Maya - Core Terminology and Interface

Basic Terminology

• Project - A set of folders and files that corresponds to a single Maya project. Will involve at least one scene, but can involve multiple.

• Scene - A single "location" or "set of objects" for a Maya project.

  • When you open a new Maya instance, a scene is auto-created for you. This is what we see in the Viewport, upon opening the software.

• Viewport - The "main" part of the Maya interface. This is the biggest section of the interface, where we actually see all our objects.

• Move - One of the "three basic actions" in the viewport. You move an object from one location to another.

  • Think "I moved the object from the doorway to the middle of the room."

• Rotate - One of the "three basic actions" in the viewport. You rotate an object in space, so that it is laying in a different way.

  • Think "I rotated the phone so the screen is now facing down, instead of facing up."

• Scale - One of the "three basic actions" in the viewport. You change an object to be proportionally larger or smaller.

  • Think "I scaled the box up to make it larger. Or scaled it down to make it smaller."

The Maya Interface

At first, Maya's interface can look a bit overwhelming.

There's a lot of buttons, panels, and various sub-panels. And in general, it's not exactly clear where to start or what's most important. Don't worry, most people feel this way at first!

Section Purposes (In no particular order)

• Workspaces (Dark Blue, Top-Right)

  • This changes the entire interface look. If you open Maya and everything looks wrong or wonky, you can use the dropdown to "reset" the overall interface to one of many standard options.

  • For the most part it's usually fine to use the "General" options. You're more than welcome to look at the other options, but most of them are fairly specific.

  • Otherwise, there are some buttons to "Show/Hide" parts of the Sidebar. More on that below.

• Menus / Menu Bar (Light Blue, Top-Left)

  • These are your "standard" menus, similar to what you expect from other programs.

  • Has basics like "File Open", "File Save", preferences, and then various options for editing in specific ways. Think similar to Adobe Photoshop and "Filters", only applied in a 3D environment.

• Shelves (Light Green, Top Area Second Row)

  • Think of these as your "quick buttons". Almost everything here can also be done from the Menus area. But the more common actions are located in shelves for easier access.

  • You can click the shelf menu to display different preset action bars.

  • Alternatively, on the very left of the Shelf bar, you can click the little circle icon to create or delete shelf menus.

    • Using this, you can create your own custom Shelf, then open the Menus and [ Ctrl + Shift + Left Click ] any item in the menu to create a new shelf button for it.

    • You can also save and load existing shelves. Don't like the preset ones? Feel free to make one in your free time, save it, then bring it with you and import it!

• Tool Box

  • You can use these as needed, but it's recommended to get used to the Maya shortcut keys when possible.

  • The upper section here includes all the basic tools. Move, scale, rotate, and various ways to select objects.

  • The lower section has Viewport management tools. You can click the buttons to split your Viewport into multiple cameras, or return it back to the default single camera.

• Outliner

  • This describes all the objects and object-groupings visible in your current scene.

• Timeline

  • Very useful when actually creating the animated part of an animation. This is where you set and manipulate keyframes.

• Viewport

  • This is by far the largest part of the Maya interface, and for good reason. This is the "main" aspect of the interface, where we see our objects, manipulate them in 3D, and otherwise do a vast majority of our work.

• Sidebar

  • This is a multipurpose panel. What shows changes, depending on what tab you have open.

  • If a tab is missing in your sidebar, you probably need to click the corresponding "Show/Hide" button in the Workspace menu.