Rotate View
Browse / Maya Digital Illustration & 3D Design Cheatsheet
March 02, 2025 23:09
Missing something?
Maya Digital Illustration & 3D Design Cheatsheet
A comprehensive cheat sheet covering essential Maya commands, tools, and workflows for digital illustration and 3D design, helping artists and designers streamline their creative process.
Interface & Navigation
Basic Navigation
|
|
Alt + Left Mouse Button |
|
Pan View |
Alt + Middle Mouse Button |
|
Zoom View |
Alt + Right Mouse Button (Drag) or Mouse Wheel |
|
Frame Selected |
F Key |
|
Frame All |
A Key |
|
Perspective View |
Press the Spacebar (Tap) |
Hotkeys
|
Move Tool |
W Key |
|
Rotate Tool |
E Key |
|
Scale Tool |
R Key |
|
Show/Hide Manipulators |
T Key |
|
Toggle Wireframe/Shaded |
4 (Wireframe) / 5 (Shaded) |
|
Show UVs |
6 |
|
Show Textures |
7 |
Panels
|
Outliner |
Window > Outliner |
|
Attribute Editor |
Ctrl + A or Window > Attribute Editor |
|
Tool Settings |
Double-click tool icon or Window > Tool Settings |
|
Hypershade |
Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade |
|
UV Editor |
Window > UV Editor |
Modeling Essentials
Creating Primitives
|
Polygon Primitives |
Create > Polygon Primitives (Sphere, Cube, Cylinder, etc.) |
|
NURBS Primitives |
Create > NURBS Primitives (Sphere, Cube, Cylinder, etc.) |
|
Curves |
Create > Curves (EP Curve Tool, Bezier Curve Tool, etc.) |
|
Bevel |
Edit Mesh > Bevel |
|
Extrude |
Edit Mesh > Extrude |
|
Boolean Operations |
Mesh > Booleans (Union, Difference, Intersection) |
Mesh Editing
|
Selecting Components |
Right-click > Vertex/Edge/Face |
|
Move Components |
W Key (Move Tool) + Drag |
|
Insert Edge Loop |
Mesh Tools > Insert Edge Loop Tool |
|
Multi-Cut Tool |
Mesh Tools > Multi-Cut Tool (Ctrl to create edge loop) |
|
Merge Vertices |
Edit Mesh > Merge |
|
Fill Hole |
Mesh > Fill Hole |
Modifiers
|
Smooth Mesh |
Mesh > Smooth |
|
Sculpting Tools |
Mesh Tools > Sculpting Tools (Grab, Smooth, Push, Pull, etc.) |
|
Duplicate Special |
Edit > Duplicate Special |
|
Mirror Geometry |
Mesh > Mirror |
UV Mapping & Texturing
UV Mapping Basics
|
Automatic Mapping |
UV > Automatic |
|
Planar Mapping |
UV > Planar |
|
Cylindrical Mapping |
UV > Cylindrical |
|
Spherical Mapping |
UV > Spherical |
|
Unfold |
UV > Unfold |
|
UV Editor |
Window > UV Editor |
Creating Materials
|
Assign New Material |
Right-click object > Assign New Material |
|
Lambert |
Common Surface Materials > Lambert |
|
Blinn |
Common Surface Materials > Blinn |
|
Phong |
Common Surface Materials > Phong |
|
AiStandardSurface (Arnold) |
Arnold > Surface > aiStandardSurface |
Applying Textures
|
File Texture |
In Attribute Editor, click checkerbox icon next to color attribute > File |
|
Layered Texture |
Create > Textures > Layered Texture |
|
Projection |
Create > Textures > Projection |
|
Bump Mapping |
Add file texture to Bump Mapping attribute in material |
|
Normal Mapping |
Add file texture to Normal Camera attribute in material |
Animation Basics
Keyframing
|
Set Key |
S Key (Sets keyframe on selected attributes) |
|
Graph Editor |
Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor |
|
Timeline Navigation |
Use timeline controls to move between frames |
|
Auto Key |
Toggle on the timeline to automatically set keyframes |
|
Playblast |
Window > Playblast (Creates a quick preview of your animation) |
Deformers
|
Bend Deformer |
Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Bend |
|
Twist Deformer |
Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Twist |
|
Wave Deformer |
Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Wave |
|
Lattice Deformer |
Create Deformers > Lattice |
|
Cluster Deformer |
Create Deformers > Cluster |
|
Skinning |
Skin > Bind Skin (Attaching meshes to skeletons) |
Lights & Rendering
|
Create Lights |
Create > Lights (Ambient Light, Directional Light, Point Light, etc.) |
|
Arnold Render View |
Arnold > Open Arnold RenderView |
|
Render Settings |
Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings |
|
Batch Render |
Rendering > Render > Batch Render |
|
Render Sequence |
Rendering > Render > Render Sequence |