Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tip of the Week:
Automatic Shelf Icons
Maya's shelves are handy, but sometimes it's nice to be able to customize them for your own specific workflow - organizing your favorite tools and commands in one easy to access location.
You may already be familiar with using the middle mouse button to save your own custom shelf buttons. (Enter some MEL into the script editor, highlight it, and drag it to the shelf). This is great for scripts that you write or find online.
But for commands and tools that are native to Maya, there's a great shortcut. Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift and select an item from any of the drop down menus on the menu bar (e.g. Create > Measure Tools > Arc Length Tool). The best part is: not only does it automatically generate the button, but it automatically assigns an appropriate image icon.
Labels: GUI, Hotkeys, Maya, Tip of the Week
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Monday, September 15, 2008
Tip of the Week:
Timeline Navigation - Part 2
Here's some more keyboard shortcuts for controlling playback in Maya:
Holding down Alt and pressing v toggles playback to start and stop. This again saves you from having to move the mouse down to the timeline controls every time.
And one that's sure be every animator's favorite: hold down k and use the middle mouse button to scrub back and forth in the timeline without having to physically grab it.
Labels: Animation, Hotkeys, Maya, Tip of the Week
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Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tip of the Week:
Timeline Navigation - Part 1
Here's a convenient little keyboard shortcut to use while you're animating. Hold down the Alt button, and press the . and , buttons to move the timeline cursor forward and backward one frame at a time.
Use . on its own to skip ahead to the next keyframe and , to move back to the previous keyframe.
These shortcuts can save you from having to move the mouse up and down to the play controls all the time, especially when you have a large frame range visible and it's tricky to select precise frames you want without typing them in.
Labels: Animation, Hotkeys, Maya, Tip of the Week
+ posted by Paul @ 9:51 AM 1 Comments | Links to this post
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Sunday, June 1, 2008
Tip of the Week: Think Local
Here's a marking menu that even many experienced Maya users miss, but it's great for speeding up your workflow. If you hold down W, E, or R, and the left mouse button, a menu pops up to allow you to rapidly switch between Object, Local, and Global space. It keeps you from having to transform along an awkward axis (or from going to the Tool Editor every time to switch back and forth between modes).
While we're at it: also notice the "Align Along" option. It opens up a submenu with some useful features that allow you to do things like align the axis with a selected component, or manually type in a custom axis. Very useful for modeling and placing objects.
Labels: Hotkeys, Maya, Modeling, Tip of the Week
+ posted by Paul @ 8:11 PM 1 Comments | Links to this post
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Friday, May 2, 2008
Tip of the Week: Maya Hotkeys
Learning some of the hotkeys in Maya, along with mastering the marking menus, can accelerate your workflow up to lightning speeds. Two of my favorite hotkeys are:
"g" - Which repeats the last command. I find myself using this especially for speedy constraining when I'm rigging, or for repeated extruding during modeling. But the possibilities are virtually endless.
"y" - Which brings up the last "non-sacred" tool, which means the last tool you used other than move, rotate, scale, or pointer. I use this one constantly - especially for rapid modeling with the Split Polygon Tool or Split Edge Ring Tool. But again, it's great for anything, from the Joint Tool, to the CV Curve Tool, to the Paint Weights Tool.
Whatever your personal workflow, the "Last Command" and "Last Tool" hot keys are priceless.
Labels: Hotkeys, Maya, Tip of the Week