the maya tutorial

Hi all! This is a Tutorial on the program "maya." This program beats blender and anything else out of the water!!!! Unfortunately, it is quite complicated. This is why I am here! Below is explained how to make a simple spaceship in the maya ple which can be downloaded here

Lets get started!
Ok, first thing u need to do is open up maya! Before you read this, u should probably do some of the QT lessons on the startup window! After you have done those, this will be so easy u can't stand it. If u don't want to, thats fine too.

ok, the first thing to do is open up the tabs (located in the upper left hand corner)

now, in the polygon tab, choose the "make a square" function

this will hopefully make a square. But, we need to move that square.

Select the move option (a cone on the left-hand bar) and move the square up to the surface of the grid.

now select the scale tool (a square). Make the box about six squares long and two squares wide.

it should look something like this

Now click the "create triangle button.

Now, move it to the back of the square.

Now click the "smooth object" option in the polygon tab. It will be reprisented by a square, an arrow, and a sphere.

Now it is a smother triangle. Move it down so that only one curve in it is shown.

now, lets make another box. This time, scale it out so that it is eight squares wide and still one square long. This is going to act as a wing. Now, scale it so that it is lingering half in the main square, half out.

Now comes the fun part. Right click on the "wing" and select the faces option. U will see little dots on all the surfaces. Select the dot on the top.

use the move funtion to move the top of the square back a good ways (u can move it back as far as u want really)

Now select the triangle and get into ur trusty scale tool.

Now, Flatten that sucka till it looks like a fin. It helps if you make it a little longer too

Now we go back to the base square. If u haven't figured it out yet, this is the hull of the ship. Select the frant face and scale it inwards just a little bit.

it should look somewhere around this.

Now we select out rotating tool (reprisented by a circle in the tool bar) and rotate out face so that the top overhangs the bottom by a bit.

it should look something like this.

Now we make a Sphere. Move it so that it is in the more front area of the ship.

Now, scale it to ur wanting so that it looks like a cockpit, or something like it.

Now, make a cylinder.

Get into that rotate tool and rotate it 90 degrees so that it is now on it's side

Now move it to the back of ur ship.

Scale it down so it looks like an engine (hinthint)

Now, move this one to the side, duplicate it (cammand-d or ctrl-d) and move that one to the other side

It should look like this.

Now, duplicate one, and move it to the side.

Scale it so that it now looks more like a straw. Attach it to the wing, and viola! U have a very basic missle or weapon! Duplicate it and just move it over to the next wing.

And now u have a perfectly good spaceship. If u have any questions, post here and I will see what I can do. Feel free to post ur creations on this thread! Happy modeling!

Last edited: Sunday, July 10, 2005 at 10:58:46 AM

I would completely agree, Maya is alot easier and better than Blender, except you can't export Torque/TT stuff unless you have $2000 bucks to spare. Nice tutorial!

It is still fun though. And I don't use it to model for TT. (although, on limwire there is a dmg, and I was very tempted) I use it for school and escaping te apocolyps w/ saint jimmy!!! Lets focus on the school part though... I made an army for a country I made in sixth grade. here . Please note that I put that site together in about five minutes and the slide show + movie does not wokr... Couldn't finish it in time. Feel free to check out the other sites on my page too. Just delete up untill the nathanp part and u will have my school website (nothin fancy. I made it on claris home page).

NEW UPDATE!!!! Spunky just told me about an exporter for TGE!!!!!
the link for it is here

I couldn't get it to wokr, but if anyone else does, please tell!

Umm.... ^^^.... You noticed the "unless..." part?

I think it still works though... I think!

How would you go about coloring that space ship or any thing els? Could you make the wings have strips and the body dots (just an example). Or take a picture and rap it around the object? So there is an exporter for torque?

Last edited: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 8:11:44 PM

I am in but a modeling stage. I know that u can indivudually color facesin the render tab, but I don't know yet how to wrap a pic around it. I made this a while ago though.

This is called the kothar. Jimmy and I are going to be taking off (hopefully) by the year 2012!

I can't find the free download for maya on the site can you point me to the exact page?

U need to search it. Or go into the maya section. If u still can't find it, make sure ur regitered w/ alias.

You have to give them your phone number and other personal info to download. I'm not doing that.

What? From what I see, you just need to enter your country and e-mail!
http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/products-services/maya/maya_ple/get_maya_ple.jsp

^ is right. And maya is a secure website! U won't need worry. U could give them ur name, phone and sock size and they'd keep it safe!

Ok so I download and installed it...Now how do you install the exporter for TGE?

I still haven't figured that part out yet... If u do, please tell! ;)

The fact is, that I have been tryin' to tell you guys, you CAN'T install export plugins in the PLE version of Maya! Alias says that you can't.

See this: http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/maya_ple/faq.shtml#differences_ple_commercial

Last edited: Friday, July 22, 2005 at 2:57:02 PM

... RIGHT! I saw that! I was just seeing how vigilant u are. O.K.... New plan: Go onto limewire... XD :P
Darn. I really was hopeing there was some way to bypass that. Oh well!

You're all students aren't you? You can get one year student licences (I bought a full license, 600 dollars) online for about 100 dollars for 3ds Max (my program of choice, it rocks!!) which is a good deal compared to the 3500 for a full version. Student licences of Maya are bound to be cheap for you people who don't like max (its sooooo much better!!! YOU MAYA LOVING FREAKS!!)

Oh and, pirating is illegal, don't do it :)

[Ishbuu]

I dont. But if u look at it, limewire isn't illeagal, is it. People are just shareing their stuff! ;) I don'y use t much though. My Friends and I share stories w/ it (don and jess don't like to use email) and thats pretty much it. I still don't know what is wrong with email though?

Ah, my young friend, Limewire is illegal, if all the people just got something for free and not having to pay for it, there would be way less money for Alias, and thus cannot hire more and better developers, and will not be able to get better technology.

So YES, sharing/downloading MUSIC THAT YOU DON'T HAVE and PROGRAMS THAT YOU DON'T HAVE is 99.9% illegal. They just need to enforce it more (governments and such)

I'll tell you a little story. Once upon a time, my uncle asked me if I could get a program for him that would get him free music. Of course, I had to listen to my uncle. One thing led to another, and a few days later, I had downloaded about 100 songs. THEN I realized that Limewire was actually stealing all my iTunes music folder (even my CDs and stuff) and uploading it for other people to download! I also heard of all the stories of kids who got fined/sued for downloading music. I deleted my entire iTunes music library, deleted Limewire, and all the music I had downloaded illegallly, I bought on the iTunes music store (to rid myself of the guilt and the sueing factor).Guess what? I still use Limewire to download music. BUT I only download acapellas, instrumentals and remixes, and I MAKE SURE that I have bought the original song first. :)

I wondered why LimeWire made a PRO version of it when LimeWire Basic users can download it for free from limewire itself!
LOL. I wonder if people really buy the pro version.

But if LW is illeagal, why do all the little icontainers make icons for it???

...Because alot of people use it, even if they're not supposed to. It's not like Apple pre-installs Limewire on all their comps, ya know...

@Big Show, LOL! That's hailarious! I'm going to try that... XD ;)

Heh. I've already done it and THANK GOD I didnt buy it! The only thing that makes it better is the skins other than that
it doesnt search or download faster than the basic.