Maya - not understanding the nodes system completely.

SopMod

Hello fellow forum mates,
I am slowly engaging myself with Maya, but I have multiple problems when it comes to understanding the node system.

I have worked with nodes before, so I do understand the concept of nodes completely. But when it comes to Maya, I mostly hit a wall.

I cannot seem to get hold of the random inputs and output nodes, mostly textures, and also when I start creating something in the node editor, the nodes keeps moving randomly, and it's complete chaos. When I close the editor, and re open it, all the nodes disappear, even though they were pinned.

Does anyone know of some resource or tutorial that would explain the nodes in Maya? Every tut mostly just jumps over this topic, and it's never properly explained (for instance why are sometimes inputs treated as outputs). I am just searching for some sort of a general explanation of how the node system works.

Hard question and very broad, I know, but someone might know...
Thanks guys.

jfeez

For the nodes disappearing you can bookmark your node layout, there is a bookmark editor. If you do close and haven't bookmarked your node layout, you can get back to it, just click on an object you know is connected to the layout you where working on and there should be an arrow like symbol in the node editor, click on it and it shows all connections to that object

I'm slightly confused on what you mean with random input and output nodes and why inputs are treated as outputs though so i cant help much there =/

SopMod

Thanks for the response, and just checked the bookmark editor, and it's great. When it comes to the random inputs and outputs, of course it's not completely random, it's just really confusing. So I was wondering if there was some sort of a general explanation somewhere, for example why is there "lighLinker" node, or blinnSG, and what these mean. My intention is to use only the node editor in Maya, for controls, and material creation, etc. So I want to get deep into it, but it doesn't seem like there is some good tuts out there describing the workflow.

If anything please tell me . Thanks jfeez