The key to learning a sophisticated piece of software is to break it down and approach it according to the features you’ll be most likely to need on a daily basis. Only after you’ve learned the core fundamentals should you begin attacking some of the more specialized facets of the software. While you could just as easily open your Maya help documents and bring up a sprawling list of keyboard shortcuts, we thought it would be beneficial to provide an abbreviated list that just shows you the essentials — the stuff you’ll be most likely to need in your first weeks or months with the software. This list is meant to supplement our existing Maya training. We go into greater detail for each of the functions listed in the first lessons of our training series, so if something isn’t making sense, be sure to refer back to the earlier material.
Alt+RMB+Drag - Rotate camera (tumble).Alt+LMB+Drag (or Scroll Wheel) - Zoom in/out. This doesn’t actually “zoom” the camera lens, but instead moves the camera forward or backward in space (like a dolly).Alt+MMB+Drag - Track (Move the camera up, down, left, or right).Spacebar - Tap spacebar to switch between four-panel and single-panel layouts.
Q - Selection ToolW - Translate (Move)E - RotateR - Scale
F - Frame object. Zooms in on an object so that it fills the viewport panel. G - Repeat a command. It’s tough to describe just how handy this can be to someone who hasn’t done a whole lot of modeling, but this will be useful time and time again. X - Snapping. Holding down X while using the move, scale, or rotate tools will enable grid snapping. Ctrl+Z - Undo. Obviously, this is enormously useful. Maya’s default memory allocation for the Undo function is limited at 50. This might sound like a lot of undoing, but we strongly recommend going into Settings/Preferences and setting the undo steps to something larger (like 100, 200, or even infinite.) Ctrl+G - Group objects. Ctrl+D - Duplicate Shift+Ctrl+D - Duplicate special. Ctrl+A - Open attribute editor. (+ or -) - Scale manipulator tool up or down. Making your object manipulator larger actually gives you a finer degree of control over Maya’s move, scale, and rotate tools. If you’re having trouble with a precise object movement, try scaling your manipulator.
