A Guide to Autodesk Maya 2015 Written by Mitchell Youngerman
Table of Contents Layout of Toolbars...pg 1 Creating Objects...pg 2 Selecting & Deselecting Objects...pg 3 Changing Perspective... pg 4 Transforming Objects...pg 4 Selecting Parts of Objects...pg 5 House Project...pg 6 Constructing the Roof...pg 7 Constructing the Doorway...pg 8-9 Constructing the Window...pg 10-12
Layout of Toolbars 1. Quick Select - This bar consists of many drop-down tabs, and is how you will access most of the tools used to modify objects. 2. Hotbar 3. Selection Tools - - This allows easy access to some of the more commonly used tools, such as extrude. These are the tools used to select objects. 4. Transform Tools 5. Last Used Tool 6. Perspectives 7. Command bar 8. Channel Editor - - - - - These tools are capable of moving, rotating, or scaling objects. This box shows the last tool that was used, or the tool that is currently active. Choosing from one of these options will change the layout of the screen. This bar allows the user to manually input commands, which is helpful when looking for hard to find tools. This box displays attributes of the object, such as its location and dimensions. 1
Creating Objects You can create an object by going to: Create > Polygon Primitives, then clicking on a polygon of your choice. Your cursor will now change to indicate that you should specify the area of the base of the polygon. Do this by holding down the LMB and moving the mouse. Once you are satisfied with the size of the base, release both buttons. You will now specify the height of the polygon by holding down the LMB and moving your mouse either up or down. Once you are satisfied with the height of your shape, release the LMB. Keyboard shortcut: The G key selects the last tool that was used, use this shortcut to avoid having to manually search through your toolbar to find a tool you are using repeatedly. Your turn: Create a cube polygon that is taller than it is wide. Compare it to the picture below to see how you did! 2
Selecting & Deselecting Objects The selection tool is active by default. However, there are times when it needs to be manually activated, such as when you want to select a specific object that you have created. You can choose from the selection tools by navigating to box #3 shown in the Layout of Toolbars section. For the purposes of this guide, the Select tool will suffice. To select an object with the Select tool, simply click on the object. A selected object s edges will be bluegreen in color, whereas an object that is not selected will have gray edges, as shown in the picture below. The cube on the right is selected, and the cube on the left is not selected. To select multiple objects, hold the Shift key and click on each object. The last object to be selected will have blue-green edges, while all of the objects that are also selected will have white edges. If you want to deselect an object, click on any blank space within the viewport. 3
Changing Perspective Holding down ALT and the LMB allows you to rotate a full 360 degrees around your object. Holding down ALT and the mouse wheel allows you to pan around the viewport, as if you had a drawing on a piece of paper and were sliding it left, right, up, or down on a flat surface. Holding down ALT and scrolling the mouse wheel allows you to: zoom in if you scroll up, and zoom out if you scroll down. NOTE: This can also be done by holding down ALT and the RMB, then moving the mouse up to zoom in, or moving the mouse down to zoom out. Keyboard Shortcut: Pressing spacebar automatically toggles the perspective mode so that it displays the object as it appears from the top, left, right, and orthographic viewpoints. Pressing spacebar again undoes this. Transforming Objects To move, scale, or rotate objects we will use the tools shown in box #4 in the Layout of Toolbars section. Hovering over each icon in that section will reveal what tool it is, you can select a tool by clicking on it. When you select one of these tools and attempt to modify an object with it, you will see one of these 3 pictures, depending on which tool you are using. The red, green, and blue all represent specific axes of revolution. Red is the x-axis, green is the y-axis, and blue is the z-axis. By clicking the LMB and dragging on one of these color-coded arrows, arcs, or boxes, you can perform the selected transformation on that axis only. For example, this could allow you to move an object vertically without having to worry about whether it is moving horizontally or not. If you want to move, scale, or rotate an object on every axis, simply click and drag on the yellow box or yellow arc to do so. Your turn: Practice using the move, scale, and rotate tools on your cube. 4
Selecting Parts of Objects Up until now, we have been modifying whole objects. You will now learn how to edit specific vertices, edges, and faces of an object. To begin, deselect the cube you created earlier. Hover your cursor over the cube and hold down the RMB. Your screen should now look like the image below. For our purposes we will disregard the list. If you move your cursor over the edge, vertex, or face options presented within the web, you will enable that selection tool. You are now able to select any edge, face, or vertex on the object. This ability (show in the pictures below) is indicated by a red line for the edge selection tool, a red square for the face selection tool, and a large pink dot for the vertex selection tool. By holding in the Shift key while making your selection with the LMB, you can select multiple edges, faces, or vertices. Those edges, faces, or vertices will turn orange to indicate that they are selected. Your turn: Use each of the three tools (edge, face, and vertice) to practice modifying your cube. 5
House Project You will now test all of the skills you have learned so far by attempting to design a house similar to the one shown below. This project will be divided into 3 parts: 1. Constructing the roof 2. Constructing the doorway 3. Constructing the window 6
Constructing the Roof Begin by creating a cube that is house-shaped. This will serve as the body of our house. Deselect your cube, then check to see if your Channel box (box #8 in the Layout of Toolbars section) is visible. If it is not, make it visible by clicking the Show/Hide Channel Box button that is located in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Now that the channel box is visible, select your cube. As soon as you select your cube, the channel box should fill with information that resembles the picture to the right. Now click on polycube1 under the INPUTS section. This should expand to show information that is similar to the screenshot on the right. Click on the Subdivisions Width input box, replace the 1 with a 2, and hit the Enter key. Your cube should now have an edge running all the way along its center. Using the specific selection skills you learned earlier, select the edge that lies in the middle of your cube s top. Once the edge is selected, use the move tool to pull it upwards until you are satisfied with the shape of your roof. Compare it to the roof pictured here to see how you did. 7
Constructing the Doorway Next up is the door of our house. With your house selected, go to Mesh Tools > Insert Edge Loop. Once you have the Insert Edge Tool selected, you will be prompted to click-drag on edges. Click on one of the four edges of your cube, making sure to keep your LMB depressed. A dashed green line appear, which you will drag down until it is near the bottom of your house, as in the picture to the right. You can now release the LMB, which will cause the dashed green line to become solid. If you look closely, you will see that our new edge isn t completely flat. Fix this by selecting the Scale Tool and repeatedly pulling the yellow cube up, making sure to not pull it higher than the sky blue cube. Your edge should gradually flatten out until it is a straight line. Insert a new edge loop near the middle of your cube and use the same process to flatten it out. Your house should now look like the house shown here. 8
You should now move the entire house object so that it is aligned with the grid. Although this tutorial does not use precise measurements for the house, the grid system allows you to estimate where you should place edges to make the door symmetrical. Insert an edge loop at the location shown in the picture, then insert a second edge loop at the same position on the other side of the centerline. You ve now outlined the doorway! Now we will extrude the doorway to match the house we are attempting to construct. Make sure that nothing is currently selected. Using the Face selection tool, select the two faces shown. Go to Edit Mesh and under the Face category (because we have faces selected) choose the Extrude option. You will now see the axis arrows appear in your face selection. Use the LMB to click the blue arrow, then drag it towards the house. The faces you have selected will begin to recede into the house. Once you are satisfied with the depth of your doorway, let go of the LMB. Congratulations, your house now has a door! 9
Constructing the Window Make sure that your object is selected (outlined in blue), but that nothing specific (such as faces, edges, or vertices) are selected. Go down to the Command Bar (box #7 in the Layout of Toolbars section) and type in Split- PolygonTool, then hit the Enter key. The Split Polygon tool is now active, and will prompt you to Click-drag an edge. This means that it wants you to click on an edge, then drag your cursor along that edge until you reach the spot where you want to drop a point. You want to drop your first point at the upper right hand corner of your house, then drop the second point at the upper left hand corner of your house. Look at the picture below to see if your line is drawn correctly. Note: The Command Bar is an easy way to locate hard to find tools. Press the Enter key to finalize your line, then press the G key to use the Split Polygon tool again. Draw your new points so that their positions match the ones in the picture below. 10
Press the Enter key. As you can see, the line isn t straight. Correct this by switching to Vertex select and selecting the middle vertex in your line, like so. Now choose the Move tool and hold down the V key. The V key is a shortcut for the tool that snaps to a point, which allows us to make our line flat. Note: You can tell if the snap to point tool is enabled by looking at the shape in between your three arrows. If the shape is a square, then the tool is not enabled. If the shape is a circle (which it should be if you are holding down V ) then the tool is enabled and your current selection will snap to the nearest point. Flatten out your line by grabbing the green arrow with your cursor, then shift your mouse towards the left point of your line. Don t be concerned if your selection contorts wildly when you first start moving the mouse, this is to be expected. As you draw near to the left point, your line should become straight. Now that both of your lines are straight, use the face select tool to select the two faces we will use for the window. 11
Go to Edit Mesh, and under the Face subsection choose Extrude. Before touching the extrude arrows at all, hit the R key. This is a shortcut for the scale tool, and will allow us to change the shape of our current selection. Click on the yellow cube that is in the center of the three directional arrows and pull it left. This should shrink the face of your selection so that it appear something like this. You can then drag the red cube to form your window into a square shape. Once you are satisfied with the shape of your window, go to Edit Mesh, and once again choose Extrude under the Face subsection. Push the blue arrow towards the house, and your selection will recede into it. The window is now complete. Deselect your window and marvel at your masterpiece. Congratulations on creating your first house! 12