Datasheet

CreAting And editing MAyA nodes

The myCube node is the transform node. The myCubeShape node is the shape node. In the

Hypergraph, the shape and transform nodes are depicted as unconnected; however, there is

an implied connection, as you’ll see later. This is demonstrated when you rename the myCube

node; the shape node is renamed as well.

In Maya, the construction history feature stores a record of the changes used to create a par-

ticular node. The polyCube1 node is the construction history node for the myCubeShape node.

When you ﬁrst create a piece of geometry, you can set options to the number of subdivisions,

spans, width, height, depth, and many other features that are stored as a record in this history

node. Additional history nodes are added as you make changes to the node. You can go back

and change these settings as long as the history node still exists. Deleting a history node makes

all the previous changes to the node permanent (however, deleting history is undoable).

1. Keep the Hypergraph open, but select the cube in the viewport.

2. Change the menu set in the upper left of the main interface to Polygons.

3. Press the 5 key on the keyboard to switch to shaded mode. Choose Mesh  Smooth. The

cube will be subdivided and smoothed in the viewport.

In the Hypergraph you’ll see a new polySmoothFace1 node between the polyCube1 node

and the myCubeShape node (see Figure 1.4). This new node is part of the history of the cube.

4. Select the polySmoothFace1 node, and delete it by pressing the Backspace key on the key-

board. The cube will return to its unsmoothed state.

5. Select the transform node (myCube), and press the s hot key. This creates a keyframe on

all the channels of the transform node. A keyframe stores the current attribute values at

a particular time on the timeline. Animation is created by interpolating between key-

framed values.

You’ll see a new node icon appear for each keyframed channel with a connection to the

transform node (see Figure 1.5).

Figure 1.4

Performing a

smooth operation

on the cube when

construction his-

tory is activated

causes a new

polySmoothFace1

node to be inserted

into the node

network.

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