Learning Maya - Wondering bout few things.

Jack_Rhoad

I've gotten on and about the basic stuff of maya, producing a vehicle without any major problem. But I'm going alot forth and back between menu's, and can't seem to find how to make some effective shortcuts.

I was checking out a video, and the artist seems to do alot of things without entering the Shelf or menu bars on top.

http://www.vimeo.com/21275000
The key stuff I was wondering about are:
At 00:23, I can't read what it says. "Create Polygonal T..." it seems very handy to be able to create shapes that way.

At 00:42, I tried to look for instanced mirroring, but no look other than mirror geo, which doesn't anything for me, probably since I'm using it wrong.

At 01:11, I assume he hotkeyed extrude and softselect, any tips how to?

First and foremost, I really hope this is the right forum, haha. Secondly, thanks in advance if anyone decides to help a fella out

ivars

Check out marking menus. It's the menus you get when your right click.
These are context sensitive, and will bring up different options depending on what you click on or what component mode you're in.
There's also keyboard combinations with marking menus. Hold down Shift + right click for modeling options and Ctrl + right click for selection options.
You can also create your own marking menus and assign them to different hotkeys.

Mirror instance is found under Edit > Duplicate special. A mirror in maya is just a copy scaled negatively in one axis.

Also get used to the hotkeys "g" = repeat last command, and "y" = last tool.
Soft select is "b". Hold down "b" and click and drag to scale the influence. You can also toggle and control the soft fall off in the tool settings.

You can also set your own hotkeys in the hotkey editor.

Hope that helps a little.

Jack_Rhoad

It helps out a bunch actually.
I found out accidently about the shift + right hold after posting, but the ctrl was a mystery till now. Gonna write these down and practice using them, thanks a bunch mate.

If you got any more shortcut & hotkeys tips, keep em coming, always been a hotkey user.

Edit: I'm working with an angled object, and I'm not sure what it's called, but I'd like to move my vertex along an edge, is there any key/command for that?

Grimm_Wrecking

v is snap to vert
x is snap to grid
c is snap to curve / edge

if you select your vert and then mouse over the edge you want, press and hold c, and click / hold mmb you it should snap along that edge and you can slide it around the edge, its a bit tricky to get the hang of.

Murdoc

Hate to Hijack the threade, but I had a Maya question and this is alive, so might as well right?

I'm trying to do a simple Max extrude in maya where I have a cube, I have all the faces around the cube selected and I want to extrude them out a certain length, equally. When ever I do this, it makes them all wonky, the sides are no longer straight.

Is there a way to just go extrude, enter a number and have it straight rather then wonky?

Grimm_Wrecking

Murdoc, I'm assuming you're trying to extrude the faces seperately correct?

Murdoc

Nope, just all as one, should I be doing it seperately? Seems like an extra step, but if it works....

Grimm_Wrecking

Extrusions

Murdoc is that what you're asking about. And by separately I meant multiple faces at the same time.

haiddasalami

@Grimm: How did you get that stuff when your extrude. (The thickness, offset etc)

m4dcow

It's in maya 2012.

Grimm_Wrecking

The marking boxes that pop up are a feature of 2012, and its awesome. I'm running hotfix 2.0 btw.

However, destination by local Z has always been there.

Jack_Rhoad

Murdoc, I've had the same issue. I'm not sure how 2012 is, I'm using 2011 atm. But it should work if you tick off the box at the top in 'Edit Mesh' menu saying "Keep Faces Together" in Polygon Module, then select the faces, hit extrude and drag away from the surface which pivot is attached to.

Piccy below show the box to notch off and where I pulled out. (remember to put it back on for later.) Hope this is what you looked after.

Murdoc

Thanks for the reply guys, I'm on 2011, and keep faces together seems to work, even if its a lot of effort to then stich up the faces, lol.

But ah well, good enough. Can't wait until I get to go back to max :P

Jack_Rhoad

Murdoc wrote: »

Thanks for the reply guys, I'm on 2011, and keep faces together seems to work, even if its a lot of effort to then stich up the faces, lol.

But ah well, good enough. Can't wait until I get to go back to max :P

I went into max, made a cube, selected all faces as editable polu, went into extrude options.

1st option just moved it.
2nd, just scaled it up.
3rd made it just like the screenshot shown above in maya.

I have no idea what else you were after, sorry mate.

haiddasalami

m4dcow wrote: »

It's in maya 2012.

damn thats a nice feature. Need to go get the student copy of maya 2012. Any more updates like this in 2012?

Murdoc

Hey Jack, I simplified my example, so its not exactly what I want, but I think the solution was found here, I basically wanted to select a row of polys around a building to create trim and extrude them out at an equal distance. The problem was that the straight walls weren't coming out straight when I extruded it, all wonky. This is on Maya 2009.

I think if I do every wall separately and then stitch them together it'll work.

Jack_Rhoad

Kind of reviving this thing rather than starting a new thingy.
I've got some practice work for a friend, but he's a picky dastard.
Anyone happen to have either a few good pointers or a link on working in Maya with a specific scale, such as Centimeters and Millimeters?

Thanks in advance again.

Toast

Would not recommend changing scale in Maya. Tools break for instance (couple of curve tools but can't remember which ones actually).

Just stick with cm or if you are working alone just pretend 1cm = 1 'x' unit where x = insert unit here.