03 - Maya 2015 - Understanding Primitives
To have an understanding of primitives requires that you first understand what makes up a 3D object. A 3D object is comprised of different components. Those components are the vertices, the edges and the faces. In order for a polygon to exist it has to at least 3 points, which are also often referred to as vertices. Think of a flat surface of any kind. The corners of the flat surface would be the vertices. The line between each of these points would be the edge. Then the surface that occupies the area inside of the points and edges is the face or polygon of the object. Objects have many of these connected faces also referred to as polygons in order to make up the shape of an object.
Primitives in Maya are basic shapes that come preset with Maya's tool set. Shapes such as cubes, spheres, and cylinders can be created at the click of a button. For the most part we will be dealing with cubes and learning how to reshape a cube primitive to suit our needs. This is often referred to as box modeling. Do not be deceived however; as you will learn over the course of these videos that box modeling can be a valuable technique which is actually the most commonly used modeling technique in the industry. A box can be turned into anything you can possibly think of.
We are also going to talk a little bit about the move gizmo in Maya so you can gain an understanding of how to manipulate a primitive in 3D space. Using the arrows and plain movement options of the gizmo will quickly and easily allow for an object to be positioned. Once we have an understanding of primitives in a 3D space we can use the move gizmo to manipulate the various components of the 3D object.
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