Getting started on Maya

Learning Maya has been far from an easy task and even now I still dont know fully how to use it but I have done some of the online tutorial as well as other polygon modelling tutorials and I think I have finally got the basics of modelling.

I also decided to make notes as I went through the tutorials so that I could use it as referencing throughout the project.

So i've not really touched my blog for a while now and at the moment I am at a point in the project where I am running through a few camera tests. However I can say that learning maya has been one of the hardest things I have ever done and even now I really only know enough of the basics to do what I need to do.

A few basics that I have learnt that have and are going to prove useful such as basic polygon modelling, rendering, how to control a camera with aim and lighting basics.

I spent a week or so just getting really familiar with the program and did some online tutorials just to get a feel for the program and how to go about creating 3D objects.



Looking at camera basics. I managed to learn how to create a camera and aim, how to move the camera through an 'invisible' wall and a few tips.



Basics on applying materials. This has proven one of the most useful notes as it explains when a certain material should be used e.g what to use when making a metallic object etc.



Basic modelling and lighting.