Beginners Guide To Maya 2016

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Introduction to 3D Modelling Using Maya 2016

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Chapter 1 - Creating a new project and setting up preferences
1. Create a new project

Before you can begin modelling you must first create a new project. A project is a collection
of folders which will contain all of the assets you create.
In Windows (not in Maya), or Finder if youre a Mac user, create a new folder.
This is where your project will be created. You could name this folder 3D modelling or
Room.
In Maya, click on File Project window (this opens the project
window)
In the project window click on the New button

In the Current project box give the project a name (call it something like
Room)
Click on the folder icon to the right of the location box and select the folder
you created for your project.
Click on the Accept button. This will create a project structure in the folder you
selected. Have a look at the folder in Windows to make sure your project has been
created properly.
2. Create a new scene

All of the 3D modelling information is saved into a file known as a scene.
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Click on File New scene
3. Save the scene you have created

If you dont save your work regularly you WILL eventually lose everything.
Click on File > Save scene as...
Give your scene a name (Room)
Click on save (you should notice that your scene is automatically being saved
into the scenes folder of your project.
4. Change the menu set to Modeling

There are different sets of menus in Maya which relate to the different types of tasks you
might be working on. Changing the menu set will change the options at the top of the screen
after File, Edit, Create, Modify, Display and Windows to more specific options. If this is the
first time you have opened Maya you will need to change the menu set from Animation to
Modeling.
Click on the drop down menu in the top left hand side of the Maya interface.
Select the Modeling option - you should now see a number of menus at the
top of Maya have changed to be specific to modeling.
5. Select the Polygons shelf

Maya also has a number of shelves which contain shortcuts to tools that you are likely to
use often.
Click on the tab named polygons to select the polygon shelf. Youll see that
the icons now change to tools related to polygon modeling.
6. Enable autosave
I cant even tell you how important these two features are. Changing these two settings can
save you hours of recreating lost work. It may also save you from having a nervous
breakdown.
Click on Windows Settings/Preferences Preferences
In the preferences window select the Files/Projects section

Under Autosave select Enable.

You can also choose the autosave interval (how many minutes between
saves). Im happy leaving this at 10 minutes. This means if Maya does decide to
crash (and it will decide to crash) then Ill only have to redo the last 10 minutes of
work.
7. Enable infinite undos

By default you can only undo your last 50 actions in Maya. This might seen like a lot but the
nature of 3D modelling means that you might be 75 actions down the line before you realise
that you have made an error that you would like to correct. For this reason its just safer to
have unlimited undos available.
With the preferences window still open you will now select the Undo section.
Change the Queue setting from Finite to Infinite - you now have infinite
undos.
Click Save to close the preferences window.
8. Turn on incremental saving

You can tell Maya to give your scene file a new name (and therefore create a new file) each
time you save it. This means you cant save over any previous files which will allow you to go
back if something goes wrong (which it probably definitely will at some point).
Click on File then click the little box to the right of Save Scene
(this opens the Save Scene Options)
Make sure Incremental save is selected.

Click on Save Scene. You have now enabled incremental saving.
Chapter 2 - Modelling a room using polygons

There are a number of different ways to accomplish the same tasks in Maya. In this chapter
Ill try to show you some of these different ways so that you can choose your own favourite
method of working. To introduce you to the Maya interface and tools, as well as the discipline
of 3D modeling in general well create a sci-fi influenced storage room.
1. Create a new polygon cube.

This shape will represent the inner walls of the room.
Select Create Polygon Primitives and click on the little box to
the right of Cube (this will open the tool settings for the cube)
In the tool settings deselect Normalize (this important for texturing later). You
only need to do this once. Maya will save this choice into your preferences.
Close the tool settings

Select Create Polygon Primitives Cube - This will create a
standard cube in the centre of the grid.
You should notice in the channel box (on the right hand side of the screen - if
this isnt open press ctrl+a until it appears) that the Scale attributes for X, Y and Z are
all 1 - this is good for working to scale.
2. Resize the cube

You will now change the shape and size of the cube by changing the inputs in the channel
box.
In the channel box, under INPUTS you should see polyCube1 and below
this some more attributes such as Width, Height and Depth. If you cannot see the
attributes click on the word polyCube1.
Change to the following

Width - 25
Height - 10
Depth - 25
This changes the size of your cube. You should now see something similar to
the example below.
3. Rename the cube.

Naming your assets in Maya is very important. Since you could have thousands of objects in
a scene you will need to be able to easily find them by name. Looking for Damaged_Crate
is much easier than trying to find pCube377. You will now rename the cube you have
created to make it easier to find later.
At the top of the channel box click on pCube1 - you will now be able to type
here.
Rename the cube - call it Room

Press enter
4. Using the virtual camera

You will need to be able to move around the virtual space in Maya to be able to work
effectively. You will now learn how this is done.
Rotate (tumble) the camera by holding the Alt key and by clicking and holding
the left mouse button (Alt+LMB).
Track the camera by holding the Alt key and by clicking and holding the
middle mouse button (Alt+MMB).
Dolly (zoom) the camera by holding the Alt Key and by clicking and holding
the right mouse button (Alt+RMB). This can also be done using the scroll wheel on
your mouse.
Practise moving the camera around before moving on to the next steps.
5. Framing an object or framing everything in the scene.

There are keyboard shortcuts you can use to show everything in the scene or to zoom into
the object you have selected. These are very useful.
To frame everything in the scene press the a key
To frame a selected object, first make sure you have the desired object
selected and then press the f key.
6. Reposition the cube using the translate/move tool

You will now change the position of the cube so that the bottom of it is in line with the grid.
Select the move tool (the square surrounded by 4 triangles). You can also
press w to select the move tool.
You will notice that a manipulator appears over the cube. The manipulator is
made up of three coloured arrows, 3 coloured squares and one square in the middle.
You can use each arrow to move the cube in the direction indicated by its colour (red
arrow moves the cube on the x axis). You can use one of the colour squares to move
the cube on 2 axes (the red arrow moves the cube on the Y & Z axes) or you can use
the square in between the arrows to move in all three directions at once (rarely a
good idea).
Click on the green arrow (it should be pointing up) - it will turn yellow. Drag
this arrow up to move the cube until the bottom is as close to in line with the grid as
you can get it.
7. Use the orthographic views to position the cube more precisely.

The view you have been using so far shows the effects of perspective (things get smaller if
you move them into the distance) but there are other cameras which do not show
perspective. These are called the orthographic cameras. You will need to change the
workspace to access these cameras.
Change to the four view
Click on Windows Saved Layouts Four View - You
will now see four camera angles instead of one.
Frame the cube in each view. This will make each of the camera zoom in or
out to make the cube fit into the view.
Hover your mouse pointer over one of the camera views
Press the a or f key
Repeat for the other windows.
Make one of the orthographic views full size

Hover the mouse pointer over either the front or side camera
view (they are labelled in green at the bottom of each window)
Tap the spacebar - this makes the selected view full size.
(Note: you can tap the spacebar again to return to the four view - give it a try)
Reposition the cube in the orthographic view
Zoom in on the cube (this will allow you to line up with the grid
more clearly)
Use either Alt+RMB or the scroll wheel on the
mouse
Using the arrow manipulator move the cube up or down to get
it as close to in line with the grid as you can.
Change the view back to perspective view

Tap spacebar to bring back the four view
Hover the mouse pointer over the persp view
Tap spacebar again - You have now returned to the
perspective view
8. Turn on hardware shading

So far you have worked with your cube in wireframe mode. You will now turn on hardware
shading which makes the cube look like a solid shape.
Press the 5 key on the keyboard (you can press the 4 key to return to
wireframe) - Your cube will now look like a grey box.
9. Turn on backface culling

Now that you have turned on hardware shading you can no longer see through the cube.
This presents a bit of a problem as we will be adding more detail to the inside of the room.
To make this easier you will now make the faces closest to the camera see through so that
you can work comfortably within the cube.
Click on the cube to make sure it is selected (the edges will be green to show
the shape is selected)
Click on Mesh Display Reverse (Do not click on anything else at

this point) You should notice the cube looks orange.
Click on Display Polygons Backface Culling - You should now see

the faces closest to the camera disappear.
Try rotating the camera around the room (Alt+LMB). As you move around the room you will
see that only the faces closest to the camera disappear.
10. Hide the grid

You will now hide the grid to make sure that your workspace doesnt get too cluttered.
Click on the show/hide grid icon at the top of the perspective panel.
11. Create a polygon cube using the hotbox

You will now begin to add objects to the room. You will start by creating a new polygon cube
but you will use the hotbox instead of the main menu for this.
Press and hold the spacebar - the hotbox opens around the mouse pointer.
Left click (and hold) on Create Polygon Primitives Cube (then
release the left mouse button)
A new cube has been created at the origin (the centre of the grid)
Move the cube up slightly so that it appears to be resting on the floor (youll
need the move tool again)
Select the scale tool
Using the different manipulators make the cube slightly larger and change the
dimensions of it slightly too (this will keep it from looking too perfect)
Select the move tool
Move the cube on the x and z axes towards one corner of the room (dont put
it too close to the walls though)
Select the rotate tool.
Rotate the cube on the y axis - click and drag the green circle manipulator
(this will make sure that it doesnt line up perfectly with the walls - dont want it to look
too perfect) - Make sure that you only rotate on one axis as you will quickly lose
control if you begin working on more than one axis at once
Rename the cube
Click on pCube1 in the channel box
Rename to Crate
Press enter
12. Duplicate the crate to create another one

Now you have created one crate that is roughly the right size and is in roughly the right
location it would be daft to start from scratch with another one - so lets just be lazy and
duplicate the one we already have :)
Make sure you have the first crate selected
Click on Edit Duplicate (you can also press ctrl+d) - A new crate is
created in the same location as the original (if you look in the channel box
you will see that you now have Crate1 selected)
Use your move, scale and rotate tools to manipulate the new crate so that it is
not exactly the same size and shape as the original and put it next to the original
crate.
13. Create a stack of 5 boxes in total - Youre on your own for this one!
Using the duplicate command as well as the move, scale and rotate tools create a stack of
boxes similar to the one in the image below.
Chapter 3 - Add pillars and a holographic projector to the room
1. Adding pillars to the room

In the last chapter you used the duplicate tool to create copies one at a time but you can
also use the duplicate tool to create multiple copies of an object, making each copy have a
different placement or rotation value.
Create a cube.
Rename it pillar
Change the shape, so that it looks like this.
2. Bevel the edges of the pillar

You will now use bevel to alter the shape of the pillar. This will make the pillar a little more
visually interesting.
Make sure you have the pillar selected
Open the Modeling Toolkit by clicking on the button at the top right of the
screen
Put the pillar into Edge Selection mode by clicking on the button. This will
allow you to select individual edges on your pillar.
You will notice that the edges on the pillar change from green to blue.
Now select the two upright edges on the left hand side of the pillar
Left click on one of the edges
Then hold shift and left click on the other. They should now
both be selected.
Now scroll down in the Modeling Toolkit until you see the Components
section.
Click on the Bevel button
You will now see that the edges you selected on the pillar have now been expanded to
create new faces. You will also see that a small window has appeared (polyBevel1). You can
use the settings in this window to change the attributes of the bevel you just performed.
The default settings on this bevel actually look about right but I wanted a
slightly more exaggerated look so I have increased the Fraction to 0.6.
3. Add a slope to the pillar and put into position

You can use the move, scale and rotate tools on edges in the same way that you can on
entire shapes. Using these tools on components allows you to change the overall shape.
Now, ensuring that you are still in Edge Selection mode, select the three
edges at the bottom corner of the pillar (on the side of the pillar that we have just
bevelled).
Now select the Move tool and move the edges into she pillar a little to create
a slight inverted slope. I moved the edge along the z axis.
The next step is to put the pillar back into Object Selection mode. Click on the
bottom to the far left of the Edge Selection button you used earlier. Youll see the
edges of the pillar turn green again (this signifies that it is now back in Object
Selection mode).
Now you can select the move tool and position the pillar into the corner of the
room. Try to ensure that you room is facing the same direction as in the example -
this will make the next step a little easier for you.
4. Create a row of pillars using Duplicate Special

The next step is to create a row of 5 pillars across one of the walls. It would be silly to create
another 4 of these from scratch when we could just duplicate them to save time. Thats what
were going to do but there is another way we can using the duplicate tool to save time too...
Make sure you have the pillar selected
Now select Edit > click the little box to the right of duplicate special. This will
open the Duplicate Special options.
In the window that opens set the number of copies to 4 (this will give you 5
pillars in total)
You also need to work out which axis you will be duplicating along. If you look
at the view axis you can see that I need to duplicate along the X axis.
Set the appropriate translate value to 5 and leave the others at 0. The boxes
go in alphabetical order (x, y, z).
Now click the duplicate special. If the result doesnt look like the
image below then select edit undo and correct any errors.
5. Create holographic projector

In this step you will create a projector from a polygonal cone. You will do this by manipulating
the vertices of the shape.
Create a polygon cone
Move the cone so that it sits on the floor
In the channel box, under INPUTS, change radius to 2, the height to 4, the
subdivision height value to 5 and the subdivision axis to 18 so that the cone looks like
the image below.
Open the Modeling Toolkit

Change to Vertex Selection mode. You will see purple dots appear where the
edges intersect. These dots are the vertices. You can select and manipulate these in
the same way the you did with the edges.
You will now select and manipulate the vertices. To create the shape we want were going to
select the vertices in rows. For this reason you may find it helpful to switch to the front or
side orthographic to complete the next steps.
Select the second row of vertices from the bottom by left clicking and
dragging a marquee around just those points. You should see that the points behind
the front ones (the ones you cant see) are also selected. The points will change to
yellow when they have been selected.
Using the move tool, move the row of vertices up to create the shape you can
see below.
Next, select fourth row of vertices from the bottom. Move these down as in
the picture below.
With the fourth row of vertices still selected, select the Scale tool. You will now
scale the vertices uniformly (using the manipulator in the middle, not the one on the
side) to create the shape in the image below.
Now using the same methods, work on the next 2 rows to create the shape in
the image below. For the vertex at the very top, you will select this and then move it
down to the very bottom of the projector.
Rename the cone Projector.
6. Add a control panel to the projector

We will now use extrusion to add a little more detail and geometry to the projector.
In the Modeling Toolkit, choose Face Selection mode.
Select 2 of the bottom row of faces as in the image below.
Perform an extrude by clicking on the icon in the polygons shelf (you can also
find an extrude button in the Modeling Toolkit). Youll see a polyExtrudeFace1 options
box appear.
Change the Thickness to 0.1 and the Offset to 0.1. You should now see that
you have create some new faces which will make up the control panel.
Put the Projector back into Object selection mode.
7. Save your work

Youve come a long way, well done! Well continuing to work on this scene in the coming
chapters so make sure you dont lose anything.
You should feel proud. You can now navigate the different views and change basic hardware
display settings. You can also create, duplicate, transform, rename and extrude objects as
well as being able to use the move, rotate and scales tools.
Chapter 4 - Create a Solar System

In this chapter youll create a simple solar system. This will then be positioned above the
projector so that it looks like a 3D hologram.
1. Hide the room

Select all of the objects you have created so far. You can either left
click and drag a marquee selection over everything, hold shift and click on
them one at a time or you can click Select All (Ctrl + Shift + A).
Now make sure you have the channel box open (press Ctrl + A until
you see it on the right hand side of the screen). In the display tab below
the channel box click on Layers Create Layer from Selected.
A new layer is created containing everything in your scene.

Rename this layer by double clicking on it and call it room_layer
Hide this layer by clicking on the V icon in the layers tab.
Turn the grid back on - well need this for the next steps.
2. Create a sun
You will now create some spheres that will act as the sun and planets in the solar system.
You will also create a hierarchy that will prepare these planets for animation. This will
introduce you to parenting and the Outliner.
Click create > Polygon primitives > Sphere. A new sphere appears at the
origin.
In the channel box, under INPUTS, change Subdivisions Axis to 12 and
Subdivisions Height to 12.
In the channel box select the spheres scale attributes by clicking on the scale
x value and dragging to the scale z value.
Doing this will highlight all three scaling values allowing you to enter one value and change
them all at once.
Enter 0.5 and press enter (make sure that all three values change)
Rename the sphere Sun
3. Soften the edges of the sun

Because we lowered the resolution of the sphere from 20x20 to 12x12, the shading now
looks very harsh. To fix this youll change the shading angle by using soften edge.
Make sure the Sun is selected
Now click on Mesh Display Soften Edge. The sphere will now look
much smoother.
4. Making planets
Now you will create 4 planets, a moon and a ring.
Duplicate the sun and rename it planet.
Translate the planet on the x axis by about 2 units
Scale the planet down to 0.1
Now duplicate, translate and scale the planet to create three other planets
(making 4 planets in total). Make sure you only move the planets along the x axis - it
doesnt really matter now but it means that everything will be properly set up for
animation later.
5. Add a moon and a ring

Add a tiny sphere to one of the planets and rename it moon (size should be
about 0.02). Again, make sure that this is only moved on the x axis. The values for y
and z should be 0.
Make a ring by creating a polygon torus. Select Torus from the polygons shelf.
A new torus will be created at the origin.
Under inputs in the channel box change the section radius to 0.2
Flatten the torus by scaling the Y axis to 0.2
Rename the torus ring and place it around one of the planets - make sure the
translate values of Y and Z are set to 0.
Tip - to make sure that the ring is correctly positioned around
your chosen planet, just copy the translate x value from the planet to the
translate x value of the ring.
6. Set up a Hierarchy
It is very important to understand how hierarchies work in order to become a successful
modeller/animator in Maya.
In order to be able to visualise what you will be doing in this step
you need to open the Outliner. Click on Windows Outliner.
The outliner lists all of the objects in your scene along with their hierarchies.
Scroll down in the outliner and click on the 1st planet object. This will select
the geometry in the workspace.
Press and hold the MMB over the planet object (still in the outliner) and drag it
over the sun object. Doing this will make the planet object a child of the sun object.
Expand the newly created hierarchy by clicking on the + symbol.
7. Complete the hierarchy

In either the outliner or the workspace select the next planet (planet1)
Hold the Ctrl key and then select the sun (now both objects should be
selected)
Now either select edit > parent or press p on the keyboard.
Complete the rest of the hierarchy so that it looks like the picture below.
8. Understanding inheritance
If you now rotate the sun object, all of its children will now follow the same rotation. If you
rotate one of the planets, its children, eg. the moon, will follow that rotation.
When you transform a parent object, not of its childrens values change.
Select the sun object (you will notice that this also selects all of the children
objects) and rotate it in the y axis
Now select any of its children and you will notice that all of their rotation
values are still zero.
Select the sun and scale it down - all of the children follow the parent scaling
but none of their values are changing.
9. Position your solar system over the projector

Click on the V for the room_layer in the layers tab underneath the channel
box. This brings back the hidden room
Select any of the planets
Press the up key until the sun is selected (this is useful for navigating a
hierarchy)
Now translate, rotate and scale the sun to place the solar system above the
projector so that it looks like the image below.
Save your work.
Your solar system is now ready for animating. Nice one.
Chapter 5 - Shaders and Textures
1. Open the Hypershade

Select Windows Rendering Editors Hypershade.

or
Click on the icon to open up the Hypershade.
This opens the hypershade which you will use to create the materials for your room.
2. Set up the Hypershade

Before creating any materials its a good idea to set up the Hypershade to allow you to make
efficient use of it. At this stage this really just means adding a viewport so that you can see
how new materials show up in your scene.

Make the Hypershade fullscreen. This just makes it easier to work with
Add a viewport to the Hypershade
Within the Hypershade, click on Window Viewport. A
viewport window will appear.
Click and drag the viewport to hold it over the area indicated in the image
below. You will see part of the browser tab move to accommodate it. Releasing the
left mouse button will dock the viewport into this area of the Hypershade.
Resize the tabs a little to make it easier to work with the viewport. To do this,
hover your mouse over the area between the tabs. You will see the mouse icon
change to indicate you can resize the tab. Click and drag until you feel comfortable
with the display.
Turn on hardware shading in the viewport by clicking Shading

Smooth Shade All or by hovering your mouse over the viewport window
and pressing 5 on the keyboard.
3. Create a material for the projector

To create a material for the projector you will use the hypershade.
Click on the Clear Graph icon just above the work area. This will clear the
work area for you. You dont really need to do this now but it is very good to get into
the habit of clearing the work area before creating a new material.
Find the create section - this is in the bottom left area of the Hypershade
Then select Surface under the Maya section.
Now click on Blinn - this creates a new Blinn material under the materials
hypershade tab and in the work area. The Property Editor will also update to show
the new materials information.
In the Property Editor change the name of the material to projectorM (the M
will remind you later that this is a material node).
4. Edit the materials colour

To define how a material will render you can change some of the material attributes.
In the Property Editor click on the swatch next to the colour attribute
Choose any colour you want. I would recommend a deep blue - it looks pretty
sexy once its rendered.
When you have chosen your colour you should notice that the Shader Ball in
the Material viewer also changes to reflect the change you have made. The Material
Viewer gives you a real time preview of what your material will look like on different
types of geometry and objects. To see how this works;
Click on Shader Ball from the dropdown menu and choose
some of the other options.
We want this material to have a glossy/polished plastic look to it so youll now make some
further changes to the material and youll see these are also reflected in the Material Viewer.
Move the Specular Colour to the right to make the colour a much lighter grey.
Youll see the highlights get a little brighter.
Change eccentricity to 0.100. Youll see that the highlights of the shader get a
little more focussed and sharp.
Change Specular Rolloff to 0.850. Now youll see the highlights get a little
stronger.
Change Reflectivity to 0.3. You won't see this change in the material viewer
but it will stop the material being too reflective when we move on to rendering later.
5. Assign the material

With the MMB Click+drag on the projectorM material from the Materials tab
(top left) and drag it from the Browser panel and drop it onto the projector in the
perspective view.
The material is now assigned to the projector.

If you have not already got it turned on, switch to hardware texture mode by
hovering your mouse pointer over the viewport and pressing 5.
6. Create the sun material

Clear the work area.
Now create a new lambert material (this can be found in the create tab -
bottom left of the screen)
Give it a bright yellow colour
Change the incandescence colour to dark yellow (this will give the illusion that
the material is illuminating light)
Rename it sunM.
Assign this new material to the sun.

Select the sun in the viewport
Right click (and hold) on the sunM material in the Browser
Choose Assign to Selection
This will make all of the planets have the material too as they are children of
the sun (sounds like a pretty happenin religion)
7. Create a procedural material

Now were going to make a more complex material. So far we have used one colour all over
the objects we have applied materials to but now well use a ramp to add a little more
variation.
Clear the work area - this is quite a complicated material compared to the
previous ones so claring the work area is a very good idea at this stage.
Create a new Lambert
Call it pillarM
Now, instead of simply changing the colour like we have with the previous materails, were
going to connect a ramp node to the colour of the shader.
Click on the checker box next to the colour slider. This will open the Create
Render Node window.
In the create Create Render Node window, choose Ramp. This allows you to
set two or more colours and fade between them.
Youll now see the options for the Ramp appear in the Property Editor.
Click on the white dot and change the colour to a dark grey.
Click and drag the dark grey dot and move it three quarters of the way to the
left.
You can now see that we have created a material that fades from black to
dark grey. This is a good start but now well add a bit of a dirty texture to the black
colour.
Click on the black dot and then click on the checker box next to Selected
Colour. This will again open the Create Render Node Window.
Scroll down a little and choose Rock

The options for the Rock node now appear in the Property Editor.
Change colour 1 to a very dark brown and change colour 2 to a very dark
grey (almost black).
Now apply the pillar material to one of the pillars.
Youll see that its not really possible to see the effect of the shader you have created. Thats
because the current renderer (the software being used to generate the preview in the
Viewport) doesnt display these types of textures particularly well. So in order to preview the
material well have to change the renderer.
In the Viewport, click on Renderer
Choose Legacy Default Viewport
This is actually the lower quality of the 3 options you have available but it does a very good
job of previewing procedural materials such as this one. If you zoom into the bottom of the
pillar you should now be able to see the effect of the material you have created.
Its a subtle effect but it really helps to add a little more detail to these pillars.
Assign the material to the rest of the pillars.
8. Assign an image based texture to the crates

Download all of the texture files from here: https://goo.gl/qWTreX (make sure
you place the images in your "sourceimages" folder
9. Create a texture map.

You will now create a material for the boxes that uses a file texture instead of a colour. For
the box you will use the crate texture
In the Hypershade, clear your Work Area
Create a new lambert material
Rename this material crateM

To load an external texture you need to connect a file texture node
In the Property Editor click on the checker box to the right of the Colour
property
This will open the Create Render Node window

Click on File.
A file node is now added to the lambert material. These are connected.
In the Property Editor for the file node, click on the file folder icon next to
image name.
You can now choose the file you want to use as your texture. If you have your
project set properly and have added all of the texture files to the source images folder
you will now see a range of images to you can choose. Select the file named crate
diffuse and then click the open button.
The file is now loaded into the shading network and you should see that reflected in the
preview on the Shader Ball.
10. Apply the material to the crates

Assignment the new material to a crate using one of the methods you have
already used.
You probably wont be able to see the texture appear on the crate. This is
because you need to turn on Hardware Texturing. Do this by going to the Shading
menu in the Viewport and selecting Hardware Shading. You can also hover your
mouse over the Viewport and press 6.
You should now be able to see the texture. Assign it to the rest of the crates.
11. Add materials to specific faces

So far youve only applied materials to whole objects but it is also possible to apply materials
to single or multiple faces. Thats what well cover now to texture the floor.
Clear the work area
Create a new Blinn
Name this material floorM
Assign Floor Diffuse as the colour by attaching a file node - just like you did
for the crate texture.
Now, in the Viewport, right click and hold on the floor. This will bring up the
radial menu.
Hover your mouse over Face and then release the right mouse button. This
puts the room shape into Face Selection mode. We did this earlier using the button in
the modelling toolkit but you can also change the selection mode using the radial
menu.
Now click once on the face representing the floor or the room. This should
now look a little orange to indicate that it is currently selected.
Now you can either use MMB to drag the floorM material onto the floor or you
can right click and hold on the floorM material and choose Assignment Material to
Selection.
You should now see the texture is assigned to the floor.
12. Tile the floor texture

The texture on the floor doesnt look too bad already but this is actually designed to be tiled
and will look better then we get the texture to repeat a few times.
In the Hypershade, clear the work area
Right click and hold on the floorM material and choose Graph Network from
the manu. This will show all of the nodes and connections that make up this material
in the work area.
Click once on the place2dTexture node. This will put the options for the
placement of the file texture in the Property Editor.
Change the Repeat UV values until youre happy with the result. Ive chosen
10x10.
13. Add the control panel texture to the projector

During the modelling process you performed an extrude on the projector to give two new
faces which would act as a control panel for the projector. Well now add that texture.
Clear the work area
Create a new Blinn
Call this material controlpanelM
Add a file node to the colour and add Control Panel Diffuse from the
sourceimages folder.
Put the projector into Face Selection mode and select the two faces that will
make up the control panel. You can select more than once face by holding shift on
the keyboard as you click on each face.
Now assign the controlpanelM material to these faces as you did with the
floor texture. Youll see that the material is applied but that it doesnt fit properly. Well
fix that next.
Make sure that you have the two faces that make up the control panel still
selected.
Minimize the Hypershade window
In the main Maya window, Click UV Contour Stretch. This tells
Maya to try to fit the material across the faces you have selected. You
should now have a much better result.
Put the projector back into Object mode.
14. Complete the scene

Before continuing to the next chapter you should assign materials to the
remaining objects in the scene. Most of the texture files have been provided but it is
suggested that you find some additional ones from the internet and save them into
the sourceimages folder of the project.
Note - in my scene I have used Lambert materials for the planets and I have
repeated the wall materials U value but not the V value.
15. Save your work

Youve come a long way! Make sure you dont lose all of your hard work.
Close the Hypershade window - were done with it for now.
Chapter 6. Lights and effects

There are a range of lights that you can make use of in Maya. Each of these gives a different
effect and is suitable for a different purpose. In this chapter well take a look at what you can
do with lighting in your scene.
1. Placing a point light

To create a primary light source in your scene you will use a point light. This type of light
works like a light bulb or like the sun in that it casts light out in every direction. Point lights
have editable attributes such as colour and intensity.
Make your perspective view fullscreen
Select Create Lights Point Light
This will create a point light at the origin
With the light still selected press w to switch to the move tool and then move
the light above the floor.
2. Turn on hardware lighting

The next step above hardware texturing (number 6 on the keyboard) is hardware lighting.
This lets you see how the light effects the surface it is shining on.
Press the number 7 key on the keyboard or click on the icon above the
perspective view.
Now move your light around the room to see the lighting effects change.
3. Change the light attributes

Select the point light from either the work area or the outliner.
In the attribute editor (ctrl+a if its not already open) change the intensity of
the light to 0.3. This will make the room feel a little more moody.
Still within the attribute editor, expand the shadows section

Enable shadow casting for this light by clicking the use depth map shadows
box and increase the resolution from 512 to 1024.
4. Change the display settings and preview the look of your lights
Now youll make a few changes to the way youre currently previewing your scene to make
sure your lights look as they should.
First of all you need to change the renderer back to Viewport 2.0 - this gives a
much better preview of your lights.
In the perspective panel menu, click on Renderer
Viewport 2.0. You should now see a better preview of the lighting
you have added.
Next youll need to turn off the View Transform (gamma correction). This is a
post processing effect and makes the lighting in your scene look brighter than it
actually is. Click on the on button in the perspective menu to turn it off. Youll then
see a more accurate representation of what the lighting in your scene will actually
look like when rendered.
Youll see that the room now looks much darker. This is the moody look were going for and
will improve as we add further lights to the scene. You can always turn this option back on if
youre finding it a little difficult to see or press the 6 key to stop previewing the lights
altogether.
5. Test render the scene

Youll probably have noticed that even though you turned on shadows for your light in step 3
you cant see any shadows in your scene. This is because Maya doesnt allow you to
preview shadows on Point Lights. In order to be able to see the shadows youll need to
render the scene.
Display resolution gate - The current view panel is probably not displaying the
actual proportions that will be rendered. You can display the cameras resolution gate
to see how the scene will actually render.
Make the perspective view the active panel
From the panel menu, select view Camera Settings
Resolution Gate
The view is now adjusted to show a green box which defines the default render resolution of
960x540 pixels relates to the current view.
Frame your scene so that you are looking at the creates - this is because
these will cast some very noticeable shadows.
Try to make sure that your camera is positioned inside the
walls of the room. If you render from outside of the room the exterior walls will
be in the way.
Test render the scene by clicking on the Render the Current Frame button.
Youll now see the Render View window pop up along with an image of your rendered scene.
You should be able to see the shadows being cast by the crates.
NOTE - If your rendered image is completely black then your camera is probably
outside of the room. Simply zoom your camera in a little and render again.
Gamma correction is also turned on in the Render View and you should also
turn it off here in order to see an accurate representation of your lighting.
6. Placing a Spot Light.

You will now add a secondary light source to the scene - a spot light. This type of light allows
you to change the same attributes as the point light as well as some others such as the cone
angle of the light.
Select Create Lights Spot Light. A spot light is now created at

the origin.
You will now use position the spot light inside the projector
Move and rotate the spot light until it is positioned inside the projector like in
the image below.
In the attribute editor drag the slider on the cone angle attribute until the cone
of the light fits the hole in the centre of the projector
To change the softness of the light you also need to change the penumbra
angle of the light to 30
7. Adding a light fog

To be able to see the beam of light that you have created you need to add a light fog. This
mimics light bouncing off tiny particles in the air, making the light visible to the human eye.
In the attribute editor set the lights colour to pale blue.
Set the lights decay rate to quadratic
The decay rate controls how fast the light fades as it is travelling through space. A quadratic
decay rate tells Maya to fade the light quickly so that it doesnt light up the ceiling.
Open the light effects section of the lights attributes in the attribute editor
Set the fog intensity to 5
Click on the map button to the right of the light fog attribute
This creates the lightFog node and will display a fog cone in the work area. It is automatically
selected and displayed in the attribute editor.
Set the light fogs colour to blue
Make sure youre looking at the projector in the perspective view.

Render the scene (using the Render the Current Frame button).
Youll now be able to see the last cascading from the projector. Now the scenes really
starting to look sexy...
8. Refining the solar system.

Now that you have started to add lighting effects, the solar system looks very dull. You will
improve this by adding a glow and lens flare to the sun. First you will add a shader glow.
Select the sun
Open the hypershade
Now click on the graph materials on selected objects button
This will now display the sunM material in the workspace of the hypershade
Select the sunM material
In the Property editor, click on the Toggle between Lookdev View and
Attribute Editor view button. This will reveal some further options for the shader.
Now scroll down a little and expand the special effects section
Set the glow intensity to 0.5
Test render the scene. Your sun will now look much better.
9. Create another point light

The glow is a post-processing effect and doesnt cast any light onto your scene, meaning
that the planets arent lit by the sun. To remedy this well add a point light exactly at the suns
position.
Create a point light
With the light selected shift-select the sun (meaning both are now selected)
Press p to parent the light to the sun
Press ctrl+a to close the attribute editor and open the channel box.
In the channel box reset all of the lights transformation values to 0. This light
will now move to the position of its parent (moving it to the centre of the sun).
From the lights attribute editor (press ctrl+a to open it again) set the following
attributes
Colour to light yellow
Intensity to 2.5
Decay Rate to Quadratic
You should now be able to see that the sun appears to be illuminating the planets.
10. Adding a lens flare

To add a little more realism to your render you will now add a lens flare.
Make sure that you still have the point light in the centre of the sun selected.
With the attribute editor open, click on the map button next to the light glow
attribute in the light effects section
This will create, select and display an opticalFX node in the attribute editor.
Set the opticalFX1 attributes as follows:
Lensflare to enabled (put a tick in the lens flare box)
glow type to none (the sun material already has a glow so you
dont need to add another here)
halo type to none
Test render the scene to see the lens flare - you might have to move the
camera closer to the sun to see the flare clearly.
If you still cant see it increase the lens flare intensity.
11. Render settings

Now that the scene is starting to come together its worth spending a little time to improve
the quality of the rendered images.
Click on the render settings button
Select the Maya software tab

Expand the antialiasing quality section (if its not already opened)
Set the quality preset to intermediate quality
Now scroll down a little to find the Raytracing section and tick the box to turn
it on (this enables reflections and some other cool stuff)
Select the Common tab

Scroll to Image Size
From the presets drop down menu choose HD 720.
Now close the render settings window and move your camera to create a
badass shot of your room
Render it.
Save your work.
If you find that any of the reflections are too strong you can select the material in the
Hypershade and reduce the Reflectivity using the appropriate slider.
Chapter 7 - Adding details
1. Big front window - using a combination of the bevel and extrude tools.
Select the cube representing the room
Open the Modeling Toolkit
Put the room into Face Selection mode
Select the face shown in the image below
Scroll down a little in the Modeling Toolkit and select the Bevel option. You
notice that the face is bevelled and that a polyBevel properties box for the bevel
appears.
In the Properties box, set the Fraction to 0.2. This creates a border for the
window, giving you something similar to the image below.
Make sure that the centre face is still selected

Using the move tool, move the face so that it is slightly inside the room as in
the image below.
Make sure that the same face is still selected.

Now, in the Modeling Toolkit, click on the Extrude button. This will create a
new face, as well as new faces to connect to the surrounding geometry.
Now move this new face back towards the outside of the room. This will
create a window pane.
Your window should look like the above image.

Put the room back into object mode.
2. Add the glass material

Open the hypershade
Create a new Blinn
Rename the new material glassM
Click and drag the transparency slider all the way to the right (turning the
colour to white)
Change the reflectivity to 0.3
Now, going back into Face Selection mode, select the face representing the
pane of glass
Assign the material to the face
3. Make a big ass planet

Create a new polygon sphere
Rename it bigPlanet
Move and scale until it looks like the picture below
4. Duplicate the Earth shader

We want the new planet to have the earth texture but we cannot simply use the one that we
already have as were going to add some more features to it for the big planet
In the hypershade, find and select the earth shader
Then select Edit Duplicate Shading Network - this duplicates

the entire shading network and automatically places it in the work area
Rename the new shader bigPlanetM.
Assign it to the big planet
5. Fine tune the lighting

The new planet has to be lit.
Create a new spot light
Move, rotate and scale the light (you will probably want to increase the cone
angle and penumbra angle of the new light too) until it lights the planet. See the
example below
Press 7 to turn on hardware lighting to see what effect your new light is
having
6. Adding the planet details

At the moment the planet doesn't have an atmosphere. You will use a glow effect to simulate
an atmosphere. You will also apply a bump map to simulate the elevation of mountains and
clouds.
In the hypershade select the bigplanetM material
Enter 0.2 as the glow intensity (you can refine this if it is not enough/too
much)
Clear the work area in the Hypershade
Right click and hold on the bigplanetM material and choose Graph Network.
You can now see all of the nodes making up the material in the work area
Now, in the Property Editor, click the map button to the right of Bump mapping
The Create Render Node window will open.

Choose File.
A new bump2d node is created and is selected.
In the Property Editor, change the Bump depth to 0.4
Click on the map button to the right of Bump Value.
Youll now have access to the file node - click on the folder icon and choose
the Earth bump.jpg file.
Now create a kick ass render of your scene (making sure that the camera is
inside the room and that the big Earth is in shot). Looks cool doesn't it? You did that.
Well done.
Save your work
Youll also find a bump map for the crate in the Sourceimages folder. You can use this to
make the crates look bumpy in the same way you did for the planet.
Wow! Well done on making it to the end! I really hope youve enjoyed this exercise
and that youve learned a lot. If you have enjoyed this tutorial then please let me know
through my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OnlineMediaTutor) or on twitter
(www.twitter.com/mediatutor). Send me a picture of your completed project - I really love
receiving work from those that have worked through my guides.
Finally, if youd like to help me in making more material like this then please consider
supporting me via Patreon. This is a way that you can give a voluntary amount each
month to allow me to spend more time creating tutorials like this one. Its totally
optional and you can cancel at any time. Please take a look by following this link -
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=1002988&ty=h

Beginners Guide To Maya 2016

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Introduction to 3D Modelling Using Maya 2016

Chapter 1 - Creating a new project and setting up preferences

1. Create a new project

In the project window click on the New button

2. Create a new scene

Click on File New scene

3. Save the scene you have created

4. Change the menu set to Modeling

5. Select the Polygons shelf

In the preferences window select the Files/Projects section

Under Autosave select Enable.

7. Enable infinite undos

8. Turn on incremental saving

Make sure Incremental save is selected.

Chapter 2 - Modelling a room using polygons

1. Create a new polygon cube.

Close the tool settings

2. Resize the cube

Change to the following

3. Rename the cube.

Rename the cube - call it Room

4. Using the virtual camera

5. Framing an object or framing everything in the scene.

6. Reposition the cube using the translate/move tool

7. Use the orthographic views to position the cube more precisely.

Make one of the orthographic views full size

Change the view back to perspective view

8. Turn on hardware shading

9. Turn on backface culling

Click on Mesh Display Reverse (Do not click on anything else at

Click on Display Polygons Backface Culling - You should now see

10. Hide the grid

11. Create a polygon cube using the hotbox

12. Duplicate the crate to create another one

Chapter 3 - Add pillars and a holographic projector to the room

1. Adding pillars to the room

2. Bevel the edges of the pillar

3. Add a slope to the pillar and put into position

4. Create a row of pillars using Duplicate Special

5. Create holographic projector

Open the Modeling Toolkit

Rename the cone Projector.

6. Add a control panel to the projector

Put the Projector back into Object selection mode.

7. Save your work

Chapter 4 - Create a Solar System

1. Hide the room

A new layer is created containing everything in your scene.

them all at once.

3. Soften the edges of the sun

5. Add a moon and a ring

7. Complete the hierarchy

values are still zero.

9. Position your solar system over the projector

Save your work.

Your solar system is now ready for animating. Nice one.

Chapter 5 - Shaders and Textures

1. Open the Hypershade

2. Set up the Hypershade

how new materials show up in your scene.

Turn on hardware shading in the viewport by clicking Shading

3. Create a material for the projector