1. Basic Material Types
Lambert
Lambert is a flat material type that yields a smooth look without specular highlights. It calculates without
taking into account surface or reflectivity, which gives a matte, chalk-like appearance. Lambert material is
ideal for surfaces that don't have highlights: pottery, chalk, matte paint, and so forth. By default, any newly
created object is assigned the Lambert shader.
Phong
The Phong material takes into account specular reflectivity to create highlights across an object surface. The
algorithm can be customized for surfaces such as plastic, porcelain, and glazed ceramic.
PhongE
PhongE is a faster rendering version of Phong that yields somewhat softer highlights than Phong.
Blinn
The Blinn material calculates highlights on surfaces similarly to Phong; however, Blinn can achieve a more
accurate representation of the soft tinted highlights you see on metallic surfaces. Because Blinn is a versatile
material type and doesn't cause flickering with bump maps.
Anisotropic
The Anisotropic material type stretches highlights and rotates them based on the viewer's position.
Anisotropic materials are ideal for materials such as hair, feathers, brushed metal, and satin.
Ramp Shader
The Ramp Shader material consists of built-in ramp graphs to offer more advanced control and simplify the
shader network.
Ocean Shader
The Ocean Shader material has several items in the shader's attributes that control how the material
behaves over time, and it has graphs to add detail to the base shader. Attributes include Wave Speed, Wave
Height, Wave Turbulence, and Wave Peaking.
Layered Shader
The Layered Shader lets you combine several materials to create a more complex material.
Shading Map
The Shading Map material is primarily designed to let you get a "cel" look in 3D, like typical animated
cartoons.
Surface Shader

2. The Surface Shader is used when you want to control a material's color, transparency, and glow with
something else in Maya.
Use Background
The Use Background shader cuts a "hole" in the image's alpha channel where objects with the material
appear. This material is useful for combining separately rendered images in a compositing program to create
the final results.
Material Settings
To edit material settings, double-click on any material in Hypershade's top or bottom tabs. Usually, you
create a Blinn material in the Work Area of the bottom tab panel, and then double-click it to edit it in the
Attribute Editor.

3. Fig 5_2 Material settings in the attribute editor
Notice the material name at the top of the Attribute Editor, which Maya sets to blinn1 for a default starting
name. Maya increments the number if you create more Blinn materials. Next is the Common Material
Attributes section, followed by the Specular Shading section. These two sections, displayed by default, are
used the most in material editing.
Color
The default material color.
Transparency
If the transparency value is 0(black),the surface is totally opaque; if the transparency value is 1(white),the
surface is totally transparent. If you change transparency from the default black ,the background of the
material's hypershade swatch becomes a checked pattern .This is not a visual aid and is not rendered.
Ambient Color
Uses Black by default. As the ambient color becomes lighter, it affect's the material's color by lightening it
and blending the two colors.
Incandescence
The color and the brightness of light that a material appears to be emitting. The default color value is 0.
Bump Mapping
Makes the surface appear more rough or bumpy by altering surface normals according to the intensity of the
pixels in the bump map texture. A bump map does not actually alter the surface.
Diffuse
Gives the material ability to reflect light in all directions. The diffuse value acts like a scaling factor applied
to the color setting-the higher the diffuse value, the closer the actual surface is to the color setting.
Translucence
Gives the material the ability to transmit and diffuse light. Light falling on a translucent surface is first
absorbed beneath the surface and then diffused in all directions. The slider range is 0 to 1.
Surface Material Attributes
Specular color
The color of shiny highlights on the surface. A black specular color produces no surface highlights. The
default color value is 0.5.
Reflectivity
Gives the surface the ability to reflect its surroundings or the reflected color. The default color value is 0.5.

4. Reflected color
Represents the color of light reflected from the material. This can be used to tint a reflection.
Surface Material
Fig 5-3 Surface Materials
Anisotropic
Represents surfaces with grooves, such as cd or feathers etc. Anisotropic material (such as Phong or
Blinn)reflects specular light identically in all directions.If you spin an isotropic sphere, its specular highlight
remains still.
Roughness
Determines the overall roughness of the surface. The range is 0.01 to 1.0.The default is 0.7.Smaller values
correspond to smoother surfaces and the specular highlights are more concentrated.
Fresnel Index
A fresnel is a flat lens consisting of a number of concentric rings that reduces spherical abnormalities. The
Fresnel index for water is 1.33.Value range from 1.0 to 20.0.
Anisotropic Reflectivity
If on, Maya automatically calculates Reflectivity as a fraction of roughness. Reflectivity is on by default.

5. Blinn Attributes
Color The base color of the surface.
Transparency Adjusts the surface opacity. You can use colors to create a tinted glass effect.
Ambient Color Adds to and blends with the color value.
Incandescence A simulation of emitted light. At low values, it tints and self-illuminates the material, and at
high values, it overtakes the material's color and becomes self-illuminated.
Diffuse By default, it's set to 0.8, which dulls down the color value you've set.
Translucence A special effect in which light is absorbed and scattered as it passes through an object, useful
for simulating materials such as frosted glass.
Translucence Focus Controls how light scatters from the surface.
Eccentricity The width of the highlight, simulating how polished or rough the surface appears.
Specular Roll Off The brightness/intensity of the highlight.
Specular Color The color of the highlight; usually set to white or a gray value.
Reflectivity The strength of reflections on the object. Reflections can be raytraced or use texture maps.
Reflected Color For Blinn, the color swatch and slider have no effect. However, when a texture map is
applied, it appears to be reflected by the material.
Lambert
Represents matte surface(such as chalk,matte paint,unpolished surfaces) with no specular highlights. The
initial shading group uses a lambert material.
Layered Shader Attributes
Represents a single surface material composed of several different surface materials layered on top of one
another.
Transparency
By default the material is semi-transparent.
Compositing Flag
Composites the layers using a layered shader or layered texture mode.
Hardware color
Helps you distinguish the objects assigned to a layered shader in the views.
Phong Attributes

6. Represents glassy or glossy surfaces with a hard specular highlight.
Cosine power
This feature is available to the phong material. Controls the size of shiny highlights on the surface. The
default value is 20.
Phong E Attributes
A simpler version of the phong material. The specular highlights on the Phong E surfaces are softer than
those on Phong Surfaces and Phong E surfaces render faster than Phong surfaces.
Roughness
Controls the specularity focus.
Highlight Size
Controls the amount of specular highlight.
Whiteness
Controls the specular highlight color. The default value is white. You can also map a texture to this value.
Shading Map Attributes
Represents a color map you apply to surfaces after they are rendered.The shading map material is useful for
creating non-photorealistic effects(cartoon shading)or to highlight threshold values in a rendered image.
Shading Map Color
Defines the color of the material. The default is gray.
Shader
You can map any material to the shading Map material.
Surfaces Shader Attributes
A wrapper node, meaning you can connect any keyable attribute to this shading group and then connect the
shading group to an object.
Out color
The color of the material .The default is black.
Out Transparency
The transparency of the material. The default is black.

7. Out Glow Color
The glow color of the material. The default is black, without glow.
Use Background
You use it to set the object's Matte channel to 1 or 0, or create a matte for shadows and reflections on the
surface. This material applies the same color as the objects in the background image to stand -in-surfaces.
Attributes
Adjust the Use Background material's to the light ,shadows, reflections and the geometry placement in the
scene.
Texture Mapping
Normally, a texture refers to applying a 2D image around a 3D surface, rather like wallpapering a curvy
surface. Because a 2D image can be stretched, wrapped, and projected onto a surface in many different
ways.
Mapping Coordinates
Mapping coordinates, also known as UV coordinates. For NURBS, parametric mapping is inherent to the
surface and this is typically what's used. Parametric mapping is the 0 to 1 coordinate system that NURBS
uses to map textures across its surfaces. It makes sure that the textures stay mapped to the surface like a
decal, even if the geometry is deformed.
For polygon surfaces, mapping is normally applied by projecting 2D maps across the 3D surface in one of
several ways: planar, cylindrical, spherical, and a special method called automatic mapping.
Fig 5-4 Mapping projection
Procedural Maps

8. In addition to applying an image or movie to a surface, Maya has other texture types called procedural
textures. Many patterns, such as bricks, tiles, and gradients, are so repetitive that they can easily be
represented by an equation. By using special forms of seemingly random values, many natural effects can
be simulated mathematically: Marble, leather, water, granite, and many other complex and random textures
are included with Maya as procedurals.
Maya's procedural textures come in two varieties: 2D and 3D. You can think of the 2D procedurals as a
calculated form of a bitmap.When 3D procedurals are applied, however, they exist throughout 3D space,
and object surfaces define where you see the texture. It's like carving the object from a block of the
material.Procedural textures have several benefits. Because they are formula based, their parameters can
be adjusted to instantly synthesize all kinds of different effects.
2D Procedurals
Maya's 2D procedurals can be divided into two categories: regular patterns and noise patterns. The regular
patterns include Grid, Checker, Bulge, Cloth, and Ramp. With these patterns, you can create tiles, bricks,
and many other man-made repeating effects. Noise patterns include Fractal, Mountain, Noise, and Water.
These psuedorandom textures are excellent for creating the complex "dirty" surfaces common in nature.
3D Procedurals
All the 3D procedurals but snow are random types. Some, such as wood and marble, clearly imitate nature.
However, all are excellent for synthesizing random effects.
Assigning material to surfaces
The following lists a few quick ways to assign a material to a surface.
In the view,select the surface to which you want to assign the material.
From Hypershade, MMB-drag the material swatch over the selected surfaces.
or
In the view ,shift-select the object to which you want to assign the material and in hypershade,click
the material swatch.
While the cursor is over the material swatch in hypershade,RMB -click-drag to select assign material
to selection from the pop-up menu.
or
MMB-drag and drop a Hypershade swatch onto an object in the IPR Render view.
To apply a material to several surfaces from with Hypershade
Select the surfaces in a view.
In Hypershade,RMB-click over the material swatch and select Assign material to selection from the
pop-up menu.
To apply a material to a group of faces on a polygonal surface
Select the surface.

9. Press the RMB while over the surface,select face from the marking menu,then choose the select by
component type icon.
Select the face you want to map.
While the faces are highlighted in the view, in hypershade,LMB-shift-click over the material swatch
you want and press theRMB and select Assign material to selection from the pop-up menu.
MAYA Tutorial -
Cameras and Lighting
Page 1 of 3
When Maya starts, you have four cameras by default: front, side, top and perspective.
Three of them are orthographic—flat, non-perspective views—and have visible icons
you can use to translate or rotate the camera. The icon for the perspective camera is,
by default, invisible. These four cameras are utility views that assist you in modeling
and laying out your scene. When you're ready to pick the final rendered viewpoint of
your scene, you should create a scene camera. If you're shooting a series of stills, you
can create many cameras, one for each shot.
The camera placement determines exactly what will be seen and is used to frame
specific portions of the scene, in the same way illustrators or photographers use
composition to frame certain elements in their paintings and drawings. Other key
variables for cameras are focal length, rotation (orientation), and angle of view. Focal
length is directly linked to angle of view; if one goes up, the other goes down. With
angle of view, as the angle of the lens widens, you must move the camera closer to the
subject to keep it at the same relative size in the frame. The wider the angle, the
higher the value for the Angle of View setting.
Creating Cameras
Create > Cameras > Camera
There are three types of perspective cameras in Maya. As with Maya's lights, you can
change a camera to any other camera type in the Attribute Editor.
Camera
With this camera type, you see only the camera icon. In general, because this camera
freely rotates and loses track of its "up" vector, you should use it only when you're
linking the camera to another object for movement and animation, or when you're
placing a camera in one fixed spot.
Camera and Aim
This camera includes a camera target and an aim handle for adjusting the camera
target. In addition, this camera automatically stays level in relation to the horizon, so
it's the one you'll use most often. You can make this camera roll if you want, but by
default, it stays level except at extreme straight-up or straight-down orientations.

10. Camera, Aim and Up
This camera type includes two handles: the aim handle, described for Camera and Aim,
and an up handle for banking (leveling) the camera. This camera type is useful when
you want to bank the camera during your animation.
Fig6-1 Camera types
Camera Settings
These are the key settings for cameras under the Camera Attributes section:

11. Fig 6_2 Camera Attributes
Controls In this drop-down list, you can quickly select the camera type you want.
Angle of View and Focal Length Controls the amount of perspective exaggeration.
Raising the Angle of View attribute lowers the Focal Length attribute.
Camera Scale You can change the camera size in relation to your scene, which affects

12. scene objects when you render. Camera Scale is like a multiplier for the Angle of View
setting. For example, decreasing Camera Scale to .5 halves the camera's view area,
but makes objects in the scene look twice as large.
Clip Planes Only objects located within the values specified for the camera's clip planes
appear in the scene. If distant objects are not showing up in your scene, raise the Far
Clip Plane value. If nearby objects seem to be appearing in cross-section or not
appearing at all, lower the Near Clip Plane value.
Depth of Field Enable distance blur with this attribute. It can be a render-intensive
effect, but yields a nice cinematic result because objects close to and far away from the
focus point are progressively blurred.
Background Color The background fill color for images rendered from this camera; you
can also use this section of the Attribute Editor to add an image or shader as the
background.
Orthographic Views Switches the camera to an orthographic view. You can create
perspective cameras, rotate them into position, and then set them to orthographic to
get a "flat" view for projecting textures onto an object.
Animating the Camera
When you first begin animating the camera, it helps to follow the rules of videography,
such as avoiding jarring camera motions—rapid pans, zooms, or rotations of the
camera. In addition, you should usually give the camera the impression of having
mass. The virtual camera, by default, starts and stops moving instantly, which looks
unrealistic and abrupt to viewers. To avoid this problem, adjust the tangents for the
camera position's start and stop keys in the Graph Editor so that motion begins and
ends gradually . Do the same for the camera's aim point keys and any other animated
camera attributes
Lighting
Lighting design in Maya is similar, but not completely identical, to how it's done in the real world. You have
several types of lights to choose from in Maya; each one has unique attributes and benefits, and you'll learn
what each type is best used for. When you know how to work with lights, scenes that once rendered dull can
take on a new radiance. Most of the time you're trying to get a realistic effect with your lights, and Maya's
virtual lights do not work in a realistic way—in particular, beams of light within Maya do not reflect off
surfaces. In the real world, even a single light source can fully illuminate a room because its beams reflect
from surfaces to reach areas under desks and shelves .In Maya, however, those areas are completely dark,
so one solution is to simulate diffuse reflection by adding many low-level lights.
Creatively, lighting defines the scene's mood. If you're trying to create a chilling, spooky effect, you'll
probably want dim lighting in the scene. For a feeling of suspense, you might decide to have flickering lights.
Lighting in a scene creates the shadows, influences colors, and directly affects the appearance of materials.
The results of a well-lit scene are worth the effort and time. Skillful lighting creates contrast between
objects, enhances the colors in your scene, and gives you more control over the scene's shading.

13. Light Types
Several different lights are available in Maya 5, each with its own properties and uses: Ambient, Directional,
Point, Spot, Area, and Volume lights.
Fig 6-3 Types of Lights
Ambient Light
The Ambient light type creates light on all surfaces. It is in no way comparable to the real-world ambient
light that creates the diffuse reflection of surfaces. Instead, it's a kind of auto-self-illumination that brightens
all parts of your scene equally. For this reason, this light type should be used sparingly or for special cases
only, or it can give your scene a washed-out or flat appearance. Maya's Ambient lights can also cast
shadows. In essence, these features allow you to use Ambient lights as though they were Point lights, with a
variable "shine everywhere" setting. This setting is called Ambient Shade, and the light behaves more like a
Point light as this value approaches 1.
Directional Light
The Directional light is the default light used when you create a new scene. This light is good for emulating
rays of light coming from the sun and does a fine job of lighting the entire scene instead of just targeted
areas.
Point Light
Unlike the Directional light, which has light rays that are parallel to each other, a Point light casts rays of
light evenly in every direction from a point. Point lights are sometimes used for simulating omni directional
light sources, such as light bulbs.
Spot Light

14. The Spot light's area of illumination is defined by a cone, and within the cone's specified range, light is cast
evenly. Starting from an infinitely small point in space, a Spot light spreads as it moves farther from the
origin. Spot lights are useful when you're trying to create beams of light from, for example, a prison watch
tower, a lighthouse, and so forth.
Fig 6-4 Attribute Editor
Area Light
With Area lights, you can have a source of light that doesn't just come from an infinitely small point in
space. The Area light emits rays from a rectangular area in space and can be scaled larger or smaller. This
makes an Area light a great choice when you're looking for realistic lighting, but be forewarned that it takes
longer to render. By using an Area light, you'll get shadows that soften as they're cast farther from the
shadow-casting object. Maya uses only two-dimensional flat Area lights that are rectangular.

15. Volume Light
Volume lights have a visible range of influence that allows you to see exactly where the light dies out. By
default, the light intensity falls off linearly from the light's center point to the visible outer boundary. This
type of light is ideal for interior lighting, because you usually want lights to fade with distance if they're
primary sources of light.
Fig 6-5 Light Attributes
Light Attributes

16. Intensity
A light's Intensity attribute controls the brightness of the source. You can set it to any value, positive or
negative. If the intensity is raised, more light is emitted from the source . Usually, you set the value
between 0 and 1 for a medium-intensity fill light. For sunlight effects, you might go as high as 1.5 or so.
With Decay Rate added , the light's Intensity value might need to be set much higher because the strength
can fall off rapidly with distance. All Maya's default lights have no decay rate and illuminate objects at full
intensity, regardless of distance.You can also use negative values for the Intensity attribute. By setting a
negative value, the light actually "absorbs" other light. If you have an area of the scene that you want to be
pitch-black but have light illuminating it, you can use a light with a negative Intensity setting to help
eliminate the problem.
Illuminates by Default
By default, lights automatically illuminate all objects in the scene. When you disable the Illuminates by
Default check box, the light is removed from the default Light Set and affects only objects it's linked to.
Light linking is handled in the Relationship Editor for lights (Window > Relationship Editors > Light Linking).
In this dialog box, you can select a light and then choose which objects it illuminates .
Fig 6_6 Relationship Editor
Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular
The Emit Diffuse and Emit Specular attributes are not available with Ambient lights. Emit Diffuse is
particularly useful for creating soft fill lights to simulate light reflection; you need to disable the Emit
Specular attribute so that no highlights are generated. Emit Specular can also be useful for lighting metal
objects (such as chrome logos) when you want to add specular highlights to the metal without brightening
other areas.

17. Color
Each light can have its own color assigned, and modifying the color of a light follows the same procedure
and uses the same Color Chooser dialog box you see when modifying color for a material. You can also map
textures to a light's color, causing the light to project the texture like a slide projector. Or if you animate the
texture variables or use a movie as the source, the light acts as a movie projector.
Decay Rate
Specific to Spot, Area, and Point lights, this attribute determines the rate at which the light intensity fades
(decreases) at a distance. Several types of decay are available in the Attribute Editor's Decay Rate list box.
No Decay The light does not diminish with distance; it reaches all objects in the scene.
Linear The intensity of emitted light decreases at a constant (linear) rate as distance from the light source
increases. Linear decay is the most frequently used type because it's easier to control; you don't need to
raise the light's Intensity attribute to enormously high values to compensate.
Quadratic A physically accurate mode of decay, also known as inverse square. Quadratic decay is
determined by proportionally decreasing the light intensity along the square of the distance. Light intensity
generally must be raised substantially with this mode.
Cubic Decreases the intensity of light faster than the rate seen in reality. Cubic Decay is evaluated by a
decrease in intensity that's relatively proportional to the cube of the distance. The lit area falls off almost
instantly with Cubic Decay. This type of decay can be used to create a lit area that seems as though it's
burning within surrounding darkness.
IPR rendering is a helpful tool for interactively adjusting light decay; it's hard to visualize otherwise.
Shadows
Shadows in Maya can be turned on or off. The default setting for lights is to have the shadow set to off.
Surfaces illuminated by the non-shadow–casting light are still shaded by it, but won't cast shadows onto
other surfaces. That means the part of an object that's exposed to light is illuminated, and the object's
opposite side fades to a darker tone. An object's shadow can identify its size, position, and orientation in
space, so by adding shadows to your scene, you can more clearly define the spatial relationships between
objects. Without shadows in a scene, the render looks flat and lacks depth. Shadows add depth and realism
to the scene, especially indoor scenes.
Shadows tend to wash each other out as you add more shadow-casting lights that illuminate the same area.
With Maya, you have a lot of control over the way shadows are cast in a scene, which can help you reduce
render times, add contrast to your renderings, and create a better-looking overall result. There are two
types of shadows in Maya: depth map and ray traced shadows.
Depth Map Shadows
Depth map shadows are produced through an image map. The depth map is calculated immediately before
the actual render takes place. Using calculations for the distance of light to a specific point on an object,
depth information is stored in the map and then passed on to the rendering engine to produce a "simulated"
shadow effect. The depth map tells the rendering engine which areas of the scene are illuminated by light
Depth map shadows usually give good results without having to worry about a huge increase in render time.
They are usually slightly softer, too, which is more natural than harsh-edged ray traced shadows. If you

18. want, you can achieve almost the same level of sharpness as ray traced shadows. Depth map shadows work
in a unique way for Point, Ambient, and Area lights: Because a square bitmap is required to create the
shadow, and these light types cast light in all directions, they must create multiple maps to cover the area.
Maya uses cubic shadow maps for these light types—that is, six depth maps are cast for the six sides of a
cube. This process requires six times the RAM, which could be a concern for large map sizes.
The main drawback to depth map shadows is that they don't take materials' transparency into account.
Depth Map Attributes
Shadow Color Applicable to both types of shadows in Maya. Changing the Shadow Color attribute changes
the shadow's color seen in the render. It's often a good idea to bring shadow colors a little brighter than
pure black, to add to the simulation of diffuse light reflection. You can also map an image file or a texture to
the Shadow Color, just as you would map an image to a material.
Dmap Resolution Specifies the resolution (accuracy) of a depth map shadow. The maps are square, so if you
set this attribute to 1024, the shadow map is produced as a 1024x1024 pixel image. When setting Dmap
Resolutions, try to use values that are powers of 4, such as 128, 256, 512, and 1024. These numbers are
easier for Maya to calculate with and can result in faster render times. At very large sizes (4096+), RAM
consumption can become a problem. Increasing the resolution also reduces the jagged effect, but creates a
sharper shadow edge.
Dmap Filter Size Directly affects the edges of a depth map shadow by making them softer. This attribute,
combined with the Dmap Resolution, can smoothly and gradually soften a shadow's edge. Be aware that
increasing this value increases render times. Use values between 1 and 3, unless you truly need to go
higher.
Dmap Bias When depth map shadow–casting lights are casting long shadows, they can sometimes separate
from the objects. This setting allows you to adjust the placement of the shadows, and you usually need to
adjust it only for very low light angles (such as a setting sun).
Raytraced Shadows
Raytraced shadows are generally slower to compute, but offer the advantage of lower RAM requirements,
soft shadows, and properly cast shadows for objects that have transparency, such as windows. To make
raytraced shadows appear in your renderings, you must go to the Render Global Settings window and
enable raytracing. Like the Area light, the Spot, Directional, Ambient, and Point lights can cast area
shadows. In this case, the soft shadows are created by having the light cast from a circular source. Non–
Point light sources create soft shadows (known as penumbral shadows) because a variable amount of the
non–Point light source is blocked as an object passes in front of the light.
Transparent objects can affect shadows if the shadows are raytraced. However, the color values do not
affect shadow color. To cast colored raytraced shadows, you must set or map the transparency color for the
material.
Raytraced Shadow Attributes
Light Radius Sets the imaginary size of the circular Area light effect.
Shadow Rays Controls the sampling of soft shadows. If you use a low number, the shadows look speckled,
but render faster. This is similar to the way that Dmap Filter Size works with depth map shadows, in that
increasing the Shadow Rays setting reduces the shadow's graininess.
Ray Depth Limit This setting enables you to limit the number of times a light bounces from reflective and
refractive materials. You can raise this value if you want to allow raytraced light rays to bounce around the
scene before eventually creating a shadow.

19. Area Light Shadows
If you set Area lights to cast raytraced shadows, the shadows are calculated from the rectangular Area light
icon, based on its size. The results are similar to circular Area lights. As with circular Area lights, more
Shadow Rays soften the shadow, but result in substantially longer render times.
In animation, there's more to animate than simple movement. Animation requires thinking about motion,
timing, and smoothness of action. Almost anything in Maya with a number attached to it can be animated.
Maya simplifies your work in creating the essence of animation---timing and motion. With maya , you can
animate virtually anything you can imagine, no matter how surreal.
Animation Control and Interface
With Maya's animation controls, you choose how to key and play an animation. Two components of Maya's
user interface are specific to animation: the Range Slider and the Time Slider. You can also quickly access
and edit animation preferences from the animation controls area.
Fig 7-1 Animation controls
Between the Range slider and the Animation Preferences button are the current character control features
and the Auto Key button.
Time Slider
The Time Slider is a vital part of the animation interface in Maya. The Time Slider Controls the Playback
range, keys and breakdowns with in the playback range.
Fig7-2 Time slider
Click in the Time Slider area and drag left and right to "scrub" the animation back and forward in
time.

20. Key Ticks
Key Ticks are red marks in the Time Slider where you set a key for the selected object. Breakdowns are a
special type of key .The visibility of Key Ticks can be turned off or on in the Preference window. The current
Time indicator is a gray block on the Time Slider. You can drag it to move forward and backward in your
animation.
Current Time Field
A black line indicates the current time field. When keys have been set for the currently selected object, thin
vertical red lines appear in the Time Slider area to indicate the times for those keys.
Range Slider
The Range Slider controls the playback range reflected in the Time Slider. The Range Slider sets the total
length of the animation in frames. You can also use the Range Slider to temporarily limit the range of
playback and set the playback start and end frames.
Fig 7-3 Range slider
You can toggle whether the Range Slider is Displayed or hidden by selecting Display>UI elements>Range
Slider.
Animation Start Time sets the start time of the animation.
Animation End Time sets the end time of the animation.
Playback Start Time This shows the current start time for the playback range. You can change it by
entering a new start time.
Playback End Time This shows the current end time for the playback range. You can change it by entering
a new end frame.
Range Slider Bar This lets you control the playback range of your animation up to the limits of the
Animation start/end settings.
you use the Preferences dialog box to change values for the animation timeline and playback. You can also
set the total time for your animation, the size of the timeline , and other related features.

21. Fig7-4 Preferences dialog box
Terms in Animation
Frame Rate
Frame rate is the first aspect of animation. By default, Maya sets your animation to Film, which plays at
24fps.You use 30fps in the United States and 25fps in other countries.
Range
The range of an animation determines the total length in frames. Then, multiply the animation's length in
seconds by the frame rate .For e.g in this case you are using 24fps and animation length is of 2seconds.
24fps X 2secs =48 Frames
Setting Keys
You can set a Key by selecting Animate >Set Key. The attributes set by this menu item depend on the set
Key option settings.

22. Animation Types
There are following types to animate your scene.
Path Animation
In this method, you create a NURBS-based curve and then attach an object to it in your scene. The object
then follows the curved path to simulate motion. You can choose at which time the object is positioned at
any point along the path, so the object can reverse itself, pause, or oscillate, if you want. The object
automatically rotates from side to side as the curve changes directions. If the object is geometry, it can also
be automatically deformed to follow the contours of the curve.
Select Animate>Motion paths>Attach to Motion path
To Animate an object along a surface
Choose create >Nurbs Primitives > Plane to create a Nurbs plane.
Select Modify>Transformation Tools>Proportional Modification Tool to introduce contours on the plane.
Select Modify > Make Live ,then draw a curve on the plane.
Create an object to animate along the path , and shift -click on the curve on surface to select it.
Select Animate>Motion Paths >Attach to Motion Path option window. Ensure that follow is on ,and set the
up direction to normal so that the object will stay normal to the surface.
Click play to see your animation.
Flow Path Object Function
The Flow Path Object function creates a lattice around an object .
Select Animate>Motion paths>Flow Path Object
Keyframe Animation
Keyframe animation is the standard animation method. In this method, you set keys for an object's extreme
positions and let the computer fill in the in-between motion. A key is an anchor point for a particular
attribute at a designated time. When the animation reaches that specified time, the object's attribute will be
at the value you set. As you set keys, you specify the time at which those changes in the attribute's value
take place.
To set keys with the auto keyframe method, you click the Auto Keyframe button in the Range Slider (it turns
red to indicate that it's enabled). With auto keyframing, you can animate quickly by simply dragging the
Time Slider to a given frame and then changing an attribute.
Nonlinear Animation
Nonlinear animation is a more advanced method of animation. Unlike keyframing, nonlinear animation is
completely independent of time. You blend and layer animation sequences—called clips—to set up the
motion for objects. You can also use this method to explore variations in parts of the animation without
losing your previous work or affecting other parts of the animation. For example-you can make the walking

23. part of the animation a clip and then adjust the leg motion without affecting the way the rest of the
character moves.
Graph Editor
The Graph Editor is a helpful tool for tweaking values for keys you have set. It gives you a visual
representation—a curved line—of the attributes that are animated. The animation time goes from left to
right, and any keyed variable appears as a line that ramps up or down to indicate its value over time. It can
help you visualize how things are changing and how fast. You can pan and zoom this panel like any other.
Fig7-5 Graph Editor
To use it as a free-floating window, simply open it from the Hotbox (Window >Animation Editors> Graph
Editor).
Graph Editor's Components
Menu bar
The Graph Editor menu bar contains tools and operations for manipulating animation curves and keys with
in the graph view of the Graph editor. The Edit menu is similar to the one in text editors or word processors,
except that you're working with keys instead of text.

24. Fig 7-6 Menu Bar
The Edit Menu
The menu items appear under Edit menu behave in a similar fashion to the main Edit menu in the modeling
view.
The View Menu
This menu controls which components are visible, and therefore editable, in the graph view of the Graph
Editor.
The Select Menu
These options control which component of an animation curve are available for selection and editing.
The Curves Menu
The Curves menu gives you control over how the curves are set up with the keys in your scene.

25. The Keys menu
This menu includes Tangents which causes the manipulation of an in or out tangent handle.
The Tangents Menu
This describes the entry and exit of curve segments from a key.
The List Menu
This menu Loads the objects.
Toolbar
The toolbar gives you quick access to functions for modifying animation curves and keys.
Fig 7-7 Toolbar
Buffer curves Use Buffer Curve snapshot and swap Buffer curves to compare changes to the current
animation curve with its previous shape.
Break Tangents Allows manipulation of the in and out tangent handles individually so you can edit the curve
segment entering the key without affecting its opposite handle.
Unify Tangents causes the manipulation of an in or out tangent handle to affect its opposite handle equally.
It retains the relative position of the tangent handles even after tangents are individually adjusted.
Lock Tangent Weight specifies that when you move a tangent ,only its angle can be changed.
Free Tangent Weight specifies that when you move a tangent ,only its angle can be changed. This allows the
weight of a tangent to be adjusted as well as the angle.
Clamped tangent creates an animation curve that has the characteristics of linear and spline curves. The
key's tangents will be spline unless the value of two adjacent keys are very close.
Step tangent creates an animation curve whose out tangent is a flat curve.

26. Flat Sets the in and out tangents of the key to be horizontal.
The Dope Sheet
The Dope Sheet is another animation editor in Maya that is similar to the Graph Editor. Instead of
displaying curves, the Dope Sheet displays key times as colored rectangles and lets you edit event timing in
blocks of keyframes and synchronize motion to a sound file.
To open the Dope Sheet
Select Window > Animation Editors > Dope Sheet
Fig7-8 Dope sheet editor
To Place the Dope Sheet in a View
Select the view.
Select Panels > Panel > Dope Sheet.
Keyframe Animation
Keyframe animation is the standard animation method. In this method, you set keys for an object's extreme
positions and let the computer fill in the in-between motion. A key is an anchor point for a particular
attribute at a designated time. When the animation reaches that specified time, the object's attribute will be
at the value you set. As you set keys, you specify the time at which those changes in the attribute's value
take place.
To set keys with the auto keyframe method, you click the Auto Keyframe button in the Range Slider (it turns
red to indicate that it's enabled). With auto keyframing, you can animate quickly by simply dragging the
Time Slider to a given frame and then changing an attribute.

27. Nonlinear Animation
Nonlinear animation is a more advanced method of animation. Unlike keyframing, nonlinear animation is
completely independent of time. You blend and layer animation sequences—called clips—to set up the
motion for objects. You can also use this method to explore variations in parts of the animation without
losing your previous work or affecting other parts of the animation. For example-you can make the walking
part of the animation a clip and then adjust the leg motion without affecting the way the rest of the
character moves.
Graph Editor
The Graph Editor is a helpful tool for tweaking values for keys you have set. It gives you a visual
representation—a curved line—of the attributes that are animated. The animation time goes from left to
right, and any keyed variable appears as a line that ramps up or down to indicate its value over time. It can
help you visualize how things are changing and how fast. You can pan and zoom this panel like any other.
Fig7-5 Graph Editor
To use it as a free-floating window, simply open it from the Hotbox (Window >Animation Editors> Graph
Editor).
Graph Editor's Components
Menu bar
The Graph Editor menu bar contains tools and operations for manipulating animation curves and keys with
in the graph view of the Graph editor. The Edit menu is similar to the one in text editors or word processors,
except that you're working with keys instead of text.

28. Fig 7-6 Menu Bar
The Edit Menu
The menu items appear under Edit menu behave in a similar fashion to the main Edit menu in the modeling
view.
The View Menu
This menu controls which components are visible, and therefore editable, in the graph view of the Graph
Editor.
The Select Menu
These options control which component of an animation curve are available for selection and editing.
The Curves Menu
The Curves menu gives you control over how the curves are set up with the keys in your scene.

29. The Keys menu
This menu includes Tangents which causes the manipulation of an in or out tangent handle.
The Tangents Menu
This describes the entry and exit of curve segments from a key.
The List Menu
This menu Loads the objects.
Toolbar
The toolbar gives you quick access to functions for modifying animation curves and keys.
Fig 7-7 Toolbar
Buffer curves Use Buffer Curve snapshot and swap Buffer curves to compare changes to the current
animation curve with its previous shape.
Break Tangents Allows manipulation of the in and out tangent handles individually so you can edit the curve
segment entering the key without affecting its opposite handle.
Unify Tangents causes the manipulation of an in or out tangent handle to affect its opposite handle equally.
It retains the relative position of the tangent handles even after tangents are individually adjusted.
Lock Tangent Weight specifies that when you move a tangent ,only its angle can be changed.
Free Tangent Weight specifies that when you move a tangent ,only its angle can be changed. This allows the
weight of a tangent to be adjusted as well as the angle.
Clamped tangent creates an animation curve that has the characteristics of linear and spline curves. The
key's tangents will be spline unless the value of two adjacent keys are very close.

30. Step tangent creates an animation curve whose out tangent is a flat curve.
Flat Sets the in and out tangents of the key to be horizontal.
The Dope Sheet
The Dope Sheet is another animation editor in Maya that is similar to the Graph Editor. Instead of
displaying curves, the Dope Sheet displays key times as colored rectangles and lets you edit event timing in
blocks of keyframes and synchronize motion to a sound file.
To open the Dope Sheet
Select Window > Animation Editors > Dope Sheet
Fig7-8 Dope sheet editor
To Place the Dope Sheet in a View
Select the view.
Select Panels > Panel > Dope Sheet.
MAYA Tutorial - Dynamics and Special Effects
Page 1 of 2
Dynamics
Dynamics in Maya can be applied to objects using rigid-body or soft-body settings.
With simple dynamics, also known as rigid-body dynamics. You can use NURBS or
polygonal objects in dynamics simulations, but you must consider the objects' surface

31. directions.Objects that interact can be active or passive. Passive objects, although
they can be keyframe-animated, remain stationary; they can cause collisions , but
aren't affected by them. Objects that are going to react to collisions must be set to
active. You can switch an active object to passive and vice versa by setting the Active
attribute in the Channel Box to on or off. You can also use Maya's Dynamics mode to
simulate reality in how objects behave—for example, animating the way bowling pins
react when struck with a bowling ball.
Soft Body Dynamics
Soft-body dynamics are handled in Maya by creating a set of particles that surround
the object and influence it. When these particles collide with something or are moved
by fields, the connected geometry moves with them. This is ideal for creating effects
that mimic cloth and organic flexible materials. To get a realistic response, you must
add goals or springs. Goals give the object a target shape to move toward, like a
rubber squeeze toy that un-squeezes back to its original shape. Alternatively, springs
add a lattice of tensioned springs throughout the geometry, like adding a box spring of
rigidity to the object.
Creating a Soft-Body System
Any polygonal or NURBS object can be made into a soft body .You usually make an
object soft with Bodies > Create Soft Body> option box, and then determine whether
the object simply becomes soft or is duplicated to keep the original object as a goal.
Normally, you choose the latter method so that the soft body tries to configure itself
back to the shape of the original object. In either case, the object is then soft, but
doesn't collide with other objects in the same manner as with rigid-body dynamics.
Soft /Rigid Bodies > Create Soft Body >
Sets the options when creating a soft body.
Make Soft
Converts the object to a soft body.
Adding Springs
When the object must be more resilient than a soft cloth, you can add the Springs
attribute to give the object a kind of support structure. This attribute creates a virtual
spring object between each particle. Wire Walk Length setting. parameter connects
springs not only between a particle and its neighbor, but also the neighbor's neighbor,
and so forth. The default setting is 2.
Active and Passive Bodies
Objects that interact can be active or passive. Passive objects, although they can be
keyframe-animated, remain stationary; they can cause collisions but aren't affected
by them. Objects that are going to react to collisions must be set to active. You can
switch an active object to passive and vice versa by setting the Active attribute in the
Channel Box to on or off.
You can set values for Initial Velocity and Initial Spin for active objects .

32. Fig8-1 Dynamics settings for active rigid bodies
Fields
Fields are localized or global forces that act on objects. You can simulate the motion of
natural forces with dynamics fields.Fields have their own icons in a scene, so it's
easier to select them if you want to animate a field or change its attributes. These
fields are included with Maya.
Stand-alone fields influence objects from a stationary or moving position in the
workspace. It's not owned by geometry.
Object Field are owned by an object and exert influence from the object. You can add
fields to polygons, Nurbs curves or surfaces, particle objects, lattices or curves on the
surface.
Volume Fields You can select a volume to define the region in space in which particles
are affected.
The following fields are included with Maya:
Air An air field simulates the effects of moving air. The objects you connect
to the air field accelerate or decelerate so their velocities match that of the air
as the animation plays. A "push" type of field, it comes with presets for Wind,

33. Wake, and Fan.
Drag a field that slows the momentum over time of objects within its reach. A
drag field exerts a friction or braking force on an object that's animated with
dynamic motion.
Gravity The most commonly used field, it causes objects to move and
accelerate in a given direction. You can limit its reach to create localized
gravity fields. It simulates the Earth's gravitational force.
Newton Similar to gravity, but operates in a spherical manner. A newton
field pulls object towards it. Objects are attracted to Newton fields more
strongly depending on their mass and their distance from the Newton field.
Radial A radial field pushes objects away or pulls them toward itself, like a
magnet. Like the Newton field, but it doesn't take mass into account. It can
be set to diminish with distance, as with the Gravity and Air fields, and it can
be set to push or pull.
Turbulence Makes the object's motion or deformations more random.
Turbulence is usually applied to soft bodies or particles to create the
impression of wind or waves.
Uniform A field that pushes objects in a specified direction. Like the Gravity
field, but without the progressive acceleration that Gravity includes.
Vortex A kind of rotating gravity, the Vortex field pulls objects in a spiraling
motion that's centered on the field's icon. Often used to create galaxies,
whirlpools, or tornados with particle systems.
Volume Axis A complex field that lets you specify a volume shape (cube,
sphere, cylinder, cone, or torus) and then create effects that work within the
shape. You can use the Volume axis field to create effects such as particles
flowing around obstacles ,solar flares, mushroom clouds, explosions,
tornadoes, and rocket exhaust.
MAYA Tutorial - Dynamics and Special
Effects
Page 2 of 2
Constraints
Constraints are used to restrict an object's motion. After you apply constraints, they
are connected to the object they're associated with. Maya includes the following
constraints:
Nail Ties an object to a point in the scene. The object behaves as though it's
tethered by a solid rod, but it can orbit anywhere around the tie point as it
collides with objects or is affected by fields. You can not use a Nail constraint
on a passive rigid body.
Pin This type of constraint requires two objects that are tied together to a
separate pivot point. You can use a pin constraint to create effects such as

34. link in a chain or robotic arm.
Hinge As the name implies, you get free rotation constrained to an axis. You
can make active objects hinge to a point in space, to another active object, or
to a passive object.
Spring This constraint is similar to the Nail constraint, but it also has a
telescoping characteristic that allows it to extend its length. As with the Hinge,
you can use the Spring to tie an active object to another active object, to a
passive object, or to a point in space.
Barrier Blocks objects from going beyond a planar boundary. You can assign
this constraint to only one object. Objects can deflect, but not bounce, from
the Barrier constraint, so it's recommended for objects that block other
objects, such as walls or floors
Partiles
Particles can be particularly helpful when you want to create and animate dozens,
hundreds, or thousands of similar objects that vary slightly in their geometry or
animation. You can also use Maya's Dynamics mode to simulate reality in how objects
behave—for example, animating the way bowling pins react when struck with a
bowling ball. Another feature in Maya's Dynamics mode is the ability to create "soft-
body" effects, in which objects deform as though they were made from rubber or
gelatin. Dynamics and particles—work together to create animation. With rigid-body
dynamics, the idea is to simulate physics so that objects collide with each other and
deflect. With soft-body dynamics, objects change (deform) as a result of their
collisions. With particles, you can easily control the animation of large numbers of
objects.
What are Particles
A Particle object is a collection of particles that share the same attribute. In maya ,
Particles are points you display as dots, streaks, spheres, blobby, surfaces etc. You
can animate the display and movement of particles with various methods, for
instance, Keys, expressions, and field such as gravity. Particles are ideal for animating
difficult effects, such as explosions, swarms of bees, and galaxies of stars.In maya, we
use particles for creating special effects.
Creating Particles
To create particles in your scene, you can use drawn particles or particle emitters. To
paint particles in your scene, choose Particles > Particle Tool > option box. Another
method called Particle Grid is available, which you use to define the corners of a 2D
rectangle that's filled with particles. Particle grids can be helpful for visualizing the
effect of fields as you create them.
In Maya, the source that particles emanate from can be many things.
Point - omni An emitter that sprays particles from a point in all directions.
Point - directional An emitter that sprays particles in a linear or conical direction from
a point.
Volume Particles are created from multiple points within a defined volume, which can
be a cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, or torus.
Surface You can define one of your scene's NURBS or polygon objects to create

35. particles from its surface.
Curve Any NURBS curve can emit particles.
Animate the Particles
You can animate particle motion in several ways.
Set the position, velocity or acceleration attributes of particles. You can set keys to
animate an entire particle object's translate, scale and rotate attributes.
Apply fields , such as gravity to particles.
Turn geometry into a collision object and bounce particles off it.
Make the particles follow a moving goal object.
Particle Types
In Maya, there are two types of particles: hardware rendered and software rendered.
Hardware particle render much faster using your graphics card's on-board hardware.
Hardware particle types must be rendered with the hardware-rendering system
(Window> Rendering Editors >Hardware Render Buffer), because the particles don't
appear in the normal software render.
The Hardware Render Buffer has an option for masking any particles that fall behind
scene objects. Another issue is that, by default, hardware rendering looks jagged .
Maya handles ant aliasing similarly by multisampling in the Hardware Render Buffer,
which is enabled by choosing Render>Attributes on the Hardware Render Buffer
menu.
Hardware-Rendered Particles
Point The default particle type, designed to render as a spot. You use the render
settings in the Hardware Render Buffer, under Render> Attributes.After you add
attributes for a particle render type, you can change the render type and add its
default Particle Render Type attributes.
Multipoint Like the Point particle type, but creates clusters of points to get a denser,
clumpier appearance.You can use this render type to create dust, cluds,most or other
gaseous emissions.
Streak Similar to the Point, but creates a streaking line instead of a dot. This type
does not render until the particles are moving and you attempt to hardware-render a
frame with particle motion. The Streak length is based on the velocity of the particles,
so if the particles are stationary or moving slowly, you won't see the particles.
Multistreak Like the Streak particle type, but creates clusters of streaks to get a
denser look.
Sprites Render type lets you display a texture image or image sequence at each
particles.Each particle can display an identical or different image.Asprite appears as a
small rectangle until you map a texture image to it .
Spheres These are three-dimensional spheres and render type displays particles as

36. opaque spheres.
Numeric This particle type displays a number for each particle. It's particularly useful
for troubleshooting stray particles.By default, Maya displays particle ids for the
numeric render type.
Hardware-rendered particles cannot cast shadows or appear in reflections or
refractions:
Software-Rendered Particles
The following particle types render as part of your scene when you render a frame.
They are able to reflect, refract, and cast shadows.
Blobby Surface A particle form of metaballs, the blobby surfaces look like spheres until
they approach another, at which point they reach for each other like drops of mercury.
They appear only in software rendered images.
To set Blobby Surface render type
Select the particle object. In the attribute editor ,set Particle Render Type to Blobby
Surface. Apply a shading group to the particle object and then add a light to the
scene. Software render the scene.
Cloud The cloud render type displays particles as blurred or cloudy metaballs. This
particle type works specifically with the Particle Cloud material type and doesn't render
with typical object "surface" materials.
Tube As the name implies, the source object type is a kind of uncapped cylinder. You
can define the radius at the two ends and renders only with volumetric material types
.
Instanced Geometry If you want to have an object stand-in for the particles, you
should use Maya's Instancer, which enables you to use any kind of geometry or
textures you like.
AddingReflctions, Refractions and shadows to Software - rendered
particles
Select the particle object. In the attribute editor turn on---visible in reflections, visible
in refractions and cast shadows.
Collisions
Any particle system can collide with any scene geometry, but you have to set each
collision up separately. To do so, you select the particles, Shift-select the geometry
they will collide with, and choose Particles > Make Collide. The particles then collide if
they hit the object.
Goals
Particles can also be set to have goals, meaning that the particles try to move to a
specific configuration, shape, or location. You can create goals by selecting the particle

37. object you want to be affected by the goal. Shift-select the object you want to
MAYA Tutorial -
Rendering
Page 1 of 1
The process of creating an image or sequence of images from a scene. During rendering,
Maya generates a two-dimensional image, or series of images, from a specific view of a
three-dimensional scene, and saves it as an image file.
You can control the properties of rendered image files according to your post-production or
presentation requirements.
Maya software Renderer
Maya's software renderer is an advanced, multi-threaded renderer. It is based on a
rendering technology that is built directly into Maya's dependency graph architecture,
which means its feature nodes can be intimately connected with any other feature in
Maya. It is a hybrid renderer, offering true raytracing plus the speed advantages of a scan-
line renderer.
The Maya software renderer supports all of the various entity types found within Maya
including particles, various geometry and paint effects and fluid effects. It also has a
robust API for the addition of customer-programmed effects.
Rendering an Animation
When you're ready to render a finished animation, open the Render Globals button on the
Status Line, just to the right of the IPR Render button. You can also activate it with Hotbox
>Window > Rendering Editors > Render Globals.
Render Global Settings

38. Fig 9-1 Render Globals
You can select the Maya Software (or standard) renderer, the Maya Hardware renderer,
Mental Ray, or the new Maya Vector renderer from Render Global Settings window. In all
renderers, however, the information in the Common tab remains nearly the same. The
settings for Start Frame, End Frame, and By Frame are activated if you choose a movie file
output format or a filename numbering extension for your saved files. A Frame Padding
setting of 3 or 4 works for almost all situations. This setting determines how many digits
are added to the end of the filename, so setting Frame Padding to 4, for example, results
in files being numbered as filename.0001.TGA, filename.0002.TGA, and so forth.
The default animation render length is set to frames 1 through 10—a short animation.
The Resolution section is where you set the image size; you can use the Presets list box to
choose from a range of resolutions. Most of your tests will be at a lower resolution,
typically 320x240 or 640x480.

39. The second tab changes its name depending on what renderer you've selected. If the only
renderer options you see are Maya's software and hardware renderers. The Anti-aliasing
Quality setting has a big impact on rendering speed and image quality. Images that are
poorly antialiased have a jagged appearance, particularly visible where different-colored
objects overlap or in areas of high contrast.For tests, you'd select the Preview Quality
setting in the Presets list box; for final rendering, use the Production Quality setting, and
select the Gaussian or Quadratic B Spline Filter in the Multi-pixel Filtering section for
smoother-looking images.
Render the scene using raytracing
The Raytracing section is where you configure raytraced reflections, refractions, or
shadows to appear in the rendering; it's disabled by default, so you need to expand that
section to enable the options. Raytracing can also slow your rendering time dramatically.
The numbers for the Reflections, Refractions, and Shadows attributes refer to the depth of
raytracing—the number of bounces allowed for a ray. As the ray strikes reflective or
refractive objects, it ricochets through the scene. If the number of bounces reaches the
limit set here, no further raytracing is done, and the pixel is colored based on the
contribution of the previous bounces added to black.
Rendering a Still
When you want to render a test frame, you simply activate the panel of the view you
want, and click Hotbox > Render > Render Current Frame. The settings in the Render
Global Settings window determine the resolution, ant aliasing, and raytracing, but only one
frame renders, and it's saved as a temporary .iff (or whatever image format you've chosen
as the default) file in the Images directory of your project. When the rendering is finished,
you can save the rendered image to a permanent file by right-clicking on the Render View
window and choosing File | Save Image in the Save dialog box that opens.
For images you have rendered and saved, you can view them with Maya's FCheck utility.
To cancel the render
Press Esc.
Rendering Engines in Maya
Maya 5 has added new rendering engines called Mental Ray and the Vector renderer. You
can access these new renderers plus the Maya software and hardware renderers in the
Render Global Settings window. With these new rendering options, Maya can quickly
produce cartoon or web-like media with the Vector renderer and photorealistic renders
using Global Illumination or HDRI in Mental Ray.