1: MENU

The menu actually consists of two different kinds of menus:

• The standard menu: The first 6 possible objects (being "File", "Edit", "Modify", "Create", "Display" and "Window") always stay the same
• The modular menu: Depending what module you chose the other objects in the menu will change. You can change the module below "File" and "Edit" in the little drop-down menu. This modular menu always contains all the possibilities you have when you do what your chosen module represents. The available modules are:
  • Animation
  • Polygons
  • Surfaces
  • Dynamics
  • Rendering

2: STATUSBAR

In this menu you can find possibilities for increasing and easing your workflow in Maya. Most of them will be covered in later tutorials. Note that you have tings line "New Scene", "Open" and "Save" here, which you'll probably need quite frequently.

3: SHELF

The shelf is divided into different tabs (such as Surfaces, Poligons, Dynamics, Animations etc) and present you the most commonly used functions from these specific fields.

4: PANEL MENU:

Always depending on what you're looking at you have got a different panel menu. You'll probably not need it much, though.

5: TOOL BOX

Here you can find the really most common operations you'll need like rotating, moving or scaling an object. However, I suggest learning the short keys to do that for increases you workflow considerably:

[W] Move Tool
[E] Rotate Tool
[R] Scale Tool

6: LAYOUTS

Here you decide what you want to look at in your Panel (9)

7: TIME SLIDER

When you do an animation you can move forward and back on your time code with the Time Slider (covered in a later tutorial)

8: ANIMATION CONTROL

Similar to your standard DVD player you can control your animation here.

9: PANEL

Here you see what you're working on (objects in space, the Hypershade etc... Covered in a later tutorial ;-) )

10: CHANNEL BOX; LAYER EDITOR

Here you'll find the Channel box or the layer Editor, selectable with the buttons on top of this window