In this weeks ABC session we started off by learning how to parent objects. Once a number of polygons have been created you can then use the middle mouse button to click and drag them on top of one another and this creates a parent object with a number of children. The lowest child can be moved individually but as you move up the chain everything below it gets moved together. SHORTCUT: Select one object, select another object by pressing/holding shift and then pressing “P”
To unparent objects you can drag and drop the child objects into an empty space and then they will become ‘free’ again and can be moved on their own. SHORTCUT: cmd + “P”
To group objects: cmd + “G”
To duplicate objects: cmd +”D”
We also learnt how to pivot objects by moving the arrowheads. The insert button (left diagonal arrow) removes the arrow heads and then by pressing and holding “V” when it is moved it will snap to a vertex but by pressing and holding “B” it can move freely. To put it back in it’s original position; modify ➝ center pivot.
Mauricio also explained to us the different files types in ‘Maya’:
‘.mb’ = mayaBinary file
‘.ma’ = mayaAscii
‘.ma’ files are larger than ‘.mb’ files as they contain more information.
In the second half of the session we continued to build the robot that we started last week. This time we were taught how to split polygons:
(polygon toolbar) Edit Mesh ➝ Insert Edge Loop Tool
and how to extrude faces of polygons:
(polygon toolbar) Edit Mesh ➝ Extrude (with a face selected from the right click menu of a polygon)
