October 2008 Intro Curriculum

Week One
Workspace

• Introduction to the Maya Interface
• Cartesian Coordinates and 3D space
• Project Management
• Layers
• Outliner
• Hotkeys - Q,W,E,R,4,5
• Camera navigation
  
• homework – Transformation Tools p.13

Modeling

• Geometric primitives as building blocks
• homework – Barn p. 26

Animation

• Setting keyframes
• Ball bounce
• homework – Create Project p. 57
• optional – Build and Animate Ball Rolling p. 51

Week Two
Shading

• Shader basics
  
• homework – Shading Donuts p. 37

Lighting

• Point lights - intensity, color, shadow
• homework – Lighting Donuts p. 41

Rendering

• Render globals
• homework – Rendering Donuts p. 46

Week Three


Modeling

• Geometry types
• Component mode
• homework – NURBS Components p. 63

Animation

• Pivot points
• homework – Pivot Points p. 73

Shading

• Material types
• homework – Material types p. 77

Lighting

• Spotlights
• homework – Spotlight p.80

Rendering

• Camera basics
• homework – Two-node Camera p.84

Week Four
Workspace

• Hypergraph

Modeling

• Curve creation and editing
• Revolves
• Construction History
• Extruded surfaces
• Lofting
• homework – Revolve & Extrude p.97
• homework – Lofting Fish p. 103

Animation

• Graph editor
• homework – Tangent Plane p. 114

Shading

• Texture maps
• Mapping coordinates
• homework – Barn Textures p. 120

Lighting

• Soft shadows
• Depth maps
• Gobos
• homework – Soft Shadows p. 130
• homework – Gobos p. 133

Week Five
Workspace

• Shelves

Modeling

• Polygon modeling techniques – box modeling
• Extrude face
• Split polygon
• Smooth proxy
• homework – Saddle p. 146

Week Six

Animation

• Hierarchies and groups
• homework – Wagon Groups p. 163
• homework – Toon Tire p. 167

Shading

• Bump maps
• Transparency
• homework – Butterfly p. 172

Lighting

• Area lights
• Raytraced soft shadows
• homework – Cornell Box Area Light p. 177
• homework – Raytraced Shadows p. 180

Rendering

• Depth of Field
• homework – Depth of Field p. 136

Week Seven
Workspace

• Artisan select and sculpt
• Docking the tool settings
• homework – Artisan p. 191

Animation

• Motion paths
• Driven keys
• homework – Motion Path Plane p. 197
• homework – Driven Keys p. 203

Shading

• Displacement maps
• homework – Displacement Wing p. 227

Lighting

• Three-point lighting
• homework – Three-point Lighting p. 252

Rendering

• OptiFX
• homework – Optical FX p. 184

Week Eight
Modeling

• Text and Bevel Plus
• homework – Chicken Model p. 154

Animation

• Skeleton basics
• Added attributes
• homework – Skeleton p. 211

Shading

• TBA

Lighting

• TBA

Rendering

• Batch rendering animation
• homework – Camera Cuts p. 256

Week Nine
Workspace

• Show by type in view
• Snapping

Modeling

• Cluster deformers
• Lattices
• homework – Clusters p. 269

Animation

• Constraints
• Inverse kinematics
• homework – Constraints p. 276
• homework – IK Rigging p. 279

Shading

• 3d painting
• homework – 3D Painting p. 291

Lighting

• TBD

Rendering

• Motion Blur
• homework – Motion Blur p. 299

Week Ten

• Touch of MEL

Modeling

• Advanced poly modeling tools

Animation

• Skinning

Shading

• Reflection mapping

Lighting

• TBD

Rendering

• Rendering in layers