Autodesk Maya's Tools
I will be discussing the different areas to find tools as well as a few tools. You will not use all of the tools that Autodesk Maya has to offer. You need to know where to find tools because not all of the tools are present when you start Autodesk Maya.
The Menu Bar and Status Bar
· Both the Menu Bar and the Status Bar tell you what setting that you have
applied to your scene or the file you have open. The settings refer to which set of tools that you are looking for. There are too many to display at start.
Some of the tabs on the Menu Bar can change
depending on what setting you have Maya:
o
Animation: Tools for joints and deformers for making the model move and change in more believeable ways
o
Polygons: Tools for modeling object
o
Surfaces: Tools to
fine tune surfaces
o
Dynamics: Tools for special effects such as fire
o
Rendering: Tools for lighting and texturing
o
nDynamics: Tools for more complex special effects
·
The Status Bar tells you which mode you are selecting
(this can also be accessed by right clicking in the workspace) or how you
move the selected objects or components such as snapping to the grid. Both the Menu Bar and the Status Bar have the
standard save,
open, and new scene options, but the Status Bar has it represent graphically while the Menu Bar has it in the "File" drop down menu.
The Toolbox
The Toolbox is on the left side of the workspace and
contains some of the common tools needed and the very last box will show
the last tool used.
Here are the tools listed from top to bottom:
o
Selection Tool (use the Q button as a hotkey): The most basic way of selecting objects and components. It looks just like a normal cursor.
o
Lasso Tool: This selection tool looks like a lasso and will make a selection based on an area that you draw over.
o
Paint Selection Tool: Selects by using a brush
directly on the object to select components. The brush radius can be changed by
holding down B and moving the cursor while holding down the left mouse button.
o
Move Tool (use the W button as a hotkey): Translates objects or components on three axes and is graphically represented by 3 colored arrows that correspond with the axes found at the bottom of the workspace. The middle box will move the object in all three axes at the same time.
o
Rotate Tool (use the E button as a hotkey):
Rotates objects or components on the three axes and is graphically represented with 3 circular handles corresponding with the axes found at the bottom of the workspace. The bigger handle around the three colored ones to rotates the object around all three at the same time.
o
Scale Tool (use the R button as a hotkey):
Changes objects or components on the three axes and has boxes for handles that correspond with the three axes found at the bottom of the workspace. The middle box will make a uniform scale.
o
Universal Manipulator: Puts the Move Tool,
Rotate Tool, and Scale Tool in one tool.
o
Soft Modification Tool: Lets you smoothly,
uniformly modify a group of vertices (or points) on a mesh or object.
o
Show Manipulator Tool: Shows the hidden parts of
certain objects like lights.
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