3D Modelling - Maya Research | Charlotte Whitworth

Shortcuts to Viewing

Here’s a summary of the most important keyboard shortcuts. Keep in mind that the Option key is used on a Macintosh in place of the Alt key on a PC.

Alt+MMB+Click - Tracks around a window
Alt+RMB+Click - Dollies into or out of a view
Scroll Wheel - Dollies into or out of a view
Alt+LMB+Click - Rotates or orbits the camera around in a Perspective window
Alt+Ctrl+Click and Drag - Dollies your view into the screen area specified in your mouse drag
View Cube - Allows you to change views in a panel easily

Level of Display Details - Key Functions

4 - toggles into Wireless mode
5 - toggles into Shaded mode
6 - toggles into Textured mode
7 - toggles into Lighted mode

Manipulator Hotkeys - Key Functions

W - activates the Move tool
E - activates the Rotate tool
R - activates the Scale tool
Q - Reverts to Select tool

Extrude Tool

You can use Extrude to pull out a face or an edge of a polygon surface to create additions to that surface.

Insert Edge Loop Tool

This tool inserts new edges into a model.

UV Mapping

UVs are essential in that they provide the connection between the surface mesh and how the image texture gets mapped onto the surface mesh.

Automatic UV Mapping

Creates UVs for a polygon mesh by attempting to find the best UV placement by simultaneously projecting from multiple planes

Planar UV Mapping

Best for objects that are relatively flat, or completely visible from one camera angle only

Cylindrical UV Mapping

Best for an object based on a cylindrical projection shape

Spherical UV Mapping

Best for an object based on a spherical shape wrapped around the mesh

UV Texture Editor

Lets you view and interactively edit the UV texture coordinates for polygon, NURBS, and subdivision surfaces. Allows the user to create a plan to add a texture onto within Photoshop, best used when the entire shape area is filled.

Transfer Maps

Used to transfer mesh characteristics from one mesh to a texture map. Creates a texture map of the mesh attributes of one object (source) and then bakes that map to the mesh geometry of another object (target).

Normal Map

Captures the surface normal information of the source meshes

Displacement Map

Alters the surface of the geometry to simulate 3D surface details

Diffuse Colour Map

Contains one or more materials that are sampled into a single colour channel

Lit and Shaded Colour Map

Contains all the scene lighting information for the source object

Alpha Map

Contains transparency information for the source object