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 are doing. By switching menu sets, you change your menu choices and hence your available toolset. The menu sets in Maya Complete are Animation, Polygons, Surfaces, Rendering, and Dynamics; Maya Unlimited adds the Cloth and Maya Live menu sets. No matter which menu set you are 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.

Figure 3.2. The Main Menu bar is where the magic happens!

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

As noted above, the following menus are always visible:

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 create multiple polygonal spheres. You can tear off the Create → Polygon Primitives menu and place it at the edge of your screen. You can then click the Sphere command as many times as you need without opening the dual-layered menu every time. To tear off a menu, click the double line at the top of the menu and drag the menu where you want it.

The Status line (see Figure 3.3) contains a number of important and often used icons.

Figure 3.3. The Status line

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 menus headings in the Main Menu bar according to the type of work you are doing (modeling with polygons, rendering, animating, etc.). You will notice immediately after the Menu Set drop-down menu, and intermittently throughout the Status line, black 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 an object but not another so you can, for example, select all the particles in the scene and none of the polygon models.

Note

Using a selection mask, you can select some object types in a scene and not others. For example, in a heavily layered scene, you might want to select only the faces of a polygon and not any other object or object component. You can use a selection mask to isolate polygonal faces as the only selectable object on the screen and click away.

This Selection Mode field gives you some presets that optimize the Selection modes for your convenience. However, you might 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

Note

To switch between Object and Component modes, press the F8 key, which is Maya 2009's default hot key.

Click the Hierarchy Mode icon, for example, to select the topmost node of a hierarchy or group of objects. If you have 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 "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 are having difficulty selecting a certain type of object with your mouse pointer, you can use these filters to single the object(s) out:

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 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. Pressing either of these icons will show 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 (

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 it 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 will place the sphere exactly at these coordinates (2,8,10) in the 3D space.

Relative Transform

Entering the same values for Relative Transform will add 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 in the name of an object in the scene you want Maya to select for you. 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 name of the object.

The Channel Box/Layer Editor

The last part of the Status line deals with the area defined earlier in the chapter as the 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 Options 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. 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, shown in Figure 3.4, is an area where you keep icons for tools. It is 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.

Figure 3.4. The Shelf

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 will 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 4, "Beginning Polygonal Modeling."

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. This 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 have used Maya for a while, you will probably use the Shelf feature to create a group of your favorite tools and you will find it to be a key feature of your workflow.

ADVANCED TIP: CUSTOMIZING THE SHELF

Once you have established a set of favorite Maya tools for routine tasks, you might want to customize the Shelf to make those tools immediately accessible. Clicking the Menu icon (

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 quite convenient because different animations call for different view modes. Experiment with the layouts by clicking any of the six presets in the Tool Box.

Figure 3.5. 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 selection
	Rotate	Rotates selection
	Scale	Scales 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 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).

Figure 3.6. The Edit Layer window

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

Figure 3.7. The Channel Box/Layer Editor

Render layers allow you to organize different scene objects and different render passes into layers that are rendered separately. You will be introduced to rendering in layers later in this book. A new feature in Maya 2009 is the use of Animation layers. This feature allows you to use separate animations on objects that can be toggled by layers. As this is an advanced feature in Maya, Animation layers are not covered in this book.

To create a new layer, click the Create New Layer icon (

You can easily resize this area by clicking either of the double arrow buttons at the bottom of the panel. You can also switch between the Channel box and the Layer Editor by toggling one of the icons in the upper-left corner (See Figure 3.7).

ICON	NAME
	Show the Channel box
	Show the Layer Editor
	Show the Channel box and the Layer Editor

This area of the screen is usually used for the Channel box and the Layer Editor because 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 Figure 3.5. This gives you quick access to the three windows you find most useful to have onscreen all the time. You might want to display the Channel box all the time.

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.)

Figure 3.8. The Time slider and the Range slider

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 on these features later in this book.

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.

Figure 3.9. The Command line and the Help line

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.

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 also 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 section, set Open Attribute Editor to In Separate Window and set Open Tool Settings to In Separate Window, as shown here.

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

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.

The default Maya layout begins with a full-screen perspective view, as shown in Figure 3.10. This is essentially a camera view and expresses real-world depth through the simulation of perspective. In this window, you can see your creation in three dimensions and move around it in real time to get a sense of proportion and depth.

Figure 3.10. The full perspective view

By pressing the spacebar, you can switch your view from the full-screen perspective to the four-panel layout shown in Figure 3.11. Pressing the spacebar again returns your active view panel to Full-Screen mode.

Orthographic views (top, front, and side) are most commonly used for modeling, because they are best at conveying exact dimensions and size relationships. Even though the cubes in the Perspective window are all the same size, the perspective view, by definition, displays the cubes farther away as being smaller than those closer to you. Orthographic views, however, display exact proportions so that you can see the four cubes as being identical in size and shape.

Figure 3.11. The four-panel layout

The four-panel layout gives you accurate feedback on the sizing and proportionality of your models. In general, you'll probably prefer to start your modeling in orthographic view and use the perspective view(s) for fine-tuning and finishing work and for setting up camera angles for rendering. You can also easily change from perspective to any of the orthographic views in the current panel by using the ViewCube (

You can easily adjust the panel layouts of your screen by using any of the six presets in the Tool Box on the left side of the screen or by choosing Window → Saved Layouts. Furthermore, you can replace each view panel by choosing another panel name from the list in the Panels menu in the bar at the top of each view. From this menu, you can choose any modeling view, orthographic or perspective, or another window to best suit your workflow. You can also change the size of these windows by clicking and dragging the separating borders between the panels.

By default, each panel displays a grid that you can adjust by choosing Display → Grid

Wireframe and Shaded Modes

When you're working in the windows, you can view your 3D objects as either wireframe models (as in Figure 3.12) or as solid, hardware-rendered models called Shaded mode (see Figure 3.13). Wireframe mode is the fastest because it makes fewer processing demands on your computer. However, Shaded mode can be pretty quick too, depending on your graphics card and your system processor.

Figure 3.12. NURBS display smoothness

Figure 3.13. Shaded NURBS display detail

Within Shaded mode, you can select varying degrees of shading detail. You can cycle through the levels of detail by pressing 4, 5, 6, and 7. Wireframe mode is 4, Shaded mode is 5, Texture Shaded mode is 6, and Lighted mode is 7.

Pressing 4 or 5 toggles between Wireframe and Shaded mode in any of the Modeling windows. Texture Shaded mode (6) displays the image textures that have been applied to the object as long as Hardware Texturing is already enabled. (In the view panel, choose Shading → Hardware Texturing and make sure it is checked on.) Lighted mode (7) is a hardware preview of the object or objects as they are lit in the scene. The detail level hot keys for NURBS objects (1, 2, 3) apply in Shaded mode as well. Here's a summary:

Key	Function
4	Toggles into Wireframe mode
5	Toggles into Shaded mode
6	Toggles into Textured mode
7	Toggles into Lighted mode

It's always good to toggle between the Wireframe and Shaded modes to get a feel for the weight and proportion of your model as you are building it. The Texture mode is good for the rudimentary lining up of textures, but typically it's better to rely on fully rendered frames for that. The IPR renderer in Maya is also great for previewing work because it updates areas of the frame in good quality renders at interactive speeds. Chapter 11, "Maya Rendering," covers IPR.

The Lighted mode, however, is useful for spotting proper lighting direction and object highlights when you first begin lighting a scene. It helps to see the direction of lights within your scene without having to render frames all the time. How many lights you see in the Modeling window depends on your computer's graphics and overall capabilities. Chapter 10, "Maya Lighting," covers lighting and makes frequent use of this mode.

Other display commands you will find useful while working in the Modeling windows are found under the view panel's View menu. Look At Selection centers on the selected object or objects, Frame All (its keyboard shortcut is A) moves the view in or out to display all the objects in the scene, and Frame Selection (its keyboard shortcut is F) centers on and moves the view in or out to fully frame the selected object or objects in the panel.

Note

When using the keyboard shortcuts discussed in this subsection, don't press the Shift key to generate the letter A or F. Keyboard shortcuts in Maya are described as "case sensitive" because in many cases pressing a single letter key has a different effect than pressing Shift + that letter (which makes the letter uppercase). This book shows all single letters as capitals in the text (the same way they appear on your keyboard). The Shift key is included in the text only when it's part of an uppercase shortcut. So if you find yourself wondering why pressing a hot key isn't working, make sure you are not pressing Shift or that the Caps Lock is not enabled, capitalizing your entries when they should be lowercase.

The next thing you should know about the interface deals directly with objects. Manipulators are onscreen handles that you use to manipulate the selected object. Figure 3.14 shows three distinct and common Manipulators for all objects in Maya: Move, Rotate, and Scale. You use these Manipulators to adjust attributes of the objects visually and in real time. In addition, the fourth icon shown in Figure 3.14 is the Universal Manipulator, which allows you to move, rotate, or scale an object all with one Manipulator. Additionally, you can use special Manipulators, or special manips, to adjust specific functions while using certain tools or with some objects, such as a spotlight.

You can access the Manipulators using either the icons from the Tool Box or the following hot keys:

It may seem strange for the default hot keys to be W, E, and R for Move, Rotate, and Scale, but because the keys are right next to each other on the keyboard, selecting them is easy. These are without a doubt the hot keys you will use most often, because they activate the tools you will use the majority of the time.

In the last chapter, you made ample use of the Manipulators. In the following short exercise, you'll take a look at the remaining Manipulators in the Tool Box.

Figure 3.14. Using Manipulators

Figure 3.15. Options for creating the NURBS plane

The Universal Manipulator interactively shows you the movement, rotation, or scale as you manipulate the sphere. Notice the coordinates that come up and change as you move the sphere. When you rotate using this Manipulator, you'll see the degree of change. Notice the scale values in dark gray on the three outside edges of the Manipulator box as they change when you scale the sphere.

Next, let's try using the Soft Modification tool (

This places a plane on the grid. Select the Scale tool and scale the plane up to about the size of the grid. Then select the Soft Modification tool (

Figure 3.16. Creating and manipulating a soft Modification

Figure 3.17. Lifting up an area of the NURBS plane

Grab the cone handle and drag it up to move the soft selection up. Notice the plane lifts up in that area only, gradually falling off. This effect resembles what happens when you pick up a section of a tablecloth with one hand.

Grabbing the cube handle will scale the soft selection, and dragging on the circle will rotate it. Once you're done making your soft adjustments, you can go back to that soft selection by selecting the "S" on the surface for later editing. You can place as many soft selections as you need on a surface. Figure 3.17 shows the soft modification adjusting the plane.

To use the Attribute Editor, select Window → Attribute Editor (Ctrl+A). The Attribute Editor window is arguably the most important window in Maya. Every object is defined by a series of attributes, and you edit these attributes using the Attribute Editor. This window displays every attribute of an object, and you can use it to change them, set keyframes, connect to other attributes, attach expressions, or simply view the attributes.

The Attribute Editor has tabs that correspond to the object's node structure. You'll learn more about Maya's object structure later in this chapter, so don't worry about what the tabs mean just yet. As you can see, each tab displays different attributes of the object.

You'll notice that the Channel box now has the primary attributes (Translate X, Translate Y, Translate Z, Rotate X, and so on) of the sphere already listed. Below them, you'll find the shapes node named nurbsSphereShape1 and the inputs node makeNurbSphere1 listed. If you click the makeNurbSphere1 entry in the Channel box, it will expand to show you Select attributes from the tab of the same name in the Attribute Editor. These attributes, despite being shown in two places, are the same. If you edit one in the Channel box, it will be reflected in the Attribute Editor, and vice versa. The Channel box is essentially a quick reference, giving you access to the most likely animated attributes of an object. The Attribute Editor goes into detail, giving you access to everything that makes up that object and the other nodes that influence it.

Try changing some of the settings in this window and see how that affects the sphere in the view panels. For example, changing the Radius attribute under the nurbsSphereShape1 tab changes the size of the sphere. Click the nurbsSphere1 tab next, and you will see the primary attributes listed. Try entering some different values for the Translate or Scale attributes to see what happens to the sphere in the view panels.

Figure 3.18. The Attribute Editor

On the flip side, press W to activate the Move tool and move the sphere around one of the view planes. Notice that the respective Translate attributes update in almost real time in both the Attribute Editor and the Channel box. You'll see an area for writing down notes at the bottom of the Attribute Editor. This is handy because you can put reminders here of important events, such as how you set up an object or even a birthday or an anniversary. If you drag the horizontal bar, you can adjust the size of the notes space, as shown in Figure 3.19.

Figure 3.19. You can keep notes with an object's attributes in the Attribute Editor.

Because you'll use the Attribute Editor constantly, you might want to keep the window open all the time and just move it around. You can also press the Ctrl+A hot key to open the window more easily.

These two very different windows serve similar functions. They are both used for organizing and grouping scene objects. These windows let you see every object node in your scene in either outline or flowchart/graph form.

When you are well into an animation or a model, you will invariably have several elements in your scene. Without a roadmap, finding the correct object to select or manipulate can be difficult. Both windows provide this service.

So how do you choose between the Outliner and the Hypergraph? It depends on exactly what you need to do. The Outliner is perfect for organizing, grouping objects, renaming nodes, and so forth. The Hypergraph displays all the connections between nodes, and it is perfect for editing the relationships between nodes and locating hard-to-find nested nodes in a big scene.

The Outliner

To use the Outliner, select Window → Outliner (see Figure 3.20). It displays all the objects in your scene as an outline. You can select any object in a scene by clicking its name.

Figure 3.20. The Outliner

The objects are listed by order of creation within the scene, but you can easily reorganize them by MMB+clicking and dragging an object to a new location in the window, which allows you to group certain objects in the list. This is a fantastic way to keep your scene organized.

Additionally, you can easily rename objects by double-clicking their Outliner entry and typing their new name. It's crucial to an efficient animation process to keep things well named and properly organized. By doing so, you can quickly identify parts of your scene for later editing and troubleshooting.

A separator bar in the Outliner lets you split the display into two separate outline views. By clicking and dragging this bar up or down, you can see either end of a long list, with both ends having independent scrolling control.

The Hypergraph

By contrast, the Hypergraph: Hierarchy (referred to as just the Hypergraph from here on) displays all the objects in your scene in a graphical layout similar to a flowchart (see Figure 3.21). Select Window → Hypergraph: Hierarchy to see the relationships between the objects in your scene more directly. This window will perhaps be somewhat more difficult to decipher for the novice, but it affords the user great control over object interconnectivity, hierarchy, and input and output connections. The Hypergraph Input and Output Connections window is technically called the Hypergraph window, but it shows you the interconnections of attributes among nodes as opposed to the layout of nodes and node hierarchy within the scene. For the most part, throughout this book we will be dealing with the Hypergraph Scene Hierarchy and referring to it as the Hypergraph.

Navigating the Hypergraph is the same as navigating any Modeling window using the familiar Alt key and mouse combinations for tracking and zooming. Subsequent chapters will focus much more on these two windows. Let's have a quick look at the windows and their icons. Later on you can refer back to this section as needed.

Figure 3.21. The Hypergraph

Just as the Outliner and Hypergraph windows list the objects in the scene, the Multilister and Hypershade windows list the textures and shaders of your scene. Shaders are assigned to objects to give them their visual appearance—their look and feel, in other words. Through either of these windows, you can create and edit custom shaders and assign them to any object in the scene. Advantages are associated with each of these two windows, and the one you use will depend on personal preference and the particular task.

The Multilister

True to its name, the Multilister (Window → Rendering Editors → Multilister) lays out not just the shaders of your scene, but also lights and cameras and the shaders' textures in a table format. (See Figure 3.22.) All the shaders in the scene are displayed under their respective tabs in this window and are represented by named thumbnail icons.

Figure 3.22. The Multilister

Double-clicking any of the names under the thumbnails lets you change the name of the shader or render node. Remember, keeping objects—including shaders—properly named is critical to good animation workflow and will keep your co-workers happy when you're working in a group.

Clicking any of the thumbnails themselves selects the shader for use, and double-clicking a thumbnail opens its Attribute Editor. Commands for assigning and such are all located in the Multilister's menu bar, but you can also access them by right-clicking to activate the shortcut menus.

The Multilister has two panels. Both panels let you select what type of shading/render node is displayed. By default, the top panel displays all the shaders in the scene on its General tab—with materials, lights, and camera nodes under their respective tabs. The bottom panel is typically reserved for the display of texture nodes that are available for use or are already connected to shaders.

You can customize both panels using the Display and Filter menus.

The Multilister is perfect for quick reference of shaders and lights, but it lacks the muscle to edit shaders as easily as with the Hypershade. You will definitely want to work more with the Hypershade window and use the Multilister as a quick reference now and then.

The Hypershade

The Hypershade (Window → Rendering Editors → Hypershade) displays the shaders and textures in your scene in a graphical flowchart layout similar to the Hypergraph window. (See Figure 3.23.) You can easily connect and disconnect render nodes to create anything from simple to complex shading networks. The Hypershade window has three main areas: the Create/Bins panel, the render node display, and the work area. The three icons in the upper right let you easily switch views.

Figure 3.23. The Hypershade

The Create/Bins Panel

The Create/Bins panel is divided into two tabs: Create and Bins. Selecting the Create tab gives you access to a variety of render nodes. The Bins tab adds a level of organization by letting you store sets of shaders in different bins to sort them. By default, Maya selects the Create tab. Here you can create any render node and its supporting textures by clicking the icon for the desired shader or texture. The bar at the top switches between Create Maya Nodes and Create Mental Ray Nodes. You will deal exclusively with Maya shaders in this book, as the mental ray renderer is a more advanced topic. In the Create Maya Nodes panel, render nodes are divided into sections for their types, such as Surface (or material nodes), 2D Textures, Lights, and so on.

The Render Node Display Area

After you create a render node, it appears in the display area as a thumbnail icon as well as in the work area and is available for editing. Clicking a render node's icon selects that node for use. Double-clicking the icon opens the Attribute Editor. You can also use the middle mouse button to drag the icon to the work area where you can create or edit the render node's connections to other nodes to form shading networks. Navigating in this area of the Hypershade, as well as the work area, is similar to navigating the Hypergraph and work windows in that you use the Alt/Option key and mouse controls.

The Work Area

The work area is a free-form workspace where you can connect render nodes to form shading networks that you can assign to your object(s) for rendering. This is by far the easiest place to create and edit complex shaders, because it gives you a clear flowchart of the network. You can add nodes to the workspace by MMB+clicking and dragging them from either the display area of the Hypershade or even the Multilister window.

To use the Maya's Graph Editor, select Window → Animation Editors → Graph Editor. It is an unbelievably powerful tool for the animator (see Figure 3.24), that you use to edit keyframes in animation.

Figure 3.24. The Graph Editor

Because 3D data is stored digitally as vector information in mathematical form, every movement that is set in Maya generates a graph of value versus time. The Graph Editor gives you direct access to the curves generated by your animation, which means that you have unparalleled access to editing and fine-tuning your animation.

The Graph Editor is divided into two sections. The left portion, which is much like the Outliner, displays the selected objects and their hierarchy with a listing of their animated channels or attributes. By default, all of an object's keyframed channels are displayed as colored curves in the display to the right of the list. However, by selecting an object or an object's channel in the list, you can isolate only those curves you want to see.

The Graph Editor displays these animation curves, also known as function curves, as value versus time, with value running vertically and time horizontally. Keyframes are represented on the curves as points that can be freely moved about to adjust timing or value. You'll want to tune and refine animation through the Graph Editor, because doing so gives you the utmost in control over value, timing, and finesse.

The concept of the Graph Editor, and the process of editing animation using graph curves, may seem daunting at first, especially if you are not mathematically inclined. However, this window is truly an animator's best friend. Intimate knowledge of this process will come to you as you use the Graph Editor, and you will find it much easier to deal with animation. Most if not all animation programs make extensive use of a graph or function-curve editor. You will be making significant use of the Graph Editor a little later on in the book.

To use the Script Editor, select Window → General Editors → Script Editor. You can also access it (see Figure 3.25) by clicking the icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen at the end of the Command line or by choosing it from the menu. Because almost everything in Maya is built on MEL, every command you initiate generates some sort of MEL script or MEL argument. A history of these comments is available in the Script Editor.

Figure 3.25. The Script Editor

This window is handy when you need to reference a command that was issued or an argument or a comment that was displayed. It is also useful in scripting, or creating macros of MEL or Python commands to execute compound actions. When you want to create a custom procedure, you can copy and paste MEL from this window to form macros. You can also click the Python tab to switch to scripting in the popular Python language.

The window has two halves. The top half is the Script Editor's feedback history, and the bottom half is its Command line, where new MEL commands can be issued. By highlighting text in the upper window, you can copy and paste the command back into the Command line. You can easily add newly issued commands or macros of commands to the Shelf by choosing File → Save Script to Shelf or by clicking the Save Script to Shelf icon (

Using the Script Editor is also a good way to check on error messages that are too long to view fully in the Command line's Feedback box. If you see an error message pop up and something goes wrong, open the Script Editor to see what sort of error(s) have occurred.

Figure 3.26. The Connection Editor shows a newly created connection between a cone and a sphere.

To use the Connection Editor, select Window → General Editors → Connection Editor. You can use the Connection Editor (see Figure 2.26) to connect attributes between almost any two objects easily. Therefore, you can set up almost any sort of relationship between any number of objects. For example, the scale of a cube in the Y-axis could control the Y-axis rotation of a sphere through a simple click of the mouse to connect the two attributes. You can set up more complicated connections to rotate the tires of a car automatically as the car moves forward, for example.

The Connection Editor window is separated into two vertical columns, each representing one of two objects. By selecting an object and clicking the Reload Left button, you can load all the attributes of the selected objects into the Connection Editor's left column. By selecting a second object and clicking Reload Right, you can load the attributes of the second object. Clicking attributes in both columns creates a direct relationship between the two objects' attributes.

Connections are the cornerstone of animation and a significant reason for it being so open-ended in Maya. You can create any kind of relationship between almost any attributes of almost any object to create highly complex, interconnected animations as well as automate animations to simplify a job—and who wouldn't want to simplify a job?

The Hotbox gives you convenient access to Maya's menus and commands. Figure 3.27 shows the Hotbox configured to show all the menus in Maya 2009.

To display the Hotbox, press and hold down the spacebar in any panel view. All the menu commands that are available from the Main menu bar are also available through the Hotbox. To access a command, simply click it. You can display some or all of the menu headings to give you quick access to whatever commands and features you use most by clicking Hotbox Controls and selecting the menus.

As you can see in Figure 3.28, the Hotbox is separated into five distinct zones—North, East, West, South, and Center—delineated by black diagonal lines. Activating the Hotbox and clicking a zone displays a set of shortcut menu commands called marking menus, discussed in the next section.

If you don't see all the menu options when you invoke the Hotbox, or if you want to restrict the menu display to specific menu sets, simply invoke the Hotbox by pressing the spacebar, click Hotbox Controls, and mark the selection of menus you would like, such as Hide All or Show All, from the marking menu.

Figure 3.27. The Hotbox and marking menus

Figure 3.28. Hotbox zones

In addition to menu selections, the Hotbox has marking menus in each of the five zones. Using marking menus is yet another way to access the commands you use the most quickly. By default, the marking menus deal with changing your selection masks (which objects you can and cannot select), Control Panel visibility, and the type of panel that is being displayed. You can also access predefined (but customizable) key/mouse strokes through the Hotbox.

Recall that menu sets are organized according to function. These menu sets are Animation, Polygons, Surfaces, Dynamics, and Rendering in Maya Complete; Maya Unlimited adds the Cloth and Maya Live menu sets. Each menu set gives you access to the commands associated with its broader function set. The Animation menu set, for example, displays in the Main Menu bar all the menu headers that correspond to animation functions, such as the Deform and Skeleton menus.

Figure 3.29. The menu sets help organize the menu headings.

The Menu Set drop-down is the first thing on the Status line as shown in Figure 3.29.

Changing between menus is easier if you use the default hot keys.

Switching back and forth between menu sets may feel a little strange at first, but it makes for a much more organized workspace than having all the menu headers staring at you across the top of the window as you animate. Besides, you can access all the functions through the Hotbox anywhere on the screen.

When wondering where a particular toolset is, all you need to do is ask yourself, "What CG phase would that function fall under?" Because the menu sets are organized in phases of computer animation workflow—modeling (Polygons and Surfaces), animating, dynamics, and lighting/rendering—the task dictates which menu includes its toolset.

All the customization features are found under Window→Settings/Preferences, which displays the window shown in Figure 3.30.

Figure 3.30. The Settings/Preferences menu

The Preferences window (Figure 3.31) lets you make changes to the look of the program as well as to toolset defaults by selecting from the categories listed in the left pane of the window. You've already changed some settings in this window when you set the Attribute Editor window to open in a separate window.

Figure 3.31. The Preferences window

By adjusting the time setting, you tell Maya your frame rate of animation. If you are working in film, you use a frame rate of 24 frames per second. If you are working in NTSC video (the standard video/television format in the Americas), you use the frame rate of 30 frames per second. This Category window is also accessed through the Animation Preferences icon at the end of the Range slider (

Figure 3.32. The Shelf Editor

Under the Shelves command (Window → Settings/Preferences → Shelf Editor), there lurks a window that manages your shelves (Figure 3.32). You can create or delete shelves, or manage the items on the Shelf with this function. This is handy when you create your own workflow for a project. You'll likely not customize your own Shelf for a while until you are very comfortable with Maya. Simply click the Shelves tab to display the icons on that Shelf in the Shelves Editor window. Click the Shelf Contents tab to edit the icons and where they reside on that Shelf. Clicking on the Edit Commands tab will give you access to the actual MEL command for that icon.

You can also edit Shelf icons from within the UI; you don't need to load the Shelves Editor. For example, to add items to your Shelf, you merely have to drag its icon to the Shelf. To add a menu command to the current Shelf, hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift and click the function or command directly from its menu. Items from the Tool Box, pull-down menu, or the Script Editor may be added to any Shelf:

Hotkeys are keyboard shortcuts that can access almost any Maya tool or command. You have already encountered a few so far in your exploration of the interface and in the Solar System exercise in the previous chapter. What fun! You can create even more hotkeys, as well as reassign existing hotkeys through the Hotkey Editor, shown in Figure 3.33 (Window → Settings/Preferences → Hotkey Editor).

Through this monolith of a window, you can set virtually any key combination to be used as a shortcut to virtually any command in Maya. This is the last customization you want to touch. Because so many tools already have hotkeys assigned by default, it is important to get to know them first before you start changing things around to suit how you work.

Figure 3.33. The Hotkey Editor

Every menu command is represented by menu categories on the left, while the right side allows you to view the current hotkey, or to assign a new hotkey to the selected command. Ctrl and Alt key combinations may be used with any letter keys on the keyboard. Keep in mind that Maya is case-sensitive, meaning it differentiates between uppercase and lowercase letters. For example, one of my personal hotkeys is Ctrl+H to hide the selected object from view while Shift+Ctrl+H is to unhide it. (I'm sharing.)

When you are ready to start setting your own hotkeys, you should query your intended hotkey with the Query button to find out if it is assigned to a command that suits that hotkey better.

The lower section of this window displays the MEL command that the menu command invokes. It also allows you to type in your own MEL commands, name them as new commands, categorize them with the other commands, and assign hotkeys to them.

You can set the colors for almost any part of the interface to your liking through the Color Settings window shown in Figure 3.34 (Window → Settings/Preferences → Color Settings).

The window is separated into different aspects of the Maya interface by headings. The 3D Views heading allows you to change the color of all the panels' backgrounds. For example, color settings give you a chance to set the interface to complement your office's décor as well as make certain items easier to read.

Figure 3.34. Changing the interface colors is simple.

Customizing Maya is important. However, and this can't be said enough, it's important to get your bearings with default Maya settings before you venture out and change hotkeys and such. When you're ready, this section of this chapter will still be here for your reference. (Or will it?