more
Delano works avidly as an animation author at Pluralsight. Starting his career at animation studios like Shilo, Delano has developed a strong passion for his talents. His animation and rigging background help him teach and create some of the most-watched training on Pluralsight. A few of his favorite projects that he has contributed to include: Character Interaction in Maya and in Softimage, Rigging the Human Face in Maya, Rigging Sea Creatures in Maya, and Rigging and Animating Transforming... more
Kyle was one of the first authors for Digital-Tutors, now a Pluralsight company. and has been a part of the team for over 10 years. Kyle began his career in computer graphics education as a college instructor and worked as a Digital-Tutors rendering tutor and curriculum manager since 2002. Kyle has contributed to many of the most popular projects and helped the Digital-Tutors team win awards throughout the company's history. Kyle has had the honor of having his art exhibited at the New York ... more