Maya
- /Discuss – Level Designers Discuss what kind of tutorials you want to see written on this page
- Maya FAQ – Common problems experienced when using Maya to import into UnrealEd, with some solutions
Maya is a professional 3D modeling application created by [Alias]. You can download [Maya 5.0 PLE] (Personal Learning Edition) for free from Alias' website. Maya 4.0.1 PLE was distributed with UT2003 on CD#3 (see press release text below), but it's unclear whether a key will be issued for this older version.
Maya 5.0 PLE does not currently support the unEditor.mll plug-in used for exporting to UT2003.
Note: Maya PLE is for NT-based versions of Windows only. This means is only runs under Windows NT 4, 2000 and XP. For other applications that work under Windows 98/ME see Topics on Modeling.
Tutorials
(PlaceHolder Tutorial Organisation)
- Part I - Building A Polygonal Mesh In Maya
- Part II - Quick Look At Creating Materials Using Maya's Hypershade, Assigning Textures and Basic Planar/Cylindrical/Automatic Mapping
- Part III - Basic Lighting and Baking Lightmaps For Shadows
- Part IV - ActorX for Maya and Exporting Basics
- Part V - Animation Basics
Related Topics
- Topics On Modeling
- How to prelight a scene – http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Community/Learn/how_tos/games/pre_light/index.html
- Polygon Modeling Tutorial: Low Poly, High Powered Gun – http://www.mesmer.com/books/mayaguntutorial.html
- Dave K's Poly Head Modeling Tutorial – http://www.thehobbitguy.com/tutorials/polymodeling/
- Setting up UV's for a model in order to paint the textures – http://www.kniffen.ca/index.php?target=tutorials/texture/UV1.php
Recommended books
- [Maya | Games and Interactive]
- [Techniques | Polygon Texturing, Shading and Lighting DVD]
- [4 Fundamentals : by Jim Lammers, Lee Gooding]
- [MasteringMaya 3]
Maya Plugins
- ActorX
- unEditor.mll NOTE: See this page if you're having trouble getting the added Scale attribute to work properly.
Maya PLE Press Release
Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, today announced that its Maya Personal Learning Edition software will be distributed with the highly-anticipated PC game, Unreal Tournament 2003 (UT2003), developed by Digital Extremes in collaboration with Epic Games, Inc. and distributed by Infogrames, Inc. Each UT2003 box will contain a copy of Maya Personal Learning Edition and a special plug-in jointly developed by Epic and San Francisco-based Secret Level, Inc. This plug-in will allow dedicated game players/developers (MOD makers) to build and export game objects and characters to the game engine.
"Unreal Tournament had a very active and successful community of developers who created some spectacular modifications for the game using the tools we provided," said Mark Rein, Epic's Vice President. "But, this is the first time we've been able to provide modeling and animation software as part of the package and we've got the best with Maya Personal Learning Edition. Secret Level also helped out by providing an enhanced plug-in to make it work seamlessly with the Unreal Editor."
"UT2003 will be a crown jewel of first person shooters and we think Maya Personal Learning Edition working in concert with the Unreal Editor provides an unprecedented creative environment for those looking to expand on UT2003." explains Mayaź marketing manager, Geoff Foulds. "With the Maya Personal Learning Edition plug-in, MOD makers will be able to export levels and characters with a simple button push. And they will see the results instantly in the Unreal Editor window, side-by-side with their Maya Personal Learning Edition window. Epic has done a superb job of providing to the MOD community the kind of integrated 3D pipeline used by top game developers."
The game is currently scheduled to ship in Fall 2003. Demonstrations of how the pipeline will work for creating MODs for UT 2003 will be on display on the NVIDIA stand at the ECTS exhibition taking place August 29 - 31, London, UK.
