Wiley Mastering Autodesk Maya 2011 978-0-470-63935-1 Benutzerhandbuch

Maya’s working environment has evolved to accommodate both the individual artist as well 
as a team of artists working in a production pipeline. The interface in Maya 2011 has changed 
significantly from previous versions of the program to reflect this evolution. The interface pres-
ents tools, controls, and data in an organized fashion to easily allow you to bring your fantastic 
creations to life.

Understanding the way Maya organizes data about the objects, animation, textures, lights, 

dynamics, and all the other elements contained within the 3D environment of a scene is 
essential to understanding how the interface is organized. Maya uses what’s known as the 
Dependency Graph to keep track of the various packets of data, known as nodes, and how they 
affect each other. Any single element of a Maya scene consists of multiple nodes connected in 
a web, and each of these nodes is dependent on another. Maya’s interface consists of editing 
windows that allow you to connect these nodes in an intuitive way and edit the information 
contained within each node. 

There is usually more than one way to accomplish a task in Maya. As you grow comfortable 

with the interface, you’ll discover which editing windows best suit your working style. 

This chapter is a brief overview of what professionals need to understand when working in 

Maya. You’ll learn what types of nodes you’ll be working with and how they can be created and 
edited in Maya. You’ll also learn how to work with projects and scene data as well as the various 
windows, panels, and controls that make up the interface. This will help you whether you are 
working alone or as part of a team of artists.

If you’ve never used Maya before, we strongly encourage you to read the Maya documenta-

tion as well as Introducing Maya 2011 by Dariush Derakhshani (Sybex, 2010). This chapter is 
about working with nodes, but it is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to each and every 
control within Maya. That information is contained within the Maya documentation.

In this chapter, you will learn to:

Understand transform and shape nodes

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Create a project

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Use assets

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Create file references

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A Maya scene is a system of interconnected nodes that are packets of data about what exists 
within the world of a Maya scene. The nodes are the building blocks you, as the artist, put 
together to create the 3D scene and animation that will finally be rendered for the world to see. 
So if you can think of the objects in your scene, their motion, and appearance as nodes, think 

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