Interface Overview

Interface

Maya’s interface can be daunting when opened for the first time. We want to have a closer look at the GUI and learn how different tasks are sorted intro different workspaces in this lesson. We will also have a look at the most important hotkeys and viewport navigation.

Overview

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Number Name Usage
1 Shelves Quick access to many functions and scripts via icons sorted by tasks
2 Attribute Editor / Channelbox Main editors for values and variables of selected objects and nodes
3 Viewport Main interaction window with the 3D scene and world
4 Outliner Quick access and manipulation of the scene hierarchy
5 Timeline Area Scrub time, play animayion, access to animation settings
6 Console Insert mel or python commands and call them
7 Script output Outputs messages, warnings and errors from script editor
8 Status lines Outputs messages about mayas status and tooltips

Shelves and Workspaces

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Maya’s tools are sorted into shelves and workspaces. Menus in the menu bar will appear and disappear based on the workspace selected. There are 5 main workspaces accessed by the dropdown in the top left corner:

  • Modeling
  • Rigging
  • Animation
  • FX
  • Rendering

These workspaces correspond to tasks in the 3d pipeline and will show all tools needed for these tasks.

Shelves are customizable icon bars. You can use these bars to quickly call different Maya commands. Shelves are sorted by tool sets and tasks and you will most likely create your own shelves while working with Maya.

Note

You can easily add a tool from the menu to the shelf by ctrl+shift+middle-clicking any menu item.
You can also select text in the script editor and middle-drag it to a shelf to create a button for the script.

Warning

Make sure to save your shelves by clicking the small gear wheel to the left of the shelf and choosing “Save All Shelves”

Find out more about the power of shelves in the official Maya Documentation

Note

You can find a lot more information about the interface, including menu sets that are not covered in this quick start in the official Autodesk Maya Manual

Viewport Navigation Hotkeys

You will mainly use hotkeys to navigate the viewport. If you learn these by heart, interacting with the 3D viewport will become natural very quickly.

This section describes basic 3D Viewport navigation shortcuts for Maya. These are needed for very basic scene navigation.

Orbiting the Camera/Viewport Panning the Camera/Viewport Dollying the Camera/Viewport
Shows animation of the camera orbiting around a cube in mayas 3D viewport Shows animation of the camera panning around a cube in mayas 3D viewport Shows animation of the dollying towards and away from a cube in mayas 3D viewport
Key Combination: Key Combination: Key Combination:
LeftMouse-Drag + Alt MiddleMouse-Drag + Alt RightMouse-Drag + Alt

There are also three very important hotkeys to make interaction with the viewport smoother and faster.

Hotkey Action
F Move to selection and make it the new view center
Space Open hotbox / toggle viewport layout
K+Leftmouse-Drag Scrub through timeline

Note

If your viewport acts strange, i.e. after changing the scene up axis, you can hit alt+home to reset the view and correct the issues. You can achieve the same by going to View -> Default View in the panel menu.
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Panel Setup

Maya’s viewport is made up of up to four panels. It supports different panel layouts and allows any editor content in these panels. You will that you like different layouts for different tasks or discover a favourite layout. Starting out, it makes the most sense to try different layouts for different tasks until you find one that fits your style of working best.

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Switch the layout either via the hotbox. or by going to Panels -> Layouts -> [YOUR LAYOUT] in the small menu bar over the editor pane.

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You can switch the content of each pane in the small menu bar over the editor pane by going to Panels -> Panel -> [YOUR PANEL CONTENT]

Hotbox

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Open the hotbox by pressing and holding down Space over the viewport. Mayas hotbox is a quicker way of accessing all menus in the menu bar.

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Tap spacebar to toggle between your panel setup and a maximised viewport.

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You can click the middle-area of the hotbox while holding down space to switch the contents / camera of the panel under the cursor.

Note

You do not have to wait for the menu to appear to switch the contents. You can just flick the mouse into the direction of your target to switch the panel.

Main Editor Windows

The official Autodesk Maya Documentation is very thorough explaining the main editor windows. You can refer to their manual pages for more information.