Autodesk Maya 2020

A Comprehensive Guide, 12th Edition

Prof. Sham Tickoo

• Publisher: CADCIM Technologies
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781640570030
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatik
• Subtopic: Digitale Medien

Autodesk Maya 2020 is a powerful, integrated 3D modeling, animation, visual effects, and rendering software developed by Autodesk Inc. This integrated node based 3D software finds its application in the development of films, games, and design projects. The intuitive user interface and workflow tools of Maya 2020 have made the job of design visualization specialists a lot easier.
Autodesk Maya 2020: A Comprehensive Guide book covers all features of Autodesk Maya 2020 software in a simple, lucid, and comprehensive manner. It will unleash your creativity, thus helping you create realistic 3D models, animation, and visual effects. In this edition, new tools and enhancements in modeling, animation, rigging as well as performance improvements in bifrost are covered. Additionally, the newly introduced Mash module, which is used for creating motion graphics, is also covered in the book.

Salient Features:

• Consists of 17 chapters that are organized in a pedagogical sequence covering a wide range of topics such as Maya interface, Polygon modeling, NURBS modeling, texturing, lighting, cameras, animation, Paint Effects, Rendering, nHair, Fur, Fluids, Particles, nParticles and Bullet Physics in Autodesk Maya 2020.
• The first page of every chapter summarizes the topics that are covered in it.
• Consists of hundreds of illustrations and a comprehensive coverage of Autodesk Maya 2020 concepts & commands.
• Real-world 3D models and examples focusing on industry experience.
• Step-by-step instructions that guide the user through the learning process.
• Additional information is provided throughout the book in the form of tips and notes.
• Self-Evaluation test, Review Questions, and Exercises are given at the end of each chapter so that the users can assess their knowledge.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Exploring Maya Interface
Chapter 2: Polygon Modeling
Chapter 3: NURBS Curves and Surfaces
Chapter 4: NURBS Modeling
Chapter 5: UV Mapping
Chapter 6: Shading and Texturing
Chapter 7: Lighting
Chapter 8: Animation
Chapter 9: Rigging, Constraints, and Deformers
Chapter 10: Paint Effects
Chapter 11: Rendering
Chapter 12: Particle System
Chapter 13: Introduction to nParticles
Chapter 14: Fluids
Chapter 15: nHair
Chapter 16: Bifrost
Chapter 17: Bullet Physics and Motion Graphics
Index

Chapter 2

Polygon Modeling

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• Create polygon primitives

• Edit polygon primitives

• Modify the components of polygon primitives

• Create models using polygon primitives

Introduction

In this chapter, you will learn to create and edit polygon shapes using polygon modeling techniques. A polygon is made up of different closed planar shapes having straight sides. The most commonly used shapes in 3D polygons are triangles and quadrilaterals. These shapes are formed by vertices, edges, and faces. An edge is a straight line formed by joining two vertices. In a polygon, three vertices join to each other by three edges to form a triangle and four vertices join to each other by four edges to form a quadrilateral. By modifying faces, edges, and vertices of an object, you can create a polygon model as per your requirement.

Note

If you want to create polygon objects using click-drag operations, you need to turn on the Interactive Creation option available in the menubar. To do so, choose Create > Objects > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation from the menubar. The Interactive Creation option works with all primitives. There are certain parameters that cannot be controlled via interactive creation. These parameters can only be changed from the settings window of the tool.

This option also affects how Maya shows the tool settings. For example, if the Interactive Creation option is selected and you choose Create > Objects > Polygon Primitives > Sphere > Option Box from the menubar, the Tool Settings (Polygon Sphere Tool) panel will be displayed. In this panel, you can set non-interactive attributes such as Axis divisions and Height divisions and then click-drag in the viewport to interactively define the radius ...