| Maya is a program, created by Alias, used to model, animate, and render 3D scenes. 3D
scenes created with Maya have appeared in movies, television, advertisements, games,
product visualizations, and on the Web. With Maya, you can create and animate
your own 3D scenes and render them as still images or as animation sequences.
Several different versions of Maya exist and the difference between them lies in the features
that are included in each. The commercial version of Maya, known as Maya
Complete, includes everything you need to create and render 3D scenes and animations.
An advanced version of Maya, known as Maya Unlimited, also includes the Fluid
Effects, Cloth, and Hair and Fur features. A freely available version of Maya called the
Personal Learning Edition is also available.
The Personal Learning Edition is identical to Maya Complete, except that all renderings
include a watermark. At first glance, the Maya interface can be a
little daunting, with buttons, controls, and parameters everywhere, but if you look
closer you’ll realize that all of the controls are grouped into logical sets. Becoming
familiar with these various sets of controls makes the interface much easier to work with.
Along the top edge of the interface are the menus and a toolbar of icon buttons called
the Status Line. The menus will change depending on the mode that you’re working
in. Below the Status Line is a tabbed row of icon buttons. This row of buttons is
called the Shelf, and it offers a convenient way to group sets of commands together.
To the right of the interface is a panel of parameters called the Channel Box. These
attributes will change as different objects are selected. Under the Channel Box is the
Layer Editor. Along the bottom of the interface are the
animation controls, which are used to move between the different frames of an
animation sequence; also at the bottom are the Command Line, for entering textual
commands, and the Help Line. Finally, the horizontal column of buttons to the left of
the interface is known as the Toolbox and the Quick Layout buttons. These buttons
are used to select and transform scene objects and to change the interface layout. |
