Connecting Nodes with the Connection Editor - Autodesk maya - part 2 - Making Movie - 8

locator1 and locator2 are the two transform nodes for the locators. locatorShape1 and
locatorShape2 are the two shape nodes for the locators. nurbsSphere1 is the transform
node for the NURBS sphere. And nurbsSphereShape1 is the shape node for the sphere; it’s
connected to MakeNurbsSphere1, which is the history node, and to initialShadingGroup.
The initialShadingGroup node is the default shading group that is applied to all geometry;
without this node, the geometry can’t be shaded or rendered. When you apply a new
shader to an object, the connection to initialShadingGroup is replaced with a connection
to the new shader.
9. In the Hypergraph window, use Alt+RMB to zoom out a little.
10. Select the locator1, locator2, and nurbsSphere1 nodes, and drag them away from the other
nodes so you can work on them in their own space.
11. In the Hypergraph, MMB-drag the locator1 node over the nurbsSphere1 node.
12. From the pop-up menu, choose Other at the bottom (Figure€1.7). A new dialog box will
open; this is the Connection Editor.
The Connection Editor is where you create and edit connections between nodes. The
left side of the panel represents the output of a selected node, in this case the locator1
node. The output is the controlling node; the right side is the input, and in this case is
nurbsSphere1, which will be controlled based on whatever connections you make in
the list.
The list represents the attributes of each node. Any of the attributes that have a plus sign
next to them can be expanded to reveal nested attributes. For instance, find the Translate
attribute in the left side of the column, and expand it by clicking the plus sign. You’ll see
that Translate has Translate X, Translate Y, and Translate Z. This means you can choose
either to select the Translate attribute, which will automatically use all three nested attributes
as the output connection, or to expand Translate and choose one or more of the
nested Translate X, Y, or Z attributes as the output connection. In some situations, a connection
becomes grayed out, indicating that the connection between the two attributes
cannot be made, usually because the connection is not appropriate for the selected attributes

(see Figure€1.8).
Figure€1.7
You can connect
two nodes in the
Hypergraph by
MMB-dragging one
on top of the other
and choosing from
the options in the
pop-up menu.

Connecting Nodes with the Connection Editor - Autodesk maya - Making Movie - 7

Connecting Nodes with the Connection Editor

Connections between nodes can be added, deleted, or changed using the Hypergraph and
the Connection Editor.
1. Start a new Maya scene.
2. Create a locator in the scene by choosing Create  Locator. A simple cross appears at the
center of the grid in the viewport. This locator is a simple nonrendering null that indicates
a point in space. Locators are handy tools that can be used for a wide variety
of things in Maya.
3. Press the w hot key to switch to the Move tool; select the locator at the center of the grid,
and move it out of the way.
4. Press the g hot key to create another locator. The g hot key repeats the last action you performed,
in this case the creation of the locator.
5. Create a NURBS sphere in the viewport by choosing Create  NURBS Primitives 
Sphere. If you have Interactive Creation selected, you’ll be prompted to drag on the grid
in the viewport to create the sphere; otherwise, the sphere will be created at the center of
the grid based on its default settings.
NURBS
A Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) object is a type of surface that is defined by a network
of editable curves. Chapter 3 introduces how to create and model NURBS surfaces.
6. Move the sphere away from the center of the grid so you can clearly see both locators and
the sphere.
7. Use the Select tool (hot key = q) to drag a selection marquee around all three objects.
8. Open the Hypergraph in connections mode by choosing Window 
Hypergraph:Connections. You should see eight nodes in the Hypergraph (see Figure€1.6).

Figure€1.6
The input and output
connections
of the two locators
and the sphere
are graphed in the
Hypergraph.

Working with History - Autodesk Maya - making Movie - 6

Working with History

Over the course of a modeling session, the history for any given object can become quite long and
complex. This can slow down performance. It’s a good idea to periodically delete history on an
object by selecting the object and choosing Edit  Delete By Type  History. You can also choose to
delete all the history in the scene by choosing Edit  Delete All By Type  History. Once you start
animating a scene using deformers and joints, you should not delete the history or use the Delete
By Type  Non-Deformer History option.
You can turn off the history globally by clicking the history toggle switch on the status line, as
shown here.

5. Select the transform node (myCube), and press the s hot key. This creates a keyframe on
all the channels of the transform node.
You’ll see a new node icon appear for each keyframed channel with a connection to the
transform node (see Figure€1.5).
6. Hold the cursor over any line that connects one node to another. A label appears describing
the output and input attributes indicated by the connection line.

Figure€1.5
The attributes of
myCube’s transform
node have
been keyframed.
The keyframe
nodes appear in
the Hypergraph.

Navigating the Hypergraph - Autodesk Maya - Making Movie - 5

 Navigating the Hypergraph - Autodesk Maya - Making Movie - 4

The myCube node is the transform node. The myCubeShape node is the shape node. In the
Hypergraph, the shape and transform nodes are depicted as unconnected; however, there is
an implied connection, as you’ll see later. This is demonstrated when you rename the myCube
node; the shape node is renamed as well.
In Maya, the construction history feature stores a record of the changes used to create a particular
node. The polyCube1 node is the construction history node for the myCubeShape node.
When you first create a piece of geometry, you can set options to the number of subdivisions,
spans, width, height, depth, and many other features that are stored as a record in this history
node. Additional history nodes are added as you make changes to the node. You can go back
and change these settings as long as the history node still exists. Deleting a history node makes
all the previous changes to the node permanent (however, deleting history is undoable).
1. Keep the Hypergraph open, but select the cube in the viewport.
2. Set the current menu to Polygons (you can change the menu set by choosing Polygons
from the menu in the upper left of the Maya interface).
3. Choose Mesh  Smooth. The cube will be subdivided and smoothed in the viewport.
In the Hypergraph you’ll see a new polySmoothFace1 node between the polyCube1 node
and the myCubeShape node (see Figure€1.4). This new node is part of the history of the
cube.
4. Select the polySmoothFace1 node, and delete it by pressing the Backspace key on the keyboard.
The cube will return to its unsmoothed state.

Figure€1.4
Performing a
smooth operation
on the cube when
construction history
is activated
causes a new
polySmoothFace
node to be inserted
into the node
network.

Navigating the Hypergraph - Autodesk Maya - Making Movie - 4

Interactive Creation

By default Maya creates objects using the Interactive Creation method, which allows you to draw
on the canvas as you create your geometry. To turn this feature off, choose the Create  Polygon
Primitives menu, and deselect the Interactive Creation option at the bottom of the menu.
While the Interactive Creation mode is on, you can deselect the Exit On Completion method; this
means that each time you draw on the grid, you will continue to create cubes until you switch to
another tool.

5. Hold the right mouse button down, and hover the cursor over the pCube rectangle.
Choose Rename from the pop-up window. Rename the cube myCube.

6. Select myCube, and choose, from the Hypergraph menu, Graph  Input And Output
connections. This switches the view to the connections view just as if you had originally
opened the Hypergraph by choosing Windows  Hypergraph:Connections. It’s the same
Hypergraph, but the view mode has changed, allowing you to see more of the scene.

Navigating the Hypergraph

You can navigate the Hypergraph by using the same hot key combination you use in the viewport:
Alt+MMB-drag pans through the Hypergraph workspace, and Alt+RMB-drag zooms in and out.
Selecting a node and pressing the f hot key focuses the view on the currently selected node. (MMB
means clicking with the middle mouse button, and RMB means clicking with the right mouse
button.)
When you graph the input and output connections, you see the connected nodes that make
up an object and how the object appears in the scene. In the current view, you should see the
myCube node next to a stack of connected nodes labeled polyCube1, myCubeShape, and initial�
ShadingGroup, as shown in Figure€1.3. (The nodes may also be arranged in a line; the actual
position of the nodes in the Hypergraph does not affect the nodes themselves.)

Figure€1.3
The node network
appears in
the Hypergraph.
This shape node
(myCubeShape) is
connected to two
other nodes, while
the transform node
(myCube) appears
off to the side.

Using the Hypergraph - Autodesk maya - making Movie - 3

Using the Hypergraph

The Hypergraph is a picture of the nodes and their connections in Maya. A complex scene can
look like a very intricate web of these connections. When you really need to know how a network
of nodes is connected, the Hypergraph gives you the most detailed view. There are two
ways to view the Hypergraph, the hierarchy view and the connections view:
•u The hierarchy view shows the relationships between nodes as a tree structure.
•u The connections view shows how the nodes are connected as a web.
You can have more than one Hypergraph window open at the same time, but you are still
looking at the same scene with the same nodes and connections.
This short exercise gives you a sense of how you would typically use the Hypergraph:
1. Create a new Maya scene.
2. Create a polygon cube by choosing Create  Polygon Primitives  Cube.
3. You will be prompted to draw a polygon on the grid by dragging on the surface. Drag a
square on the grid, release the cursor, and then drag upward on the square to turn it into
a three-dimensional cube (see Figure€1.2). Release the mouse button to complete the cube.
At this point, feel free to make your own decisions about the size and position of the cube
on the grid.
4. Select the cube in the viewport, and choose Window  Hypergraph  Hierarchy to open
the Hypergraph in hierarchy mode. You’ll see a yellow rectangle on a black field labeled
pCube1. The rectangle turns gray when deselected.

Figure€1.2
When Interactive
Creation is on,
Maya prompts you
to draw the object
on the grid in the
scene.

Making Movie Chapter 2

Creating and Editing Maya Nodes

A Maya scene is a system of interconnected nodes that are packets of data about what exists within the world of a Maya scene. The nodes are the building blocks you, as the artist, put together to create the 3D scene and animation that will finally be rendered for the world to see. So if you can think of the objects in your scene, their motion, and appearance as nodes, think of the Maya interface as the tools and controls you use to connect those nodes. The relationship between these nodes is organized by the Dependency Graph, which describes the hierarchical relationship between connected nodes. The interface provides many ways to view the graph, and these methods are described in this chapter. 

Any given workflow in Maya is much like a route on a city map. There are usually many ways to get to your destination, and some of these make more sense than others depending on where you’re going. In Maya, the best workflow depends on what you’re trying to achieve, and there is usually more than one possible ideal workflow. 

There are many types of nodes in Maya that serve any number of different functions. All the nodes in Maya are considered Dependency Graph (DG) nodes. Let’s say you have a simple cube and you subdivide it once, thus quadrupling the number of faces that make up the cube. The information concerning how the cube has been subdivided is contained within a DG node that is connected to the cube node. 

A special type of DG node is the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) node. These nodes are actu- ally made of two specific types of connected nodes: transform and shape. The arrangement of DAG nodes consists of a hierarchy in which the shape node is a child of the transform node. Most of the objects you work with in the Maya viewport, such as surface geometry (cubes, spheres, planes, and so on), are DAG nodes. 

To understand the difference between the transform and shape node types, think of a transform node as describing where an object is located and a shape node as describing what an object is. 

The simple polygon cube in Figure 1.1 consists of six flat squares attached at the edges to form a box. Each side of the cube is subdivided twice, creating four polygons per side. That basically describes what the object is, and the description of the object would be contained in the shape node. This simple polygon cube may be 4.174 centimeters above the grid, rotated 35 degrees on the x-axis, and scaled four times its original size based on the cube’s local x- and y-axes and six times its original size in the cube’s local z-axis. That description would be in the transform node (see Figure 1.1). 

Figure 1.1 A shape node describes the shape of an object and how it has been constructed; a transform node describes where the object is located in the scene.

How to making a Movie - Chapter 1

Working in Maya

You can download, trail version of  Autodesk Maya.

Maya’s working environment has evolved to accommodate both the individual artist as well as a team of artists working in a production pipeline. The interface in Maya 2011 has changed significantly from previous versions of the program to reflect this evolution. The interface pres- ents tools, controls, and data in an organized fashion to easily allow you to bring your fantastic creations to life. 

Understanding the way Maya organizes data about the objects, animation, textures, lights, dynamics, and all the other elements contained within the 3D environment of a scene is essential to understanding how the interface is organized. Maya uses what’s known as the Dependency Graph to keep track of the various packets of data, known as nodes, and how they affect each other. Any single element of a Maya scene consists of multiple nodes connected in a web, and each of these nodes is dependent on another. Maya’s interface consists of editing windows that allow you to connect these nodes in an intuitive way and edit the information contained within each node. 

There is usually more than one way to accomplish a task in Maya. As you grow comfortable with the interface, you’ll discover which editing windows best suit your working style. This chapter is a brief overview of what professionals need to understand when working in Maya. You’ll learn what types of nodes you’ll be working with and how they can be created and edited in Maya. You’ll also learn how to work with projects and scene data as well as the various windows, panels, and controls that make up the interface. This will help you whether you are working alone or as part of a team of artists.

If you’ve never used Maya before, we strongly encourage you to read the Maya documenta- tion as well as Introducing Maya 2011 by Dariush Derakhshani (Sybex, 2010). This chapter is about working with nodes, but it is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to each and every control within Maya. That information is contained within the Maya documentation. 

In this chapter, you will learn to: Understand transform and shape nodes

Create a project

Use assets

Create file references