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Table Of Contents

Contents
Overview
- Introduction
- About the Getting Started lessons
- Before you begin
- Installing Maya
- Conventions used in the lessons
- Using the lesson files
- Using the Maya Help
- Additional learning resources
- Restoring default user settings
Maya Basics
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: The Maya user interface
- Lesson 2: Creating, manipulating, and viewing objects
- Lesson 3: Viewing the Maya 3D scene
- Lesson 4: Components and attributes
Polygonal Modeling
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lesson
- Lesson 1: Modeling a polygonal mesh
- Lesson 2: Sculpting a polygon mesh
NURBS Modeling
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Revolving a curve to create a surface
- Lesson 2: Sculpting a NURBS surface
- Lesson 3: Lofting curves to create a surface
Subdivision Surfaces
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lesson
- Lesson 1: Modeling a subdivision surface
Animation
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor
- Lesson 2: Set Driven Key
- Lesson 3: Path animation
- Lesson 4: Nonlinear animation with Trax
- Lesson 5: Inverse kinematics
Character Setup
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Skeletons and kinematics
- Lesson 2: Smooth skinning
- Lesson 3: Cluster and blend shape deformers
Polygon Texturing
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lesson
- Lesson 1: UV texture mapping
- Lesson 2: UV unfolding
- Lesson 3: Normal mapping
Rendering
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Rendering a scene
- Lesson 2: Shading surfaces
- Lesson 3: Lights, shadows, and cameras
- Lesson 4: Global Illumination
- Lesson 5: Caustics
Dynamics
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Particles, emitters, and fields
- Lesson 2: Rigid bodies and constraints
Painting
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Painting in 2D using Paint Effects
- Lesson 2: Painting in 3D using Paint Effects
- Lesson 3: Painting textures on surfaces
Expressions
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Creating a simple expression
- Lesson 2: Conditional expressions
- Lesson 3: Controlling particle attributes
Scripting in Maya
- Introduction
- Some basic concepts
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Commands in MEL
- Lesson 2: Saving scripts to the Shelf
- Lesson 3: Using Variables in MEL
- Lesson 4: User interface creation and procedures
- Lesson 5: Using Python in Maya
Assets
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Setting up an asset
- Lesson 2: Using assets in a scene
Hair
- Introduction
- About hair simulation
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Creating a basic hairstyle
- Lesson 2: Creating a dynamic non-hair simulation
Fluid Effects
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Creating a dynamic 2D fluid effect
- Lesson 2: Creating a non-dynamic 3D fluid effect
- Lesson 3: Creating a dynamic 3D effect
- Lesson 4: Creating an ocean effect
Fur
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Assigning a fur description
- Lesson 2: Rendering fur
nCloth
- Introduction
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson 1: Creating nCloth collisions
- Lesson 2: Creating nCloth constraints
- Lesson 3: Creating nCloth Clothing
nParticles
- Introduction
- Preparing for the tutorials
- Lesson 1: Creating nParticles
- Lesson 2: Creating a smoke simulation with nParticles
- Lesson 3: Creating a liquid simulation with nParticles
Live
- Introduction
- About Live
- Preparing for the lessons
- Lesson setup
- Lesson 1: Track and solve
- Lesson 2: Solving with survey data
Index

For more information about these attributes, see Viscosity and Rest Density

in the nDynamics guide.

Open the second scene for the lesson

To ensure this lesson works as described, open the scene file named

Liquid_Simulation_2.mb. This file is in the GettingStarted directory that

you set as your Maya project:

GettingStarted/nParticles/Liquid_Simulation_2.mb

Convert nParticles to a polygon mesh

To create a smooth surface for your liquid simulation, you can convert the

nParticles to a polygon mesh. Converting nParticles to a mesh has many

advantages, because you can edit it like any other polygon object.

For example, you can improve the quality and overall look of your liquid

simulation by performing polygon smooth operations on the output mesh.

Polygon smoothing increases the number of polygons in your mesh and gives

it a smoother appearance. For your liquid simulation, this helps create a

smooth, continuous surface, like the surface of water.

Before converting the nParticles to an output mesh, you can set the initial

state of your simulation to an advanced frame. Doing this ensures that the

nParticles have settled down to the bottom of the pitcher before its animation

starts. From frames 1 to 30, Nucleus gravity and the initial collisions between

the nParticles and the inside wall of the pitcher cause the particles to move.

Open the second scene for the lesson | 963