Lab 1: Introduction to Maya
IDS252: 3D Animation, Spring 2014

Goals

1. Familiarize yourself with the Maya interface.
2. Understand how files and projects are named and organized.
3. Understand how to turn in assignments on the shared network drive called cs-render
4. Learn basic modeling tools in order to make a model of a temple and a human-like character.
5. Deliverables: Two images (temple and character) placed in designated folder on cs-render. Details described below.

Mac vs PC

The computers in Ford 202 are dual boot. If you hold down the "options" key as the computer boots up, it will give you the option of booting in Windows. If you do nothing, it will boot up as a Mac. At the moment, it does not matter which you use. However, for some of the things we do later, you will need to be working on the PC side which can cause confusion with the keyboard.

To see the mappings of a PC keyboard on a Mac, go here.

Set Up

In class, we will walk through some of the more common things you will need to know about the interface and file server.

1. Open up Maya 2014

2. Learning the Interface: A quick reference of the interface may be found here. Become familiar with the terms used to refer to the different parts of the interface, e.g. Menu sets, Status line, etc.

3. Getting Help: It is important to become familiar with the online help. You will make constant use of it over the course of the semester. For example, in Maya, go to Help → Maya Help (F1). Under the Contents window on left, select Basics → Interface overview to read about the Maya interface, coordinate system, selection modes. Poke around the other sections to explore what else is available. You will need to make use of these help pages frequently in the future.

4. Navigation: To do this part, it is best to have headphones. If a window titled 1 Minute Startup Movies is not open already, click on the menu Help → 1 Minute Startup Movies. Take a look at movies 1 through 6 (i.e. "Zoom, pan, and roll" through "Discover secret menus"). As you watch, try things out in Maya itself.

5. Maya Projects: A Maya project is simply a folder or set of nested folders where all your maya files are stored. Projects are important to create because when you save or render maya scenes, a number of different files are generated and saved. If you have created and/or set a project, all of these files will be saved into the project folder, otherwise it is anyone's guess where many of these files will end up. In this lab, you should have two Maya Projects, one for the temple and one for the character. Directions will given in the tutorials explaining how to create your projects.

   Note, everytime you open up Maya you need to make sure that you are in the correct project.
   If you aren't sure, just set the project using File → Set Project ....

6. Keep Multiple Versions: You should save versions of your scene as you work (e.g. temple1.mb, temple2.mb, etc) so that, if you make a mistake that can't be undone, or if Maya crashes (a common occurrance!), then you don't have to start back at the very beginning again.

7. Location, location, location:

   • cs-render network drive: You will be storing your files on a Willamette shared network drive called cs-render. To access cs-render, you need to follow the directions on this page
   • Organization: Organizing and keeping track of files on your computer is critical! All files that are associated with a project need to be kept in the project folder, otherwise, you risk losing these files.
   • Project location: For this lab, store your Maya projects on cs-render in the folder \IDS252Sp14\Lab1\MayaProjects\your_name
   • Image submission location: To submit your completed images, you must place them on the cs-render in the folder \IDS252Sp14\Lab1\FinalImages\your_name before the beginning of class on the due date.

Project 1: The Temple

Tutorial Instuctions: Go to Help → Tutorials, click on the link Getting Started with Maya 2014 and then go to Getting Started with Maya → Maya Basics → Introduction . Follow the directions for making the temple (lessons 1-4). In the end, you should have a model of a simple temple.

Render the Temple: Rendering means taking the scene you have created, choosing a camera, and generating an image file. Directions are described here:

1. Add a polygon plane to represent the ground so your temple doesn't look as though it is floating.
2. Add some color to the temple (ask if you need help).
3. Choose the perspective camera by clicking on the perspective window. Maneuver the camera in this window so that you are looking at a nice view of the temple.
4. Go to the menu Window → RenderingEditors → Render Settings... and do the following:
   • Choose  the Image Format to be JPEG (jpeg).
   • Set the "Image Size; Presets" to 640X480.
   • Close the Render Settings window.
   • To actually render the image, you must click the "render current frame" button on the toolbar in Maya (ask if you can't find it)
5. When you render the image, Maya will save the image in the project folder (you may need to look in the tmp folder within project). Note, if it isn't there then the project was probably not set correctly.
6. Change the filename of the image so that it is a concatentation of your name, an underscore, the lab name, and the item, for example OrrJenny_Lab1_temple.jpg. Copy it over to the cs-render folder \IDS252Sp14\Lab1\FinalImages\your_name.

Project 2: Character

The character without Chp 4	The character with Chp 4

Polygons: Polygon modeling is an easy and common way of modeling objects. Here, you will learn how to create a human-like character using polygon modeling.

Instructions: The instructions are in the file MayaPolyModeling.pdf which can be found in the folder on cs-render:

You will also need the two tif files stored in the same folder. The tutorial instructions will explain how to use these files. This is a long tutorial. Your goal is to:

• Chapter 3: Do all of this chapter.
• Chapter 4: This is optional (5 pts extra credit if you complete it!) If you decide to do this, it is best to do it before you do Chapter 5. However, if you want to do Chapter 5 first, you should do Chapter 4 before the final cleaning up and mirroring in Chapter 5.
• Chapter 5: Do all of this chapter (adding the eyes are optional). If you did not do chapter 4, start with your model from chapter 3.
• When you are done the tutorial, render a 640x480 jpeg image (or 480x640) of your character, named appropriately, (e.g. OrrJenny_Lab1_char.jpg). Copy it over to the cs-render folder \IDS252Sp14\Lab1\FinalImages\your_name.

Deliverables and Evaluation

Before the beginning of class on Wednesday, Jan 22, your two maya projects should be on cs-render in the folder

The main goal of this lab is to familiarize yourself with the Maya interface and basic modeling tools. Therefore, the lab will be graded on a pass-fail basis - see the evaluation (pdf) sheet for criteria.

There is a lot to get used to in this first lab. If you have ANY questions, it is important that you ask.

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