Maya Tutorials

PLUMBER TUTORIAL The Snowfight Sample Project It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that all users complete the tutorial. The tutorial is a short sample project, and it demonstrates the major concepts of the Plumber system.  It explains how to use the tools of Plumber effectively, and after going ...

Below is a short tutorial showing the method I use when modelling a real time character. This approach can also be adopted when creating subdivision surface models. I hope some of you find it informative and useful. A summary of the key points that this tutorial will cover: * Start with ...

Conversational MEL Part 3 www.NimbleStudiosInc.com Topics Covered: Online MEL command reference; query and edit mode flags; UI layouts; sliders Sample Script: Basic turntable animation and UI Introduction In the past two articles we've covered a lot of MEL: commands, flags, varia...

Exporting a Model with Textures and Materials This article illustrates the Maya To XAML plug-in, emphasing successful export of model data with textures.  Please note that the plug-in is still in the development beta and still requires a small amount of cleanup before you have the ability to exp...

Conversational MEL Part 2 www.NimbleStudiosInc.com info@NimbleStudiosInc.com Topics Covered: variables; arrays; assignment; return values; basic loop; Sample Script: Node name search and replace Introduction When we left off, we�d combined a pinch of cut-and-paste with a dash o...

A commonly needed effect is the emission of particles at the exact location of object collision. For example, as a sword scrapes along a wall we may need sparks; As a boulder rolls down a mountainside we may need smaller instanced rocks and pebbles to appear; As a character walks along a dirtroad...

It is relatively easy to animate a line of written text, but it can be tricky to exactly track the pencil point to the line as it writes without resorting to lots of keyframes. The following technique allows the pencil to automatically lock to the end of the emerging paint effects line. ...

phoneChord.avi Scene File: phoneChord.zip This file shows a simple and fast method for creating a dynamic phone cord using Maya Hair. 1. Model the phone and receiver and a curve that defines the start position of the cord. The cvs on the cord should be evenly spaced and the first cv...

This is a basic modelling tutorial that will teach you how to make a screw-driver and render it with FG (Final Gather) With global illumination, HDRI (High dynamic ranged imagery) And DoF (Depth of field, optional). Let us begin shall we, open Maya, and go to the modelling section. Now cr...

Faking Global Illumination with point lights This handout will explain how to use point lights to light a scene and give it the same look as using global illumination. The overall quality is similar, it is easier to do, and best of all, it renders faster. I used a night time kitchen scene fr...

Using Blend Shape for Facial Expressions In this file we will go over using blend shape for facial expressions. This is an extremely easy and effective way to enhance you animations. First we want to duplicate the mouse once for each expression or partial expression you want. (Fig. 1.) This...

Light Linking using three point lighting: Light linking is the art of using multiple lights to create the illusion of one. I normally start with a three point lighting scheme (which I will cover later) and then add lights were needed. Linking a light to an object or objects will allow you ...

Texturing Polygons UV Mapping and using Photoshop to create textures �Some excerpts and definitions used were taken from the help section in Maya.� There are many different ways to create textures for polygon models. The way I will show you may not be the correct way to do this, but ...

This article was printed in the 1998 siggraph issue of 3D Design magazine, for an article Alex Alvarez wrote entitled 'Organic Modeling and Animation in Maya V.1', Alex is director and instructor at Gnomon Training Center, a HIGHEND3D.COM strategic partner. Alex teaches advanced acharacter nimat...

created this tutorial because manypeople in computergraphics fret greatly trying to make a wet looking shader. I also doit with a fast rendering shader that is easy and fast to set up,and doesn'tuse any plugins. It also doesn't hinder rendering speedlikea layeredshader can. Let's start. I ...

What you need: 1. Unreal Tournament + latest patches 2. UED (UnrealTournament/system/UnrealED.exe) 3. Photoshop and preferably Painter3D or something like it 4. A texteditor 5. Patience 6. A p3d object model with texture tif for Painter3D (download here tiff ) Also read "Unreal Model Importing: ...

Developed by Legend Entertainment (Creators of Wheel of Time) Programmed by David Townsend townsend@patriot.net Tools you need To create animated models for Unreal mods, you will need the following tools: 1. A good 3D modelling/animation package, such as 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, SoftImage,...

This tutorial explains the basics of object pivot points in Maya.