Maya’s Layout

Let’s take another look at the initial Maya screen in Figure 3-1—this time with the Full Perspective window, and not the four-panel layout you saw in the previous chapter.

The Main Menu bar, Status line, and Shelf all run across the top of the screen. The Tool Box runs vertically on the left side of the screen. It contains icons for your transform tools (such as Move and Rotate) as well as quick-view selections to allow you to customize your panel layouts quickly. The Attribute Editor and Channel Box/Layer Editor (the Channel Box is displayed in Figure 3-1, and not the Attribute Editor) run down the right side of the screen. Finally, listed from the top down, the Time slider, the Range slider, the Character Set menu, the Auto Keyframe button, and the Animation Preferences button, some of which you’ve already used, run across the bottom of the screen.

Reminder: Maya’s Mouse Controls

In Maya, holding the Alt key on a PC or the Option key on a Mac along with the appropriate button allows you to move in the view panel. The left mouse button (LMB) acts as the primary selection button (as it does in many other programs) and lets you orbit around objects when used with the Alt key. The right mouse button (RMB) activates numerous shortcut menus and lets you zoom with the Alt key. The middle mouse button (MMB) with the Alt key lets you move within the Maya interface, and the mouse’s wheel can be used to zoom in and out as well.

The Main Menu Bar

In the Main Menu bar, shown in Figure 3-2, you’ll find a few of the familiar menu choices you’ve come to expect in many applications, such as File, Edit, and Help.

One difference in Maya, however, is that menu choices are context sensitive; they depend on what you’re doing. By switching menu sets, you change your menu choices and hence your available toolset. The menu sets in Maya are Animation, Polygons, Surfaces, Dynamics, Rendering, and nDynamics. No matter which menu set you’re working in, the first six items are constant: File, Edit, Modify, Create, Display, and Window. The last menu, Help, is also constantly displayed no matter which menu set you choose.

Some plugins can also add menu items to the Menu Bar. For example, Maya Muscle is a plugin that comes with Maya and is on by default; it adds the Muscle menu to the Menu Bar. If the plugin is turned off, that menu item is removed. So, don’t panic if you don’t see the same exact Menu Bar pictured throughout this book.

When searching for a particular tool, keep in mind that each menu set controls particular functions. You’ll notice two different demarcations to the right of some menu items: arrows and boxes (called option boxes). Clicking an arrow opens a submenu that contains more specific commands. Clicking an option box (❒) opens a dialog box in which you can set the options for that particular tool.

As noted, the following menus are always visible:

File Deals with file operations, from saving and opening to optimizing scene size and export/import.

Edit Contains the commands you use to edit characteristics of the scene (for example, deleting and duplicating objects or undoing and redoing actions).

Modify Lets you edit the characteristics of objects in the scene, such as moving or scaling them or changing their pivot points.

Create Lets you make new objects, such as primitive geometries, curves, cameras, and so on.

Display Contains commands for adjusting elements of the graphical user interface (GUI) in Maya as well as objects in the scene, allowing you to toggle, or switch on or off, the display of certain elements as well as components of objects, such as vertices, hulls, pivots, and so on.

Window Gives you access to the many windows you’ll come to rely on, such as the Attribute Editor, Outliner, Graph Editor, and Hypergraph. This menu is broken into submenus according to function, such as Rendering Editors and Animation Editors.

Assets Gives you access to Maya Assets, which gives you the tools to better organize and manage productions in Maya, especially with multiple artists working on the same project. Assets are beyond the scope of this book.

Muscle Contains the tools you would need to create muscle systems for your characters. Muscles are an advanced topic and beyond the scope of this text.

Help Gives you access to the help files.

Advanced Tip: Floating Menus

In Maya, you can tear off menus to create separate floating boxes that you can place anywhere in the workspace, as shown here. This makes accessing menu commands easier, especially when you need to use the same command repeatedly. Let’s say, for example, that you need to repeatedly access polygonal editing tools. You can tear off the Edit Mesh menu and place it at the edge of your screen. You can then click the commands you need as many times as necessary without opening the menu every time. To tear off a menu, click the dashed line at the top of the menu, and drag the menu where you want it.

The Status Line

The Status line (see Figure 3-3) contains a number of important and often-used icons.

The Status line begins with a drop-down menu that gives you access to the menu sets in Maya. Selecting a menu set changes the menu headings in the Main Menu bar according to the type of work you’re doing (modeling with polygons, rendering, animating, and so on). You’ll notice immediately after the Menu Set drop-down menu, and intermittently throughout the Status line, white vertical line breaks with either a box or an arrow in the middle. Clicking a break opens or closes sections of the Status line.

Scene File Icons

The tools in the first section of the Status line deal with file operations:

Icon	Name	Description
	New Scene	Creates a new, blank scene file
	Open Scene	Displays a window in which you can find and open any scene file you’ve saved
	Save Scene	Displays a window in which you can specify a filename and location to save a new scene; or, if the current scene has already been saved and named, saves it to that location

Selection Modes

The second section between the black horizontal lines is the Selection Mode field. This drop-down menu lets you use presets for selection masks. Selection masks give you the chance to pick one kind of object but not another—you can, for example, select all the particles in the scene and none of the polygon models.

This Selection Mode field gives you some presets that optimize the Selection modes for your convenience. However, you may prefer to use the individual selection mask icons farther down the Status line, which give you more control. You can turn on and off selectability for individual object types, such as particles, NURBS, polygons, and so on.

The next group of icons lets you click into three distinct selection modes. Selection modes allow you to select different levels of an object’s hierarchy. For example, using a selection mode, you can select an entire group of objects, only one of the objects in that group, or even points on the surface of that object, depending on the selection mode you’re in:

Icon	Name	Description
	Hierarchy mode	Lets you select groups of objects or parts of a group
	Object mode	Lets you select objects such as geometry, cameras, lights, and so on
	Component mode	Lets you select an object’s components, such as vertices, faces, or the control vertices (CVs) of NURBS surfaces

Click the Hierarchy Mode icon, for example, to select the topmost node of a hierarchy or group of objects. If you’ve grouped several objects together, being in this mode and clicking any of the member objects selects the entire group. For more on hierarchies, see the section “Hierarchy and Maya Object Structure” in Chapter 2.

Individual Selection Masks

The next set of icons between the section breaks deals with individual selection masks, which give you control over which objects or components you want to select. Exactly which icons are displayed here depends on your current selection mode. If you have many objects in your scene and you’re having difficulty selecting a certain type of object with your mouse pointer, you can use these filters to single out the object(s):

Icon	Name	Description
	Set Object Selection Mask	Turns on or off all selection icons
	Select by Handles	Allows selection of object handles
	Select by Joints	Allows selection of joints
	Select by Curve	Allows selection of curves
	Select by Surfaces	Allows selection of surfaces
	Select by Deformations	Allows selection of lattices and other deformers
	Select by Dynamics	Allows selection of particles and dynamic objects
	Select by Rendering	Allows selection of rendering nodes and objects such as lights and cameras
	Select by Miscellaneous	Allows selection of miscellaneous objects such as locators and dimensions
	Lock Selection	Keeps selected objects locked in as selected
	Highlight Selection Mode	Turns off the automatic display of components when selecting in a selection mode

You’ll work with these filters throughout the book. For a quick preview, hover your cursor over each of the icons to see a tool tip that gives the icon’s name and describes its function. As you gain experience, you’ll find these masks helpful in your workflow.

Snapping Functions or Snaps

The icons with the magnets are called snaps. They allow you to snap your cursor or object to specific points in the scene. You can snap to other objects, to CVs or vertices, and to grid intersections and other locations by toggling these icons. Therefore, you can place your objects or points precisely. You made good use of the snapping functions in the previous chapter in making the Solar System:

Icon	Name	Description
	Snap to Grids	Lets you snap objects to intersections of the view’s grid.
	Snap to Curves	Lets you snap objects along a curve.
	Snap to Points	Lets you snap objects to object points such as CVs or vertices.
	Snap to View Planes	Lets you snap objects to view planes.
	Make the Selected Object Live	This icon has nothing to do with snapping but is grouped with the Snap To icons. It lets you create objects such as curves directly on a surface.

Input and Output Connections

The first two icons following the filters list the input and output connections of an object. Objects in Maya can connect with each other to create relationships between them for animation, modeling, rendering, or what have you. When an object is influenced by an attribute of another object or node in Maya, it has an input connection. When the node’s own attribute(s) influence another object, it has an output connection. Clicking either of these icons shows you the connections for a selected object.

The third icon following the filters toggles Construction History on and off. Construction History is a feature that keeps track of the nodes and attributes that help make up an object, making it easier to edit those objects that have history. These subjects are covered in more detail later in this book:

Icon	Name	Description
	Input Connections	Lets you select and edit all the input connections for the selected object
	Output Connections	Lets you select and edit the output connections for the selected object
	Construction History	Toggles the object’s Construction History on/off

Render Controls

The next four icons give you access to render controls:

Icon	Name	Description
	Open Render View	Opens the Render View window
	Render Current View	Renders the active viewport at the current frame to the Render View window
	IPR Render Current View	Renders the active view at the current frame into Interactive Photorealistic Rendering (IPR), a feature that lets you change certain shading and texturing settings and view real-time updates
	Render Settings	Opens a window that gives you access to all the rendering switches, such as resolution, file type, and frame range

The Input Line Operations Menu and Fields

In this section, you can input values directly into Maya to affect the selected object(s). You have a few functions here at your disposal. Clicking the icon for the menu of line input operations () gives you access to the following features:

Absolute Transform Allows you to type in the XYZ values for how you want to move, rotate, or scale the selected object in the scene absolutely. This lets you give the object coordinates that are absolute to the coordinates of the 3D space. For instance, selecting a sphere and typing in XYZ values of 2, 8, and 10 for the Move tool places the sphere exactly at these coordinates (2,8,10) in the 3D space.

Relative Transform Entering the same values for Relative Transform adds 2, 8, and 10 to the current position of the sphere.

Rename Allows you to rename the selected object easily.

Select by Name Allows you to type the name of an object that you want Maya to select for you in a scene. This is handy when you have a large scene and don’t want to spend time hunting around in the view panels for an object. You can enter exact names as well as wildcards such as sphere*, which is handy if you only remember part of the object’s name.

The Channel Box/Layer Editor

The last part of the Status line deals with the area defined earlier in the chapter as the Attribute Editor and Channel Box/Layer Editor. These buttons toggle through three views in that area on the right side of the screen. Clicking the first button displays the Attribute Editor, with which you can edit Maya’s object attributes. Clicking the second button turns on a window called Tool Settings in that column, giving you access to options for the currently active tool. Clicking the last icon restores the Channel Box/Layer Editor, showing you the commonly keyed attributes of an active object as well as the display layers in your scene.

Pressing Ctrl+A toggles between the Attribute Editor and the Channel Box/Layer Editor by default. Additionally, at the top of these windows is a dotted bar. Clicking and dragging that bar undocks the window from the main user interface, so you can have a floating Attribute Editor, for example. You can redock the Attribute Editor by dragging the title bar back to where the dotted line is. These windows are discussed in detail later in this chapter. Feel free to skip ahead and then come back for the next area of the interface, the Shelf.

Icon	Name	Description
	Show/Hide Attribute Editor	Displays the Attribute Editor in this area
	Show/Hide Tool Settings	Displays the current tool’s settings
	Show/Hide Channel Box/Layer Editor	Displays the Channel Box and Layer Editor

The Shelf

The Shelf, shown in Figure 3-4, is an area where you keep icons for tools. It’s divided into tabs that define functions for the tool icons in the Shelf. Whenever you start Maya, the tab you used in your previous session of Maya will be selected and displayed.

Each tab is broken out into different function sets, showing you icons that are useful for a particular set of functions such as creating surfaces or creating lights and textures. You can change the Shelf display to show the functions you’ll be using by clicking the tabs. Click the Surfaces tab, and you’ll see icons to create often-used NURBS primitives (such as spheres and cubes) and often-used tools (such as Loft and Extrude). For more on these NURBS surface tools, see Chapter 5, “Modeling with NURBS, Subdivisions, and Deformers.”

The Custom tab is empty so that you can create your own custom Shelf, populating it with the tools you find most useful.

Pointing to an icon in the Shelf displays a tool tip that gives you the name and a description of that tool.

Don’t worry too much about the Shelf right now; it may be better to use the commands from the menus first before turning to icons and shelves. Doing so will build your proficiency at finding the tools you need, and it will also give you the chance to explore further every time you open a menu. After you’ve used Maya for a while, you’ll probably use the Shelf feature to create a group of your favorite tools; you’ll find it to be a key feature of your workflow.

Advanced Tip: Customizing the Shelf

When you’ve established a set of favorite Maya tools for routine tasks, you may want to customize the Shelf to make those tools immediately accessible. Clicking the Menu icon () opens a menu that you can use to edit the Shelf to your liking. To add a menu item to the Shelf, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift, and select the command from the menu (for Mac users, press Ctrl+Option+Shift). The command appears on the current Shelf. To get rid of an item, MMB+click to drag it to the Trash icon. You can create multiple shelves, stack them on top of each other, and access them by clicking the Shelf Tab icon () above the Menu icon to the left of the Shelf. For more, see the section “Customizing Maya” at the end of this chapter.

The Tool Box

The Tool Box, shown in Figure 3-5, displays the most commonly used tools: Select, Lasso Select, Translate (or Move), Rotate, Scale, Universal Manipulator, Soft Modification, and Show Manipulator. In addition to the common commands, it displays several choices for screen layouts that let you change the interface with a single click. This is convenient because different animations call for different view modes. Experiment with the layouts by clicking any of the six presets in the Tool Box.

Icon	Name	Description
	Select	Lets you select objects
	Lasso Select	Allows for a free-form selection using a lasso marquee
	Paint Selection Tool	Enables the Paint Selection tool
	Translate (Move)	Moves the selection
	Rotate	Rotates the selection
	Scale	Scales the selection
	Universal Manipulator	Allows for translation, rotation, and scale within one tool
	Soft Modification	Allows you to modify an area with a gradual drop-off of its effect
	Show Manipulator	Displays an object’s specific manipulators
	Current Tool display	Shows the currently selected tool (shown as blank)

The Channel Box/Layer Editor

The area running vertically to the right of the screen is usually used for the Channel Box. This key element of the interface lists an object’s channels: that is, the attributes of an object that are most commonly animated and used for keyframing, as well as an object’s input and output connections. When an object is selected in one of the main views, its name appears at the top of the Channel Box and its channels are listed vertically below with their names to the left and their values to the right in text boxes. In the Channel Box, you can edit all the channel values and rename the object itself. Below these values are the names of the nodes or objects to which the selection has input and output connections.

Immediately under the Channel Box is the Layer Editor. This arrangement is convenient for scenes that require multiple objects and require layered objects, renders, and animations. Each type of layer is designated by the radial check box (Display, Render, and Anim).

You can place some objects on Display layers that can be turned on or off to help organize a scene. Become familiar with this feature early, because it will be a valuable asset when you animate complicated scenes.

Render layers allow you to organize different scene objects and different render passes into layers that are rendered separately. You’ll be introduced to rendering in layers later in this book. Finally, in this space you can access the use of Animation layers. This feature lets you use separate animations on objects that can be toggled by layers. Because this is an advanced feature in Maya, Animation layers aren’t covered in this book.

To create a new layer, click the Create New Layer icon (). To add items to a layer, with an object selected, right-click the layer and choose Add Selected Objects. You can also use the layers to select groups of objects by choosing Layers ⇒ Select Objects in Selected Layers or by right-clicking the layer and choosing Select Objects. To change the name and color of a layer, double-click the layer to open the Edit Layer dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-6.

You can easily resize this area by clicking and dragging the left side wall of the panel. (See Figure 3-7)

This area of the screen is usually used for the Channel Box and the Layer Editor. You can replace this panel with one of two other windows—the Attribute Editor or the Tool Settings—by clicking one of the three icons in the upper-right corner, as shown in the Channel Box/Layer Editor section. This gives you quick access to the three windows you find most useful to have onscreen all the time. You may want to display the Channel Box all the time.

Time Slider/Range Slider

Running horizontally across the bottom of the screen are the Time slider and the Range slider, as shown in Figure 3-8. The Time slider displays the range of frames available in your animation and gives you a gray bar, known as the Current Time indicator. You can click it and then drag it back and forth in a scrubbing motion to move through time in your sequence. (When instructed in this book to scrub to a certain point in your animation, use this indicator to do so.)

The text box to the right of the Time slider gives you your current frame, but you can also use the text box to enter the frame you want to access. Immediately next to the current time readout is a set of DVD/DVR-type playback controls that you can use to play back your animation.

Below the Time slider is the Range slider, which you use to adjust the range of animation playback for your Time slider. The text boxes on either side of this slider give you readouts for the start and end frames of the scene and of the range selected.

You can adjust any of these settings by typing in these text boxes or by lengthening or shortening the slider with the handles on either end of the bar. When you change the range, you change only the viewable frame range of the scene; you don’t adjust any of the animation.

This lets you zoom into sections of the timeline, which makes adjusting keyframes and timing much easier, especially in long animations. When you zoom into a particular section of your time frame, the Time slider displays only the frames and keyframes for that portion, making it easier to read.

To the right of the Range slider are the Character Set Selection menu (which deals with the automation of character-animated objects), the Auto Keyframe button (which sets a keyframe automatically when an animated value is changed), and the Animation Preferences button. You’ll find information about these features later in this book.

Command Line/Help Line

Maya Embedded Language (MEL) is the user-accessible programming language of Maya. Every action you take invokes a MEL command or script that runs that particular function. You can write your own commands or scripts using either the Command line or the Script Editor. Use the Command line (see Figure 3-9) to enter single MEL commands directly from the keyboard in the white text box portion of the bar. The Command line also displays command feedback and messages from the program in the gray portion of the bar. Try entering the following into this box: sphere. A new sphere should pop up in your Maya panels. You’ve created a basic sphere using the MEL command. To delete it, click it to select it, and then press Delete.

Opening the Attribute Editor in Its Own Window

By default, the Attribute Editor opens in the right side of the UI area of the screen when you start Maya. The preferred configuration in this book is to open the Attribute Editor as a separate window instead. To follow along in this book, you’ll want this configuration.

To configure the Attribute Editor to open in its own window, choose Window ⇒ Settings/Preferences ⇒ Preferences to open the Preferences dialog box.

Under the Interface ⇒ UI Elements heading, uncheck the Attribute Editor and Tool Settings check boxes in the Editor in Main Window section, as shown here.

If any of your screen elements are missing, you can toggle them on and off through this dialog box.

Clicking the icon at the end of the Command line opens the Script Editor, in which you can enter more complicated MEL or Python commands and scripts.

Below the Command line is the Help line. This bar provides a quick reference for almost everything on the screen. For the most part, it’s a readout of functions when you point to icons. It also prompts you for the next step in a particular function or the next required input for a task’s completion.

The Help line is very useful when you’re not really sure about the next step in a command, such as which object to select next or which key to press to execute the command. You’ll be surprised by how much you’ll learn about tool functions by reading the prompts displayed here.