Problems with 'Getting Started Maya 2014'

[agirona2009]

Hi. I'm a student trying to learn how to use Maya 2014, but I have a problem. I tried using the Getting Started Lessons for 2014 but I'm stuck in Lesson 1 of Poly Modeling, in Using 2D reference images. I tried doing View > Camera as it said so I could access the imagePlaneShape1 tab, but it doesn't appear. Plus, the image planes don't disappear when I select Show > Cameras. These are the exact smae problems I encountered when I tried to use the 2013 tutorials to learn before the ones for 2014 came out. Am I doing something wrong, or are the tutorials are out of date? And if they are, could somebody show me where to find free, up-to-date tutorials? Thanks.

[n8skow]

After you've selected the camera, and expanded the Attribute Editor, expand the 'Environment' tab...

[agirona2009]

I tried doing that. It imported the image plane and everything, but I got the same problems.

[santd]

Try drag selecting the image plane in the viewport then hitting ctrl-a that will open the image plane in the attribute editor.

Cheers,

[agirona2009]

What I mean is that I'm interpretting the tutorial as saying that the imagePlaneShape1 tab should be appearing at the same time as the camera tabs. 

[santd · Accepted solution]

You are correct that is what the tutorial is saying. Prior to Maya 2013 the image plane was connected into the camera and would show up when the camera was selected. Now the image plane is connected differently which is why you are not seeing it as a tab when you select the camera. You should be able to select the image plane from the Outliner or the GUI and continue the tutorial from there.

Cheers,

[vesav]

Hi,

Step 3.

"Click the imagePlaneShape1 tab"

Step 6.

"In the perspective view’s panel menu, select Show > Cameras to temporarily turn off the display of the image planes in the perspective view."

Main question is - how do you do the Step 6 if you can't do Step 3?

I mean, how do you switch those imagePlanes on and off by turning off and on the camera in the perspective view?

There's might be also misleading information in the section "Selecting edge loops"

Maya 2014 default grid is bigger than in the tutorial, so I can't use snap to grid..

Default grid size: 12 / 5 / 5

(image attached 1111.png)

Maya 2014 / Getting started / Polygon Modeling / Lesson 1

[vesav]

Okay, I changed the grid size from Display>Grid [O], but is the 12/2/8 right size for this tutorial?

7. In the top view, click-drag the blue arrow on the Move Tool manipulator downwards a small distance.

Things got all twisted.. Image attached..

[santd]

I created a video going through the steps in the "Using 2d reference images" section:

https://chronicle.autodesk.com/Main/Details/a967eafc-528e-4ad1-81cc-3e94153adb86

As for the issue you are recieving where things get twisted. Go into your move tool options by double clicking on the move tool then make sure that Keep Component spacing is checked if it is not all components will move to the same line causing a twisting look.

Cheers,

[rwlowe]

Hi Santd,

I followed along with your video, however I'm still experiencing OP's problem.

First off, apologies for the image-heavy post, but here is what I'm doing, and the result I'm getting.

Step 1 - Here's what I'm starting with:

Step 2:

Step 3 is choosing a jpg file.

Step 4:

I even tried turning on hardware texturing/shaded objects to see if that would change anything. It didn't.

Interestingly, I can get the image to show up as a movie file, but every time I relaunch Maya, I have to go through and reimport each image all over again.

Any help would be immensely appreciated.