What Are Maya Shelf Must-Haves? (semi-Maya n00b)

Karmageddon

Hello, I'm Zilk. I've been with Max for many years now but I'm trying to make amends with Maya after giving her the cold shoulder for almost 3 years.

I'm dominantly a 3D modeler and texture artist and as such, I want to know the shelf must-haves. I've been going through tutorials on Youtube as to what other people have put on their shelves but I want to make sure I have it all right. So far though I really don't have much:

History, freeze transform, split polygon, insert edge loop, extrude polygon, merge vertices, duplicate face, center pivot... that's not really a lot yet.



I read in another thread here on Polycount people recommending hot box. What is that exactly? Also when it comes to hotkeys, where do you customize that?

Also, is Smooth Proxy anywhere to be found in Maya2009?

Thanks for your help in advance, I'm just trying to get nuzzled into this program away from the default style. Maybe I'll make her pancakes in the morning

-Zilk

Jason Young

Hotbox is what you get when holding down the space bar.

SHEPEIRO

it will deffinatly depend on you and your work flows i rarely see 2 maya shelves the same if someones been using it longer than a couple of months.

i would have shelves based on tasks/workflows

heres some you may want

-modeling (component transform, history, pivot controls, extrude, collapse, clean combine, detach, bridge, edit normals, sculpt blah blah blah)
-textureing ( basic projections, relax, refresh textures etc)
-rendering ( controls, lights, create 3 point setup, render buttons)
-export and import (depends on the engine working in or with, but obj export and import with different settings and engine exporters)

what i have as an environment artist

-modelling
-texturing
-vertex colouring
-shaders (create-apply selection of shaders, texture and shader managers, buttons to manage multiple shaders at once)
-object placement ( containing all my object painting scripts, arrays, instance tools and alignment tools etc etc)
- animation controls
-lightmapping ( render options, create light buttons, etc etc)
- export import

Ive picked alot of scripts up on me way and alot is custom stuff, but alot is just made by turning simple actions into buttons.

Krypteia

Here's a script emulating the "Target Weld" function from Max for Maya:

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/polygon/2194.html

Might make you feel more at home. :-)

Make sure to set it to a hot key for quicker access.

boyluya

Shelf or hotbox or anything.. Whatever makes you comfortable and more efficient.

I prefer the shelf by the way.

fade1

i recommend to put base/often used commands or scripts to keys. it is a much faster workflow then working with the hotbox/marking menus or shelf. in the shelf i'd put stuff you just use once in a while.
it's always a problem to find the right shortcuts, as lots of stuff is used, but if you free your mind and make a good setup you speed up the workflow tremendously.

praxedes

I find it very handy to have slide edgeloop and collapse edge there. Also the delete edge/vertex tool so that deleting edges doesn't leave any floating verts. I have a section of "selection" buttons to quickly switch selecting edgeloops, edge rings, border edges etc as well. Loads more but those spring to mind as useful!

~P~

Toast

i only use shelves for python scripts.

shelves....they look pretty, but nothing will beat a custom marking menu.

my advice is to take note on what commands you use the most. Then assign these commands intro basic groups. "Modelling", "Scene Management", "Texturing" whatever you want. Then make a marking menu from scratch using these groups then assign it to a hotkey.

After tweaking your menu to optimum after a few days it'll only be a matter of time before you look back at a vanilla maya in disgust!

Cheesestraws

Krypteia wrote: »

Here's a script emulating the "Target Weld" function from Max for Maya:

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/polygon/2194.html

Might make you feel more at home. :-)

Make sure to set it to a hot key for quicker access.

Maya 2009 actually already has target weld.

I wouldn't use smooth proxy in 2009, I would use the 1,2,3 keys instead.

Karmageddon

You guys are awesome. Have a cookie: