Autodesk Maya

Submitted by Drew.Barnett@e… on Tue, 12/12/2023 - 08:40

Autodesk Maya, a flagship product in the Autodesk suite, is an industry-standard 3D modelling and animation software and a go-to choice for animators, filmmakers, game developers, and designers. It provides a powerful suite of tools for creating visual effects, 3D content, and immersive animations.

Sub Topics

The following three Autodesk videos will support your learning in the Foundations module.

User Interface

Video link	Purpose and duration
Navigating the interface	Discover the menus, options, tools, and controls commonly used in Maya. Get an overview of menu sets, shelves, workspaces, layout views, and basic animation controls. (8:44m)

Basic Tools

Video link	Purpose and duration
Working with scenes	Learn to keep your files organised and portable using Maya projects. Learn about different file types Maya can read and how you can save files intelligently using Save Incremental and Autosave. (7:30m)
Modelling basics	Learn about 3D modelling tools and workflows in Maya. Work with the Modelling Toolkit and build a simple primitive model, manipulating its vertices, edges, and polygon faces. (13:05m)

The following Autodesk video will support your learning in the Key Animation module.

Basic Workflow

Video link	Purpose and duration
Animation basics	Learn to create keyframes to start animating geometry around the scene. You’ll add and edit keyframes on the timeline. Working in the Graph Editor, you’ll discover how to modify the structure of your keyframes and change the timing of your animation. (10:00m)

The following four Autodesk videos will support your learning in the Digital Production module.

Manipulation Tools

Video link	Purpose and duration
Adding materials and textures	Learn about: giving the surfaces of your Maya models a different appearance by adding materials and textures the Hypershade environment where you can create and edit materials that you can then apply to the different parts of your model. (8:19m)
Creating a UV layout	Learn about: creating UVs for your 3D assets so you can apply 2D textures to them creating simple UV projections on parts of your model using some of the UV tools to edit your UVs to get an optimized UV layout with minimal distortion. (10:36m)
Lighting and rendering	Learn about: adding lights to scenes and creating final rendered images adding several kinds of lights, including directional and spotlights, and adjusting parameters to get different looks rendering out final images from Maya based on custom size and quality settings. (7:48m)
Rendering with Arnold	Learn about using: Maya, in conjunction with Arnold, to render out a final image the Arnold Render to view, define and render regions the Arnold viewport renderer to receive instant feedback. (5:36m)

The following six Yoobee videos and three Yoobee playlists will support your learning in the Final Image module (i.e. Final Sequence topic).

Camera

Video link	Purpose and duration
Creating animated cameras	Learn about: presentation techniques with a moving camera for specific areas of a model creating a camera using the navigation tools within the camera creating movement. (4:40m)

Video link

Purpose and duration

Creating animated cameras

Learn about:

presentation techniques with a moving camera for specific areas of a model
creating a camera
using the navigation tools within the camera
creating movement. (4:40m)

Maya Lighting

Video link	Purpose and duration
Direct lighting - Software lights (Playlist)	Learn about: direct lighting workflow using Maya software lights and Maya software window (5:43m) adding ambient lighting/ fill lights to a scene (8.33m) creating bounce lights within a scene including how to bounce the lights from various spaces within a scene. (6.08m) placing and setting up bloom lighting in a scene (8.01m) creating and placing bleed lighting (19.47m) placing additional lights in a scene, for example rim lighting. (5.07)
Direct lighting - Arnold lights (Playlist)	Learn about: relighting a scene with Arnold and standard lights including keylights (7:00m) adding fill lights using Arnold area lights (11:58m) creating bounce lights with Arnold (5:54m) creating bleed lights, using similar process with different set of lights and settings (6:43m) creating bleed lighting using Arnold lights and renderer (19.19m) finalising the lighting scene with a rim light. (4.13m)
Using and adding shadows to your lights	Learn about: using and adding shadows to your lights in your work. (6:48m)
Using the Decay attribute	Learn about: the process of using the decay attribute in Maya. (4.36m)
Overview of Maya's Lighting Editor	Learn about this new addition to Maya and an overview on it's overall functionality and features. (5:43m)
Introduction to indirect lighting and setting up image-based lighting	Learn about indirect lighting workflow and how to set up image-based lighting. (7.30m)

Rendering in Maya

Video link	Purpose and duration
Learning the Main Render Setting	Learn about the render settings window, including the main render engines that you will use. (7:30m)
Using the Render setting window	using the Arnold renderer in the render settings. (4.08m)
Creating and setting up render layers	Learn about creating and setting up render layers and render passes that are used for presenting your work in a demo reel or breakdown video. (10:28m)

Video link

Purpose and duration

Learning the Main Render Setting

Learn about

the render settings window, including the main render engines that you will use. (7:30m)

Using the Render setting window

using the Arnold renderer in the render settings. (4.08m)

Creating and setting up render layers

Learn about

creating and setting up render layers and render passes that are used for presenting your work in a demo reel or breakdown video. (10:28m)

Module Linking

M00657A

Main Topic Image

Side view of diverse group of men sitting at table with computer and coworking on creation of new cartoon

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