Art of illusion

Duplicating an existing object is a useful way to make an exact copy of it

without having to start over. When you duplicate an item the copy takes on

the characteristics of the original. Using the Duplicate Tool you can

additionally apply transformations to the copy move, rotate, scale.

Camera tools

In Maya, you view the scene through a set of virtual cameras. These cameras are either orthographic or perspective in nature. You can adjust how these cameras view the scene using the Camera Tools.

The three primary methods for manipulating the camera view are dolly, tumble, and track.

Polygonal Modeling

Polygon surfaces are a network of three-or-more sided flat surfaces called faces that get connected together to create a poly mesh.

Polygon meshes have vertices, faces, and edges.

The wireframe lines on the mesh represent the edges of each face. The regions

bounded by the edges are faces. Where the edges intersect each other is the

location of a point called a vertex.

When a polygon mesh is rendered, its edges can be set to appear hard or

smooth. As a result, polygons can easily represent both flat as well as curved

Using 2D reference images

You can use front, side, and top views from drawings, sketches, or photographs

to help visualize your 3D model in Maya, much like an architect or engineer

creates their designs from the plan and elevation views of a blueprint.

You can import 2D images into your orthographic camera views as image

planes. An image plane is a 2D object (plane) that places an image file in the

scene view. By default, an image plane only appears in the camera to which

the image plane is connected. Image planes are also used to create backgrounds

and environments when rendering.

To smooth and subdivide the cube primitive

With the cube still selected in the scene view, select Mesh > Smooth >

and set the following options in the window that appears:

Click the Smooth button The cube primitive is smoothed and is rounded at its corners. The cube

has also been subdivided into smaller faces.

The polygon faces are still four-sided even though their shape and position have been modified by the smooth operation.

Modeling a polygon mesh in shaded mode gives you a better sense of the 3D volume that the model occupies as well as how any

surface details appear.

You can control the shading of an object separately in each view.