Hiding the General UI

1. Use lesson 02 file
2. Turn off all menus/show all menus
   • – Switch to perspective view
   • – press and hold [SPACEBAR] over stage
     • Click on Hotbox Controls > Window Options > (check) either (Show Main Menubar or Show Pane Menubars)
       
3. Turn off all workspace options / turn on stage fullscreen
   • – HOTBOX CONTROLS || Display > UI Elements > Hide All UI Elements
     

     

4. Change the Panel Organization to Preset Configurations
   • – Press and hold [SPACEBAR] over the stage
   • – Click above the HotBox
   • – Select Hypershade/Render/Persp
   • 
5. Open the Attribute Editor
   • – Press CTRL + A or MAIN || Display > UI Elements > Attribute Editor

Hotkeys / Shortcuts

(For the complete set of Hotkeys: Windows > Settings/Preferences > Hotkey Editor )

• LAYOUT
  • HotBox/window Popping: SPACEBAR
  • Showhide Attribute Editor: CTRL + A
• MANIPULATING
  • Select: Q
  • Move: W
  • Rotate: E
  • Scale: R
  • Show Manipulator Tool: T
  • Invoke last Tool: Y
  • Repeat Last Command: G
  • Start / Stop Playback: ALT + V
  • Go to first frame: ALT + SHIFT + V
  • Frame Selected: F
  • Frame All: A

Shading Network

Adding color, texture, light and geometry to an object to give it your desired look is done thru shading networks.

The Hypershade Window

1. Has 3 sections; (Create Bar | Hypershade Tabs | Work Area)
   • Create Bar: allows you to create any rendering nodes for your scene
   • Hypershade tabs: Lists all the nodes that make up your scene
   • Work Area: allows you to look more closely and alter any part of your shading network’s graph

Creating Shading Networks

Contains a series of nodes that input into a shading group. A shading group is a node which defines the various rendering attributes of it’s related objects, i.e. surface shading, volumetric shading, displacement shading, etc

1. Build Sky Material
   • – open Hypershade and Attribute Editor
   • – Click on Show top and bottom tabs in the Hypershade
   • 
   • In the Create Bar section, Click on the tab Create.
   • Click on the down arrow just below the Create tab, make sure Create Maya Nodes is selected
   • Click on Lambert
   • 
   • Lambert gives control over flat materials without shiny highlights
2. Rename the material node
   • – In the Attribute Editor rename the material node to skyM
   • – “M” is to remind you this node is a material node
   • – Hold CTRL + DBL CLICK on the node in the Hypershade to be able to rename it there.
3. Edit the Material’s Color
   • To define  how our material will render, you will need to set a color attribute
   • – In the Attribute Editor click on the color swatch next to Colorattribute
     • (This opens a color chooser)
   • – Choose a light blue and click on Accept
   • 
4. Assign the Material
   • MMB + CLICK DRAG on the skyM node from the Hypershade Panel into the perspective stage and drop in onto the skyDome
   • Note: make sure Hardware Shading is turned on. Press 5.
   • 

Creating a Procedural Texture Map

1. Rock Material
   • – In the Hypershade, clear the graph. Click HYPERSHADE WINDOW || Clear Graph or press the clear graph button
   • 
   • – This clears the workspace so you can start a new shading network
   • – Create a Blinn material. CREATE [tab] > Blinn
     (Blinn gives you shininess of your material)
   • – Change the material node to rockM in the Attribute Editor Window
   • – Select every rock in the scene.
   • – RMB on your rockM and select Assign Material to Selection
   • – With rockMselected, change the Specular Shading values in the Attribute Editor Window
     • Eccentricity: 0.8
     • Specular Roll Off: 0.3
     • Specular Color: Brown
     • Reflectivity: 0
2. Adding a Fractal Texture
   The rocks look flat because they don’t have a grainy texture. Adding a fractal texture will help enhance the look of grainy-ness
   • – In the Hypershade > Create [tab] > 2D Textures
   • – MMB drag a fractal node into the work area
   • 
   • – In the work area MMB + DRAG the fractal icon over rockM
   • – When you release another window will pop up. Select color.
   • – Click Rearrange Graph button.
   •  
3. View the texture
   (you need to enable Hardware Texturing, if you can’t see the texture on the stage)
   • – Press: 6 or …
     
   • – Hotbox (popup) > Shading > Hardware Texturing or …
   • 
   • – CLICK on the button
   • 
4. Edit the Fractal Attributes
   • – Click on the Fractal node
   • – In Attribute Editor, CLICK on Color Balance to expand the attributes
     
   • – Color Gain (swatch color): pick a color
   • – Color Offset (swatch color): pick a color
   • – In Attribute Editor, CLICK on Fractal Attributes
   • – Adjust the values to your preference
   • – At the top of the Attribute Editor Window, Click on the place2dTexture tab. (This tab shows different placement options for the fractal texture)
   • – Change the fractal’s placement attributes
     • Repeat U: 2
     • Repeat V: 1
5. Display the whole shading group
   • With the rockM selected, Click on Input and Output Connections
   • 

Map a File Texture

Create a texture for the ground using a file texture node. Use a file for a texture.

1. Create a material for the ground
   • – In the Hypershade, clear the workspace
   • – Scroll to the Create[tab] > Surface and select Lambert
   • – Rename this node to groundM
2. Create a file texture node
   • – DOUBLE CLICK on groundM in the Hypershade to display the Attribute Editor
   • – Attribute Editor Window || Click on the Map (checkered box) icon next to Color
   • – A Create Render Node window pops up
   • – Create Render Node window || Click on Textures > 2D Textures > File
   • (you will see this layout in your hypershade work area)
   • 
3. Import the file texture
   • – Click on the file1 node in Hypershade to bring it up in the Attribute Editor window
   • – Click on the yellow folder next to Image Name
   • 
4. Apply the textured material to the ground
   • – Select the ground surface on the stage
   • – Hypershade window RMB CLICK + Assign Material to Selection
5.  Roof Texture. Using file textures with an alpha channel or transparency
   • – Save a texture image as a TIFF file with a alpha channel
   • – Create your image in Photoshop
     • – Create a selection of your object. CTRL + CLICK on the Layer’s thumbnail
     • – Channels Window, click on Save selection as channel.
     • 
     • – Save file as Tiff with Alpha Channels checked and Layers unchecked
     • 
     • – Tiff Options window: make sure Save Transparency is checked.
     • 
6. Complete the Scene
   • – Assign textures to the rest of the scene.
   • – Note: you can assign textured to polygonal faces by first selecting the faces and then assigning them the shader.
   • Ex.

Test Render

1. Display the Resolution Gate
   • The current view panel may not be displaying the actual proportions that will be rendered. To see how the scene will actually render
   • – HotBox [SPACEBAR] || View > Camera Settings > Resolution Gate
   • – The view displays a bounding box for 640×480
2. Render your first scene
   • – In the Render View Panel || RMB(CLICK) + Render >  Render > perspective from the popup
   • – Add lights. MAIN || Create > Lights
   • – Render your scene again
3. Zoom into your rendering
   • – In the Render View Panel: use ALT + LMB/RMB to pan/zoom our render
   • – RENDER VIEW PANEL || RMB [CLICK] + View > Real Size