Datasheet

CreAting And editing MAyA nodes
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Maya has a number of workspaces that enable you to visualize and work with the nodes and
their connections. The following sections describe how these workspaces work together when
building a node network in a Maya scene.
Using the Hypergraph
The Hypergraph is a picture of the nodes and their connections in Maya. A complex scene can
look like a very intricate web of these connections. When you need to know how a network of
nodes is connected, the Hypergraph gives you the most detailed view. There are two ways to
view the Hypergraph:
The
•u hierarchy view shows the relationships between nodes as a tree structure.
The
•u connections view shows how the nodes are connected as a web.
You can have more than one Hypergraph window open at the same time, but you are still
looking at the same scene with the same nodes and connections.
This short exercise gives you a sense of how you would typically use the Hypergraph:
1. Create a new Maya scene.
2. Create a polygon cube by choosing Create  Polygon Primitives  Cube.
3. You will be prompted to draw a polygon on the grid by dragging on the grid (see
Figure 1.2). Drag a square on the grid, release the cursor, and then drag upward on the
square to turn it into a three-dimensional cube. Release the mouse button to complete the
cube. At this point, feel free to make your own decisions about the size and position of
the cube on the grid.
4. Select the cube in the viewport, and choose Window  Hypergraph: Hierarchy to open
the Hypergraph in hierarchy mode. You’ll see a yellow rectangle on a black field labeled
pCube1. The rectangle turns gray when deselected.
Figure 1.2
Maya prompts you
to draw the base
of the cube on the
grid in the scene.
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