Maya

Overview of the Interface: Understanding the layout, panels, and menus of Maya.
Navigation Tools: Learning how to manipulate the viewports, use camera tools, and navigate within a 3D space.
Basic Workflow: Overview of the project structure, file management, and Maya’s preferences.

Key Concepts: Maya workspace, scene setup, navigation controls.

Polygonal Modeling: Introduction to vertices, edges, and faces. Techniques for creating 3D models using polygonal methods.
NURBS Modeling: Working with curves and surfaces for precise and smooth modeling.
Sculpting: Using tools like the sculpting brush to add detail to models.
Sub-D Modeling: Working with subdivision surfaces for creating organic and hard-surface models.
Modifiers and Deformers: Applying modifiers to adjust shape and structure, like bend, twist, and lattice.

Key Concepts: Extruding, beveling, merging vertices, boolean operations, edge loops, smoothing groups.

UV Mapping: Unwrapping 3D models for texture application, and laying out UVs for efficient texture painting.
Shaders and Materials: Understanding the shader networks, applying materials (Phong, Lambert, Blinn) to create realistic surfaces.
Texture Painting: Using tools within Maya or external applications to paint textures directly onto the models.
Bump and Displacement Maps: Techniques to simulate depth and detail without adding geometry.

Key Concepts: UV unwrapping, texture mapping, bump maps, specular highlights, reflection maps.

Basic Lighting Setup: Types of lights in Maya (Point, Directional, Spot, and Area lights) and their properties.
Shadows and Reflections: Techniques for adding realistic shadows, reflection mapping, and ray tracing.
Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion: Creating realistic lighting using light bounces and ambient effects.
Lighting for Scenes: How to set up lighting for different moods and effects, from daylight to night-time settings.

Key Concepts: Light intensity, color temperature, shadow casting, light decay.

Character Rigging: Setting up skeletons and joints for 3D characters or objects. Understanding IK (Inverse Kinematics) and FK (Forward Kinematics) systems.
Skinning: Attaching geometry to rigs and binding the skin to the skeleton.
Weight Painting: Painting skin weights to control how the mesh deforms when the rig is animated.
Control Systems: Creating custom controls for animators to interact with the rig efficiently.

Key Concepts: Joint placement, rigging hierarchy, weight maps, deformers.

Keyframe Animation: Creating animations by setting keyframes for attributes like position, rotation, and scale.
Graph Editor: Working with the graph editor to fine-tune animations, modify curves, and smooth motion.
Character Animation: Using rigs and bones to animate characters, including facial expressions and body movement.
Timing and Spacing: Understanding animation principles such as squash and stretch, ease-in and ease-out.
Principles of Animation: Study of the 12 basic animation principles (e.g., anticipation, overlap, follow-through).

Key Concepts: Keyframes, interpolation, motion paths, animating with rigs.

Particles and Fluids: Creating particle systems for effects like rain, smoke, fire, and explosions.
Cloth Simulation: Using Maya’s nCloth system to simulate fabrics, curtains, and other soft-body effects.
Hair and Fur: Simulating realistic hair and fur for characters and animals.
Rigid and Soft Body Dynamics: Simulating the behavior of rigid objects (like bricks or rocks) and soft objects (like jelly or rubber).

Key Concepts: Particle emitters, gravity, forces, collisions, rigid body dynamics.

Mental Ray/Arnold Renderer: Setting up render scenes and understanding the difference between different renderers.
Render Settings: Managing render quality, resolution, and output file formats.
Lighting and Shadows in Render: Fine-tuning lighting and shadow effects for realism.
Post-processing and Compositing: Using AOVs (Arbitrary Output Variables) and layers for compositing in external applications like Nuke or After Effects.

Key Concepts: Render passes, sampling, anti-aliasing, ray tracing, global illumination.

Camera Setup: Creating and animating cameras for storytelling, setting focal lengths, depth of field.
Motion Capture Integration: Importing motion capture data into Maya for animation and character movements.
Match Moving: Techniques for integrating 3D models into live-action footage.

Key Concepts: Camera rigs, lens distortion, object tracking.

Procedural Animation: Using scripting (MEL or Python) for automating repetitive tasks or creating procedural animations.
Advanced Rigging Techniques: Complex rigging like facial rigging, muscle systems, and advanced control setups.
Shader Development: Writing custom shaders using Maya’s API or ShaderFX for advanced materials.

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