Table Top
Select the Modeling section of Maya, choose from upper left, status line. 



Click the persp view, then hit the spacebar with your mouse over the center of the screen, this is a shortcut to display four views and this displays the Hot Box, if you hit the spacebar again it will display one view, the view the mouse was last over.


Make sure the select by object type button   is selected in the status line near the top. This lets you pick objects, rather than points etc.


Choose Create->Polygon Primitives->Cube  A cube will appear at the origin.


Select the Move Tool button from the the tool box on the left. Click and drag on the green arrow to move the cube up approximately 4 units in the Y axis. 

Display the Channel Editor
If you do not see the channel box, hit the button upper right side of the screen, and select Channel Box/Layer Editor from along the right edge.


Select the Scale Tool button from the side tool box. Change the size of the cube or use the channel box on the right side of the screen and input: 
     Scale X   8
     Scale Y  .5
     Scale Z   8


Legs
Click the front view in order to make the view active, Hit 4 on the keyboard to switch to wireframe instead of shaded.

Choose Create->NURBS Primitives->Cylinder


Select the Move Tool button from the side tool box.   Use this to move the cylinder or use the channel box on the right side of the screen and input:    
     Translate X   -3 
     Translate Y    3 
     Translate Z    3

Turn off the preference for the orientation Handle:
     Select Windows->Setting/Preferences->Preferences
     Select the Manipulators section
     Uncheck Orientation Handle
This option gets in the way of the Pivot Handle. The orientation Handle is good for rotating the pivot center. You will not need to do this very often.

Set the pivot center:
Select the cylinder and select the Scale Tool button from the side tool box.    Hold down the d key, this will switch over to change pivot mode. (You can also use the Insert key on the PC or use the Home key on a mac to toggle (not on a laptop)).  

Click and drag on the manipulator's green line to move the pivot up in the Y axis to the upper edge of the cylinder.


Let go of the d key, you will see the scale manipulator is back.



Scale the leg:
Click and drag on the square in the middle of the manipulator icon, this will scale down the entire cylinder in three axes.

Click and drag on the top square on the manipulator icon to scale the cylinder in Y. Notice it is scaling around the pivot point you changed.


Copy the legs:
Choose Edit->Duplicate Special->     (Open the dialogue window.)
Input translate   6   0  0          (6 units in the X axis, 0 in Y, and 0 in Z.)
Click on Duplicate Special


Select the Select Tool button from the side tool box.
Hold down the shift key and click on both legs.   


Choose Edit->Duplicate Special->
Select translate   0   0  -6          (0 units in the X axis, 0 in Y, and -6 in Z.)
Click on Duplicate Special


Look at the Table in Perspective
How to move Around the View:

PC
Rotate
PC: Alt + the left mouse button roll the camera persp view.

Pan
PC: Alt + the middle mouse button pans any view or panel.

Zoom
PC: Alt + the right button zoom any view or panel.


Mac
Rotate
Mac: Option + the left button roll the camera view.

Pan
Mac no track pad: Alt + the middle mouse button pans any view or panel.
Mac with a track pad:
     Open Windows/Preferences->Preferences
     Under Interface (The top option) Select Two Button Mouse
     Alt + Command + track pad + left + middle mouse button pans any view or panel.
     (You only need to hit the track pad the first time you pan.)

Zoom
Option + the right button dollys any view or panel
Mac with track pad: Two fingers in track pad zoom in and out

Include the  shift key to constrain horizontal or vertical.



Model a Lamp with Sculpting Tools
Sculpting tools only work on polygons.
Hit 5 on the Keyboard to switch to Shaded from wireframe. (4 displays wireframe)
Dolly and track the front view so there is enough space above the table for the lamp.

Create->Polygon Primitives->Sphere->
Set Axis Divisions and Height Divisions both to 50.
Click on Create

Select the Move Tool button from the side tool box. 
Click and drag on the manipulator's top arrow to move the sphere up in the Y axis, on top of the table. 

With the Sphere selected
Mesh Tools->Sculpting Tool ->Sculpt Tool->
Input Size: 0.4
Input Strength: 0.2
Hold left mouse key and drag over the sphere to sculpt.




Play with the Sculpt tool to create your own lamp base.

Check Invert under the Sculpt tool to push the points.

To easily access the sculpting tools, Click on theSculpting tab on the shelf.
To open up sculpting tool settings, double click a Sculpting Tool on the Sculpting shelf.

Experiment with other sculpting tools.


Lamp Shade
Hit 4 on the keyboard to switch to wireframe instead of shaded.
Choose Create->NURBS Primitives->Cylinder->
Enter Number of sections: 6
Enter Number of spans: 1 

While the lamp shade is active, type f, to frame the front view in on the lamp shade.

Select the component type button   in the status line near the top.
The CVs will automatically appear. Component mode lets you pick CVs, rather than objects etc.
CV stands for control vertex, you can drag CVs to change the shape of the lamp shade.

Select the Scale Tool button  from the side tool box. 

Select the top row of CVs and scale them. Then scale the next row, etc.




Insert a Floor
Choose Create->Polygon Primitives->Plane

Select the Scale Tool button from the side tool box.
Interactively scale the floor larger. 


Delete Unwanted Objects
Select the object type button in the status line near the top.

Click anywhere in a view where there are no objects. This will turn off all objects.

Click and drag over the object you do not want.         

Choose Edit->Delete, or hit the delete or backspace key on the keyboard.

Type z to undo, if you change your mind. (You can setup a lot of undos.)

Type Shift z to redo, if you change your mind again.


Add a Light or Two to the Scene
Click anywhere in a view where there are no objects. This will turn off all objects.

While nothing is selected, type f, to zoom each view one at a time around everything in your scene. This will give you more room to position your lights.

Choose Create->Lights->Point Light

Select the Move Tool button from the side tool box. 
Click and drag on the manipulator's arrows or center to move the light above the scene. 

Click in the background of the Perspective or camera view to activate that window.

Hit 5  6 then 7 on the keyboard to switch to shaded, texture view with scene lights. 4 will put it back to wireframe.

4 = display active window wireframe
5 = display active window shaded with default lights
6 = display active window shaded and textured with default lights
7 = display active window shaded with first 8 scene lights


Set up your lights for Arnold Renderer.
Select the light
Under the Attribute Editor, on the right side of the screen, click on the Arnold drop down menu
Set Exposure to 10.000

Click on the    Render View button located at the top of the screen to render a test


Color
 Click on this Hypershade icon located at the top of the screen.

Select the Materials tab

Click on the Phong icon in the Create list 3 times to create 3 shader balls.
Click on the Lambert icon three times as well.

Select one or more objects from the scene. (Use object type button near the top)

  In the Hypershade window: 
Right mouse key over one of the shader balls to bring up the marking menu, select Assign Material to Selection.

Double click the shader ball you just assigned.
Click on the box next to the word Color, this brings up the Color Chooser.

Rename the phong shader if you like.

Assign shaders to everything in your scene.


Animation
Move the timeline over to frame 1 at the bottom of the screen.


Select the lamp base.

Use the channel box on the right side of the screen. 
If you do not see the channel box, hit the button upper right side of the screen.


Highlight Rotate Y in the Channel Box
Use the right mouse key to bring up mini menu, choose Key Selected.


Move the timeline over to frame 120 at the bottom of the screen.

Rotate the lamp base 360 degrees in the Y axis

Highlight Rotate Y in the Channel Box
Use the right mouse key choose Key Selected.


Preview the animation
Move the timeline over to frame 1 at the bottom of the screen.

Right mouse over the timeline to bring up the mini-menu
     select Playback Speed->Real-time

Hit the play arrow on the time slider.

Stop the playback by clicking the mouse on the red square over the play arrow.


Setup a Project Area to work off your external hard drive
Create a folder on your external hard drive, name it something like ucla156_assignments
Maya will create folders in this directory: scenes and images
When you save files they will save to your external drive.
Anytime you switch to a new computer run the Set Project utility again.
The exFAT drive format will  work across Mac and PC platforms.

PC:
In Maya Choose File->Set Project...
Select My Computer
Find your external drive, highlight the ucla156_assignments folder,   choose Set

Mac:
Know the name of your external drive, change the name to something easy to remember
In Maya Choose File->Set Project...
Type   /Volumes/name of your drive/ucla156_assignments  in top line after Lookin:
     hit Enter key
(You may need to try twice to see the Volumes folder.)


Store a Copy of Your Model
Choose File->Save Scene As         
Type a descriptive name such as tablelamp.
Click the Save button.

A file will be stored in your scenes directory. A scene file contains almost everything:
Objects, Color information, Transformations, Animation, Backgrounds, Hierarchy, Lights, Windows, Dynamics, etc. This is stored locally on the hard drive of your computer. You may want to back it up somewhere else too.


Read a Stored Model Back On
Choose File->Open Scene
Select the file you want to retrieve.


Turn off Color Management
Color Management increases the gamma for an image, this does not carry over to other programs such as Photoshop. You do not see the true image with Color management..
Select Windows->Settings/Preferences->Preferences
Select Color Management
Uncheck Enable Color Management
Select Save


Render Settings
Press this icon upper right or middle 
Under the Common tab:
Under the File Output arrow:
Choose Image format: Tif
Uncheck Dither

If you want to render your animation:
Choose Frame/Animation ext:    name.#.ext
Input End frame:  120

Under the  Image Size arrow:
choose 960x540

With these settings below, your scene will render faster with a preview quality.
Under the Arnold Renderer tab:
Under the Sampling arrow:
     Set Camera (AA) to 2      (default 3)
     Set Diffuse to 2      (default 2)
     Set Specular to 1      (default 2)
     Set Transmission to 0      (default 2)
     Set SSS to 0      (default 2)
     Set Volume Indirect to 0      (default 2)

Under the Ray Depth arrow
     Set Total to 1      (default 10)
     Set Diffuse to 1      (default 1)
     Set Specular to 1      (default 1)
     Set Transmisssion to 0      (default 8)
     Set Volume to 0      (default 0)
     Set Transparency Depth to 0      (default 10)
Click Close to close the window


Render an Animation Sequence
Change to the Rendering Module


Select Render->Render Sequence from the top menu bar.

You can always hit the Esc button to stop the render.


Where are the files?
The image is stored locally in the images folder on your computer. You can change the default location. File->Project Window

PC: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\maya\projects\default\images

Mac: /users/$user/Documents/maya/projects/default/images


View the Animation with fcheck
PC: Use Start->Autodesk->fcheck from windows, or C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2018\bin\fcheck.exe
Mac: Use Applications\Autodesmaya2018\Fcheck
Select File->Open Animation  Select the first frame.