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Command history is displayed in the history section of the Script Editor sphere -p 0 0 0 -ax 0 10 -ssw 0 -esw 360 -r 1 -d 3 -ut 0 -tol 0.01 -s 8 -nsp 4 -ch 1 objectMoveCommand Several MEL commands are executed when the Shelf button is pressed. The following happens when the button is pressed The NURBS Sphere button on the surfaces Shelf executes a script called The CreateNURBSSphere script calls the sphere MEL command using flags to set the arguments of the command to the values currently...
Beyond the lesson Uoh
Create dynamic hair on a surface. You can add hair to a NURBS or polygonal surface by creating or painting the hair. For polygons, UVs should be non-overlapping and fit between 0 and 1. Automatic mapping is a quick way to achieve this see Automatic UV mapping in the Mapping UVs guide . For more information, see Creating hair in the Hair guide. Before creating hair, you should determine which renderer you'll be using as this will affect what type of hair output you select NURBS curves or Paint...
To return the skeleton to the bind pose
1 Click the Select Tool and cancel the selection of Jackie. 2 Turn off Modify gt Evaluate Nodes gt IK Solvers. After you use an IK handle to pose a character, you must do this step before you can return the skeleton to the bind pose. 3 Select back_root, the root of the skeleton. 4 Select Skin gt Go To Bind Pose. 5 Select the ikHandleLeftArm in the Hypergraph. Use the Move Tool to move the handle manipulator slightly in any direction. When you release the mouse, note that the arm does not move...
To split the polygon face into multiple faces
1 Select the Polygons menu set. 2 With LeftHand still selected, select Edit Mesh gt Split Polygon Tool gt D . In the tool settings window click the Reset Tool button. You'll use this tool to split the front face of the proxy into several faces to be extruded into fingers. 3 In the front view, click the point on the top edge as shown in the following figure, then click the corresponding point directly below it on the bottom edge. If the line between the points isn't perfectly straight, use the...
Template display
When your scene becomes complex, templating the display of some of the objects in your scene allows you to more easily select only the objects you want. When you template the display of an object, its wireframe changes to a gray color. The object s can still be seen, but not easily selected. This helps to prevent you from selecting or modifying it accidentally. You can change the display of objects to a template and use them as a modeling reference the way a grid is used . You need to change...
To create a second camera for the scene
1 Select Create gt Cameras gt Camera. This creates a perspective camera with an icon representing it at the center of the grid. 2 In the Channel Box, change the name of the camera to myCamera. Even though you've created a new camera, you are still looking at the scene through the default perspective camera named persp. You will view the scene through myCamera after you position it in the next step. If you were to view the scene through myCamera now, you would see a disorienting view of the back...
To insert the source clip
1 In the Trax Editor, select Library gt Insert Clip. Choose WalkSitSource from the drop-down list. A duplicate copy of the WalkSitSource clip is created, and inserted onto a new track. 2 In the Trax Editor, select View gt Frame All. The track view area updates to display all clips in their entirety. In the Trax control area, click the Mute button for the track that contains the WalkCycle clip. The muted track dims to indicate it is inactive. When the walk cycle track is muted, the character...
To lock the Translate X channel for ArmControl
1 In the Hypergraph, select the ArmControl node. 2 Open the Channel Box to view the transform channels for ArmControl. 3 Set all Translate or Rotate channels to 0, if they are not already. 4 In the Channel Box, select the Translate X channel by clicking on its name. 5 Right click on the word Translate X. A drop-down menu appears. 6 From the drop-down menu, choose Lock Selected. The numerical field for Translate X is dimmed indicating that the channel is locked. If you try to move ArmControl in...
Photon maps 1
You can visualize the photon mapping that occurs at the beginning of the rendering process provided you turn on the Enable Map Visualizer option in the Caustics and Global Illumination section of the Render Settings window. To view a visualization of the photon mapping, select Window gt Rendering Editors gt mental ray gt Map Visualizer. Visualizing the photon mapping can aid in determining whether the coverage and density of photons for the scene is appropriate for the resulting final image. By...
Modifying skin weights
You can modify the skin weights for any of the influencing joints to alter the irregular region. If you don't get the desired results when you change the skin weights of one of the influencing joints, you can undo your changes and try another influencing joint. In general, it's best to modify the skin weights of the most influential joint first, then work with less influential joints if you don't get the desired results. Modifying skin weights requires experimentation. In the next steps, you'll...
Rendering a single frame using IPR
In this section, you work with IPR Interactive Photorealistic Rendering for mental ray rendering. The advantage of rendering with IPR is that, after you render an image, you can adjust the shading and lighting attributes of the scene and then quickly update part or all of the rendered image to review the effect of your changes. IPR is useful for iterations when you need to fine-tune specific attributes. Updates to the image are not always instantaneous, but they are full quality. Using the...
Open the scene for the lesson Bgx
In this lesson, you work with a scene we created for your use. 1 Make sure you've done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 439. 2 Open the scene file named ShadeOrange.mb. This file can be found in the GettingStarted directory that you set as your Maya project This scene contains a sphere modeled to resemble an orange. The scene's perspective view also has two settings turned on Shading gt Smooth Shade All and Shading gt Hardware Texturing Hotkey 6 which let you see the shading...
To turn on the caustics preset settings
1 In the Render Settings window, select the Quality tab and set the Quality presets setting to Preview Caustics. This turns on the presets that control the quality of the caustics. 2 Close the Render Settings window. Mental ray for Maya uses photons to simulate the caustic effects in a scene. Photons are small packets of energy emitted from a light source into the scene. The photons travel throughout the scene, refracting through transparent objects or reflecting off reflective surfaces. The...
Caustic Photons
4 Hide the Attribute Editor. Rendering the scene with caustics Now that the lights are set to emit caustic photons and the caustics preset is turned on, you're ready to render an image using caustics.
Lesson Setup 1
To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning Make sure you've done the steps in Preparing for the lesson on page 360. Select the Polygons menu set by selecting it from the pull down menu on the status line. Open the scene file named Soldier.ma. This file can be found in the GettingStarted directory that you set as your Maya project. The scene contains a polygon soldier. When working with UVs, it is useful to divide the workspace so you can see both the model and the...
Manually binding attributes
In order for your asset to be considered valid, every published name in the police_car_AST section must be bound to an attribute of the police car. Currently, the door attributes are not bound because their internal node names are different on the fire truck they are called Cab_door, while in the police car they are simply called Door , so the template is invalid. To fulfill this template, you must bind them manually. In the left panel of the Asset Editor, click the square expand icon S next to...
Lesson Caustics Introduction
Caustics are the light effects and specular patterns that are cast on surfaces as a result of focused light reflecting off highly reflective surfaces or refracting through translucent surfaces. The light patterns that occur on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day, or the bright areas that occur in the shadow of a glass object as light shines through it are examples of caustics. The Caustic feature in the mental ray for Maya renderer simulates caustic effects in your Maya scenes....
To set the position of the hair for the start frame
1 When you are playing the hair simulation, by default you are viewing the Current position curves. To select all the Current position curves, click any hair curve and then select Hair gt Convert Selection gt To Current Positions. 2 To set the start frame of the hair simulation to how the hair appears now, select Hair gt Set Start Position gt From Current. 3 Select Hair gt Display gt Start Position to view the Start curves and see that they took on the Current Position. 4 Click the UmI button...
To create a twodimensional fluid container
gt Select Fluid Effects gt Create 2D Container. Maya creates an empty 2-dimensional fluid container centered at the origin in the XY plane. Next, you add fluid to the container. To do this, you add values to the container for specific properties of the fluid Density, Color, Velocity, Fuel, and Temperature. You can add any or all of these properties to create a fluid effect. One way to put properties into a container is to create them with a fluid emitter.
To view hierarchies using the Hypergraph
1 From the perspective view's panel menu, select Panels gt Layouts gt Two Panes Stacked. The workspace displays two panels stacked on top of each other with an identical perspective view of the scene. 2 In the lower panel, select Panels gt Hypergraph Panel gt Hypergraph. The lower panel displays the Hypergraph. 3 In the Hypergraph menu, select Graph gt Scene Hierarchy. If the menu item appears dimmed, it indicates that the Hypergraph is already displaying the scene hierarchy The Hypergraph...
Swapping assets
Assets with partial or fully identical sets of published names can be swapped while maintaining the values of the matching published attributes. This allows you to quickly re-purpose scenes or swap different assets in and out of your current scene. To swap the police car for a fire truck 2 Navigate to the Fire truck file that you saved in Lesson 1. If you didn't start at Lesson 1, navigate to Getting started Assets assets and select the file firetruck_templated.ma. Maya imports the fire truck...
To extrude the polygon faces to create fingers
1 In a perspective view, right-click LeftHand and select Face from the marking menu. 2 Select the right-most face by dragging a selection box around the tiny box at its center. The subsequent illustration shows which face to select. 3 Select Edit Mesh gt Extrude. 4 Drag the blue arrow manipulator outward a little to create the first segment of the smallest finger. The blue arrow turns yellow when selected. NOTE Do not be alarmed if the small dots at the center of each face do not appear. This...
To reset the Start position
1 Display the Start curves and the Current Position Hair gt Display gt Current and Start . 2 Rewind to the start frame and play the simulation. 3 Stop the simulation as soon as the curves relax below the constraint, but before the collision occurs. 4 Select the bound Start curves these are the bound curves that are not blue and then select Hair gt Set Start Position gt From Current. You may have to repeat steps 2 to 4 a few times until you are happy with the look of the bound curtains at the...
To turn off nParticle selfcollisions
1 In the Collisions section of the nParticle Attribute Editor, turn off Self Collide. Notice that the nParticles no longer pile up, but blend and overlap with each other. Each nParticle has an outer boundary that determines the distance between the nParticle and an object at collision. The Collide Width Scale attribute sets the collision distance between the nParticles and other Nucleus objects. The Self Collide Width Scale attribute sets the collision distance between self-colliding...
To view the scene at full speed
2 Select nCache gt Create New Cache gt D . The Create nCache Options window appears. 3 Set the Cache directory to the folder to which you want your caches saved. 4 Set the Cache name to DressCache. Maya will begin to play the scene automatically and store the frames in the directory you specified. When it is finished, click the Play button in the animation controls. You will notice that the scene now plays back at full speed. However, if you change any of the dress' settings you will need to...
Beyond the lesson Rnd
In this lesson, you were introduced to how to use variables in MEL with Maya. You can Declare, set and use variables. Perform mathematical operations to modify the value of a variable. Implement dynamics using MEL commands. Before proceeding with the next lesson you may want to review the material presented in this lesson so you are familiar with the concepts and skills associated with them. Some suggested tasks you can try on your own include Practice creating, modifying and performing...
Modifying the colors of a preset brush
In the following steps, you alter leaf and bud colors of a preset brush fern.mel. TIP When using the fern.mel brush, if any of the sliders do not appear, or appear cut off on the right, you need to increase the screen display resolution setting on your monitor to 1280 X 1024. 1 In the Visor Brush gt Get Brush , click plants folder, and select the fern.mel preset brush. 2 Paint on the canvas to see the default display. Because fern.mel uses tubes, ferns grow along the path of your stroke. 3...
To create pose and animate IK handles for the legs
1 Select Skeleton gt IK Handle Tool gt . 2 In the Tool Settings window, make sure Current Solver is set to ikRPsolver. This type of IK solver has characteristics that work well for this application. 3 In the perspective view, click left_hip and left_ankle. This creates an IK handle that lets you control all joints from left_hip through left_ankle. The handle's main manipulator is at the left_ankle. The IK handle is the selected object after you create it. If you unintentionally cancel the...
Modifying the color of a fur description
Next you'll change the color of the fur description so it resembles a real teddy bear. To do this you'll edit the fur description and set the Base and Tip Color attributes using the Attribute Editor. 1 Select Fur gt Edit Fur Description gt TeddyBear. The Attribute Editor appears and displays the attributes for the assigned TeddyBear fur description. 2 In the Attribute Editor, modify the Base and Tip Color attributes for the TeddyBear fur description by clicking the color swatches for each...
Adjusting the Seam tolerance
You can use the seam tolerance to fatten the nose at the end. 1 Right-click the head and select Vertex from the marking menu. The vertices appear on the mesh. 2 Select a vertex on the left side of the tip of the nose. 3 Press the 'b' key to turn Soft Select on. 4 Hold the 'b' key and move the mouse left or right to resize the Falloff radius so it only encompasses the tip of the nose. 5 Select the Move Tool by double-clicking it in the Toolbox. 6 In the Tool Settings Editor, in the Reflection...
Applying parent constraints on an IK system
To animate the cargo box so that it is picked up by the mechanical arm you need a method of constraining the cargo box to the mechanical arm so that it moves with the arm at specific times in the animation. This is accomplished using a parent constraint. When a parent constraint is applied to an object, the constrained object behaves as if it were a child node of the constraining object. An object can have multiple constraints applied to it. The influence each constraint has on the object can...
To set nParticle size
1 In the Particle Size section, set Radius to 5.0. 2 In the Radius Scale section, select the first marker in the ramp, set Selected Position to 0.016, and set Selected Value to 0.04. Creating a new marker allows you to set two Selected Value and Selected Position values. Each Selected Value specifies a scaling value for the nParticle object's Radius attribute. By default, ramps define a scaling value of 1, meaning that only one mark exists on the ramp and that marker represents an attribute...
Referencing assets in a scene
In the previous section you imported a fire truck asset directly into the scene. However, you can also reference assets from other files. File referencing allows you to represent an object from another file in your scene without actually importing that file. 1 Select File gt Reference Editor. The Reference Editor window appears. 2 In the Reference Editor, select File gt Create Reference gt O . 3 Select Edit gt Reset Settings. 5 Navigate to Getting started Assets assets and select police_car.mb....
Lesson setup Hua
To ensure the lesson works as described, do the following steps before beginning 1 Make sure you've done the steps in Preparing for the Lesson. 2 Open the scene file named EmergencyCity.mb. This file can be found in the Getting started directory that you set as your Maya project Getting Started Assets EmergencyCity.mb The scene contains a model of a city block and a police car. If you play back the animation, the police car drives along the road, stops outside one of the apartment buildings,...
Beyond the lesson Yox
In this lesson you were introduced to the basic concepts of nParticles and the Nucleus dynamics system. In addition, you learned how to Create nParticles by emitting them from a polygon object using a Surface type particle emitter. Set the size of the nParticles using the Radius attribute. Set the color of you nParticles. Set nParticle Collisions attributes to control the behavior of nParticles. Turn off nParticle self-collisions. Set the collision distance between self-colliding nParticles by...
Publishing attributes
Now that the fire truck is encapsulated, you can publish attributes from the individual pieces to make them available at the asset level. A published attribute on an asset is bound to an attribute of the object inside. When a user changes the published attribute's value, the value of the corresponding internal attribute is changed as well. You can choose to publish all or only a subset of the available internal attributes, allowing you to limit how much access a user has to the encapsulated...
Creating Views
One advantage to creating a template for your asset is that you can create multiple Views for it. You can use Views to customize which attributes certain users can see in the Maya editors. For example, you can create a View that limits an animator to only the door controls and wheel spin controls and another View to limit a shader to only the truck's body materials and textures. Not only do Views cut down the amount of editor clutter for each artist, but it also adds a layer of protection so...
Autobinding attributes
In order to fulfill the template you've assigned, you need to publish the attributes outlined by the template. Since this template has a binding set which you created earlier see, Creating a binding set on page 733 , you can choose to autobind this asset. Autobinding an asset automatically publishes the ncessary attributes based on the template's binding set. 1 In the Asset Editor, select Template gt Autobind Asset. You may lose control of Maya for a few moments as it processes the template's...
Popup Help
Popup Help provides you with a quick method of identifying a particular tool or icon in the Maya user interface. File Edit Modify Create Display Window Assets Select File Edit Modify Create Display Window Assets Select gt Move your mouse cursor over an icon or button. The name or description of it appears in a popup window directly over it. To turn on the Popup Help if it does not appear 1 If you're operating Maya on a Windows or Linux operating system Select Window gt Settings Preferences gt...
To create a control object using a locator
1 From the main menu, select Create gt Locator. A three-dimensional cross is created at the origin in the scene view. 2 Select the Move Tool from the Toolbox. 3 In the side view, reposition the locator slightly above and in front of the end of the mechanical arm as shown in the image below. To easily identify the locator as a control object in the Hypergraph, rename the locator.
To crease the edge of the fingernail
1 Switch to Edge selection mode and shift-click the edges around the nail to select them. It might be easier to see the desired edges by first selecting Shading gt Wireframe. After you select the edges, select Subdiv Surfaces gt Full Crease Edge Vertex. Once you crease an edge, it displays with a dashed line as a visual reminder that the edge has been creased. If you change your mind, you can remove the crease using Subdiv Surfaces gt Uncrease Edge Vertex. To create a ridge at the edge of the...
Introduction Xik
A typical 3D character can be made up of many surfaces and components. To ensure that the character animates in the way that you want, it is important to carefully plan the process of character setup. Character setup or rigging is the general term used for the preparation of 3D models with their accompanying joints and skeletons for animation. Depending on the model to be animated, character setup can involve the following techniques Creating a skeleton with joints that acts as a framework for...
To create shadows using a spotlight
1 Select the spotlight and click the spotLightShape1 tab in the Attribute Editor. When you render the scene, you'll see the spotlight has widened its beam to light up a small part of the back wall. The table and light fixture block light and create shadows. The shadows occur because you turned on Use Depth Map Shadows for the spotlight earlier in the lesson. Depth Map Shadows refers to the algorithm Maya uses to produce shadows. For basic shadowing, you don't need to know about the algorithm,...
Track Tool
The Track Tool allows you to move the camera up, down, or sideways in relation to the scene. gt Press the Alt key Windows amp Linux or the Option key Mac OS X and drag the mouse in any direction, while holding down the middle button on your mouse. The Track Tool works for both orthographic and perspective views. NOTE Even though the objects appear to move across the screen when operating any of these camera tools, it is the viewing camera that is actually moved in relation to the scene, not the...
Before you begin
Before beginning Getting Started with Maya, you should have a working knowledge of your computer's operating system. You should know how to use a mouse, select menus, and enter text and commands from your keyboard. You should also know how to open and save files, copy files from a DVD to your hard drive, and be able to navigate your computer operating system's file browser. If you require an overview or review of these techniques, we recommend that you refer to the documentation that came with...
Using turbulence with brush stroke tubes
In the ocean, kelp would react to the turbulence created by ocean currents. The tube attributes associated with many preset brushes have turbulence attributes turned on for interesting visual effects. Turbulence attributes can be increased from their default settings to make the kelp sway back and forth, providing additional realism when used in an animation. To increase the turbulence on the kelp brush tube 1 In the scene view, select the kelp stroke. 2 Open the Attribute Editor, select the...
To sculpt a mouth for the character
1 Select the Sculpt Geometry Tool again. 2 Select the Push operation. Enter 0.2 for Radius U . In the Stroke tab, make sure Reflection is turned on. 3 Starting at the center of the area appropriate for the indentation between the lips, stroke outward from the center. It's best to start the stroke with the dual icons on top of one another in other words, only one icon is displayed . 4 Select the Pull operation and set the Radius U to 0.3. Using a similar technique as for the prior step, stroke...
Adjusting the refraction levels
When the refraction levels are set too low, light rays do not refract through all of the surfaces enough to provide a realistic indication of a translucent surface when raytraced. This results in the object appearing opaque when it should appear translucent. Increasing the Refractions setting allows the renderer to calculate what is seen through the surfaces of the glass by allowing the light rays to refract the correct number of times. In the next step, you change the Refraction settings so...
Introduction to procedures
A procedure is a series of instructions that are separate from the main flow of the script. Procedures allow you to reuse certain portions of a script for new applications. In this section, you use a procedure that is included with Maya makeroll, which simulates an object rolling on a plane . Later in the lesson, you link this procedure to a user interface to provide an easier way to use the procedure. 1 Create a cube and a ground plane by typing the following in a MEL tab of the Script Editor...
Blending keyframe and motion path animation
Blending between motion path and keyframe animation types is possible in Maya. Blending between the two animation types allows you to take advantage of the characteristics each animation type can provide without having to expend a lot of effort in determining where the change between the two types must occur. In the steps that follow, you keyframe the aircraft to rise vertically from the floor surface and then travel along the motion path by blending between the two animation types. To...