Maya Basics

Question 1

How is the hot-box accessed?

Answer 1

This can be accessed by holding down the space bar

Question 2

What is the hot-box good for?

Answer 2

This is good for accessing all of Maya’s menus in one space. As well as changing cameras and accessing recent commands

Question 3

What are marking menus how are they accessed?

Answer 3

These are menus that are accessible by right-clicking on an object. They provide the means fo selecting and manipulating the object in different ways.

Question 4

How do you frame an object?

Answer 4

Selecting an object and pressing “f” will do this.

Question 5

Are you stuck with the standard view panes?

Answer 5

No - these can be manipulated to hold not only cameras but any panel (e.g. hypergraph, texture editor, dope sheet etc.)

Question 6

What tool does “q” select?

Answer 6

This selects the select tool. (Q = stick selecting an object)

Question 7

What tool does “w” select?

Answer 7

This selects the move tool. (W = upside-down “M” for “Move”)

Question 8

What tool does “e” select?

Answer 8

This selects the rotate tool. (e is round like rotation)

Question 9

What tool does “r” select?

Answer 9

This selects the scale tool.(r is like a hook - fish have scales!)

Question 10

What tool does “t” select?

Answer 10

This selects the show manipulator tool.

Question 11

What tool does “y” select?

Answer 11

This selects the last used tool from the shelf.

Question 12

How do you remember what the colours of the manipulator stand for?

Answer 12

RGB = XYZ (Rex Greeny Bluez)

Question 13

What’s the best way to get to a tool’s options?

Answer 13

Double click on the tool’s icon in the toolbox

Question 14

What’s another way of accessing a tool’s options?

Answer 14

Click the tool option button in the top right corner of Maya.

Question 15

What would you access the move tools settings for?

Answer 15

You’d do this so you could change which axis the tool moves the object along. You can also access the soft selection parameters here.

Question 16

When rotating what is the yellow circle for.

Answer 16

This will rotate the object along the camera axis.

Question 17

How do you change the position of the pivot point?

Answer 17

Change this by hitting “insert”

Question 18

How do you access the channel box? What’s it good for?

Answer 18

Access this by hitting the button in the top right corner of Maya. Its good for numerically manipulating objects

Question 19

How do you access the attribute editor? What’s it good for?

Answer 19

Access this by clicking on the 1st of the 3 buttons in the top RHS of Maya. Good for accessing and manipulating all properties of the object