[Autodesk Maya] I can't see my model properly (and I'm a noob)

TheLazyScarecrow

Hello everyone !

So, I am trying to use Autodesk Maya for the first time and I've never used any other 3D modeling software before (except for MagicaVoxel).

I have a problem which is that there are almost no shades so everything seems gray and I can't really see my model. The only solution I found is to click the "Wireframe on shaded" button to highlight the edges of my model ( this button : http://prntscr.com/g8vxm7 ) but I'm sure there is a proper way to solve the problem I currently have.

Here are some pics so you guys can see what I'm talking about :

https://prnt.sc/g8vz5i

Here is a pic with the "Wireframe on shaded" button on : 

http://prntscr.com/g8vzgk

(Please don't judge the terrible model I started, I don't know what I'm doing hahaha)

Thanks a lot for reading and I hope that somebody will be able to help me. Trying to learn Maya when you can't see anything is soooo annoying T_T

PS : I hope my english isn't too bad by the way 

dlz

You are using the default viewport in maya i asume wich is viewport 2.0 I had that problem too and the solutions i found are:
-You can change the material to something with more "highlights" like a blinn with dark diffuse or something like this, especially if you are working with subdiv method, so you can see if there are any artifacts. 
- You can change the viewport to something like Legacy high Quality Viewport but it slows down a bit and it bothers me, and more important it happens to me to get artifacts wich dont exist in other viewports i ask that in this forum and it seems to be that its a bit buggy viewport 
- There's a button "screen space ambient oclusion" that does exactly that: casts an ambient oclusion in your mesh in realtime. It slows a bit too but it works very nice.
Anyways i encourage you to experiment a bit with the settings of viewport 2.0 and the other things i mention but if you are working in something low poly or if its not too much complicated i will simply make a shortcut to see the wireframe or click in the menu and go with that.

TheLazyScarecrow

@dlz Thanks a lot for your answer!

I found the screen space ambient oclusion button but for some reason I'm getting an error message : http://prntscr.com/g8wmqi
Do you know what is happening? Is my computer too bad for me to do that?

(I don't know how to change the material and i have no idea what a viewport is but if I can't use the screen ambient occlusion button i will do some research on those 2 other solutions you told me about.)

TheLazyScarecrow

Oh wait, I think I kind of understood what a viewport is xD

YabusakaLoon

Sounds like your PC doesn't have video card which is required to show many viewport elements.

TheLazyScarecrow

@YabusakaLoon Okay My computer is pretty old so I'm not surprised... I think it will be hard for me to use Maya on it if it can't even show light and shades T_T

dlz

@TheLazyScarecrow that error seems to be something about the graphic card but idk.
A viewport is "more or less" the way you visualize your scene. You can change the viewport in Panel Menu: Renderer
For things like changing materials or everything i know i will do often i get used to write little scripts to do that thing. 
But you could simply right click with your object selected and assign new material.

TheLazyScarecrow

@dlz Okay I will try to see if I can achieve to change the materials then.
 Thanks a lot for the help