The Maya User Interface
Overview and Description

This is going to be a difficult tutorial to follow. What I'm going to attempt is a general explanation of all the menu items in Maya. As you can imagine, this is a huge undertaking. So, what I've decided is to post this over-view as I do it. That being the case, you will find that this over-view is incomplete. Eventually, over-views of more sections will be added to this page. Also, since this is going to be similar to a glossery of terms and explanations, I'm going to eventually have this over-view be divided into sections that will allow you to link to whichever aspect of Maya you want to read about, so you can skip the stuff you already know. That'll have to wait until later, however.

So, let's get this party started, shall we?

| Panel Menus | Status Line | Polygons Menu |

First, let's take a look at the screen, as if you had just opened the Maya program.

Maya

A lot of stuff, huh? This may seem complicated... well, it is in a way. All beginners should know that almost any 3D program will have a pretty steep learning curve, and I'd say that almost no one truly knows EVERY little thing that can be done with Maya, especially me. That's why there are so many different jobs available in 3D Production companies. Texture artists, modelers, animators, etc... these can all be done using the same program, but because it all envelopes such a huge amount of expertise, you literally can't have one person do it all, or your project would never get done. Now, having said that, I emphatically recomend that you try to learn SOMETHING about everything. Take me for example. I'm primarily a Modeler. But I know how to make textures, animate, use lighting and dynamics... that way when you are hired, if a fellow artist in another department needs some support for an important deadline, you are capable of helping out to get the project done.

So, let's just go over the general Maya interface.

The Work Area and Menus
1. First, is the main work area, the big window in the center of the UI. This, obviously, is where the action takes place. All the objects you create, all the animation, everything, will be displayed in this window. This window can be changed to display different camera angles and shading choices. (Fig 2) Figure 2
In the main work area, in each orthographic and perspective view, there is a menu. (Fig 3) These menu items are: Figure 3
A. View

(Fig 4) The View panel menu contains the different Camera control options that are available for to change the viewing angle and other viewing effects:

Figure 4 a. Select Camera - As is obvious, it selects that camera object.
b. Previous View - Goes back to the previous viewing angle (Shortuct - "[")
c. Next View - Goes forward to the next viewing angle (Shortcut = "]")
d. Default Home - If your camera accidently gets thrown far away from your scene, this allows you to quickly return to the origin.
e. Look at Selection - Cause camera to center on a selected object without changing its current proximity from the selected object.
f. Frame All - Zooms in or out to frame the entire scene in the view (Shortcut - "F" with no selection)
g. Frame Selection - Zooms in or out to frame the entire selected object(s) in the view (Shortcut - "F" with selection)
h. Predefined Bookmarks - Provides a selection of views to choose from. For example, instead of the default "Side" view, you can choose either "Right Side" or "Left Side."
i. Bookmarks - Allows you to create your own custom camera angles for later use.
j. Camera Settings - Contains many camera settings for use in blocking your animations, such as film gates and safe action.
k. Camera Attribute Editor - Shortcut to the Attribute Editor for the camera object.
l. Camera Tools - While containing tools for rotation, zoom, and pan which can be more easily done with mouse controls, it also contains other tools such as pitch and azimuth elevation controls.

B. Shading (Fig 5) The Shading panel menu contains the different options for how the models and animation are displayed in the main work view:
Figure 5 a. Wireframe - This displays the models in wireframe mode (Shortcut - "4").
b. Smooth Shade All - This displays the models in a shaded state, without displaying file textures (Shortcut - "5").
c. Smooth Shade Selected Items - This will allow you to shade only selections.
d. Flat Shade All - This will display models in a shaded state, but not smooth out the lines between faces, giving it a hard-look. This can be useful for locating geometry errors.
e. Flat Shade Selected Items - Same as above except for selected items.
f. Bounding Box - Instead of seeing the models, you would see a box indicating the model's placement and size. (Fig 6)
g. Points - Points is an interesting display mode, as it will display objects simply as their vertices, without the faces or edges. (Fig 7)
h. Shade Options - This gives you a choice of displaying your models in X-Ray (see through) mode and/or Wireframe Shaded (displaying the wireframe on the shaded model). (Fig 8)
i. Interactive Shading - This gives you the option to free up some computer power. When you rotate your view, you can have it display objects as a bounding box or just points until the camera comes to a rest, reverting back to normal viewing.
j. Dense Wireframe Acceleration - For particularly dense scenes, this can help in speeding up your computer's speed.
k. Backface Culling - This will not display faces that are out of camera view, also freeing up some computer power.
l. Hardware Texturing - This will display your file textures on your models (Shortcut - "6").
m. Hardware Fog - Use the settings to simulate hardware fog.
n. Apply Current to All - Applies your selected shading settings to the entire scene.
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
C. Lighting (Fig 9) The Lighting panel menu contains the different options for how the models and animation are displayed in the main work view:
Figure 9 a. Use Default Lighting - Instead of using any lights in your scene, it used a default light that illuminates everything fairly evenly.
b. Use All Lights - Uses lights that you have created rather than the default light. (Shortcut - "7")
c. Use Selected Lights - Only uses a light if you select it.
d. Use Previously Specified Lights - Used in conjunction with (g.), to specify lighting presets you've previously specified.
e. Two Sided Lighting - When using default lighting, this turns on/off the lighting on the backside of the object. Turning it off could save up some computer power for slower machines.
f. Shadows - For faster machines with OpenGL support, you're able to preview depth map shadows with this option.
g. Specify Selected Lights - Allows you to create lighting presets.
D. Show (Fig 10) The Show panel menu contains the different options for what objects are displayed in your scene. For instance, in Fig 11, I've only selected to display the polygon objects in my scene, while in Fig 12, I'm showing all of them. It also allows you to isolate certain objects.

Figure 10

Figure 11Figure 12
E. Panels (Fig 13) The Panels panel menu contains the different options for how the different windows are displayed in Maya.
Figure 13 a. Perspective - Shows all of your perspective and camera angles to choose from.
b. Orthographic - Shows all of the orthogonal views to choose from.
c. Look Through Selected - Allows you to look through objects, like lights, in order to position them as you'd like.
d. Panel - Allows you to make one of your views a window like the Hypershade or Outliner instead of a camera view.
e. Layouts - A variety of prefashioned panel layouts.
f. Saved Layouts - A variety of prefashioned panel/window layouts.
g. Tear Off... - Let's you seperate the selected view as a seperate window you can minimize and work on as you use other panel layouts. The torn off window is no longer a part of your panel displays. (Fig 14)
h. Tear Off Copy... - Same as above, except it maintains the view in your panel display as well.
i. Panel Editor... - Allows you to configure your own layouts.
Figure 14

Now, obviously, we aren't near done yet, but I only have time for so much at a time. In he meantime, I hope what has been done so far has helped you in some way!

Michael McKinley