The introductory lesson in Eric Keller's workshop lays the foundation for Maya fundamentals. Eric emphasizes that understanding core Maya concepts and proper initial setup helps with the overall learning experience. This workshop builds a strong foundation that enables artists to confidently progress to more specialized Maya workflows and advanced lessons.

Duration: 5m 33s

This lesson establishes the basic navigation skills essential for working efficiently within Maya 2026. Mastering these viewport controls and camera-switching techniques is important for all subsequent modeling, animation, and scene work. Through hands-on practice with these tools, artists will build muscle memory for a smooth workflow in future projects.

Duration: 11m 53s

This lesson provides a foundational overview of Maya 2026's interface, emphasizing that while many tools can be accessed through multiple methods (menus, hotkeys, shelves), it's important to understand the underlying organizational structure. Eric demonstrates how the flexibility and customization options in Maya's interface can be adapted to different production needs and personal preferences.

Duration: 10m 48s

Maya projects are essential for maintaining organized, portable scene files that can reliably locate their external dependencies. While the system generally works well with relative linking, Eric teaches artists how to be aware of the UDIM exception and use tools such as the File Path Editor to resolve linking issues. Eric emphasizes that project management is even more important in collaborative environments where consistency and portability are essential.

Duration: 15m 54s

Understanding Maya preferences helps maintain efficient workflow and team collaboration. The ability to customize Maya's behavior, troubleshoot issues by resetting preferences, and choose appropriate file formats gives artists greater control over their 3D production environment. Eric explains how proper preference management at the start of projects helps avoid compatibility issues and ensures consistent results across teams.

Duration: 5m 56s

Understanding grid options is essential for precise 3D modeling, as it provides a spatial reference for accurately creating and positioning objects. The ability to customize grid appearance, set appropriate units, and use measurement tools creates a more efficient workflow. Combined with snapping functionality, these grid options support precise geometric construction in 3D space.

Duration: 5m 48s

Eric demonstrates how the View menu in Maya provides essential camera navigation and management tools that significantly improve workflow efficiency. Camera bookmarks are particularly valuable for complex scenes where you need to return to specific viewpoints repeatedly. Understanding these view controls and navigation shortcuts streamlines the 3D modeling and animation process in Maya.

Duration: 12m 12s

This lesson covers Maya's viewport camera settings and navigation tools, emphasizing practical techniques for professional 3D workflows. The display options and resolution settings are particularly valuable for ensuring accurate render output, while various camera tools offer flexibility for navigating different types of scenes and handling camera work.

Duration: 12m 20s

Maya's viewport shading options give essential tools for different stages of 3D production, from modeling and texturing to rigging and animation. Understanding these various viewing modes and their hotkeys significantly improves workflow efficiency. Eric emphasizes practical troubleshooting tips, particularly for texture display issues, and demonstrates how to strategically use different shading modes together to optimize the viewport for specific tasks.

Duration: 12m 45s

This lesson covers the basics of managing viewport lighting in Maya, focusing on both creative and technical aspects of the lighting workflow. Eric particularly stresses the importance of understanding polygon normals and keeping two-sided lighting disabled during modeling to prevent future issues. These lighting tools help artists evaluate models, textures, and overall scene appearance during modeling and lighting.

Duration: 12m 38s

The Show menu is an essential tool for managing the Maya viewport, offering granular control over which elements appear at different stages of the workflow. Eric explains how the Show menu interacts with object visibility settings and display layers, which is crucial for troubleshooting visibility issues and maintaining an organized workspace. This system is particularly valuable in complex scenes, where selective viewing of specific object types or custom visibility presets can improve productivity and focus during animation and modeling.

Duration: 16m 18s

Blue Pencil is Maya's built-in annotation system for collaborative feedback and communication in animation projects. Eric explains the onion-skinning terminology and how the tool offers comprehensive drawing and frame management capabilities. The ability to save and share annotation files makes it particularly valuable for artists working remotely and for iterative feedback processes in animation pipelines.

Duration: 10m 24s

In this lesson, Eric demonstrates how to optimize Maya’s viewport for a smoother workflow and better client presentations. The combination of Viewport 2.0's hardware-accelerated features and Arnold's high-quality progressive rendering gives artists flexible options across the production pipeline, from initial modeling and animation to final lighting and presentation reviews.

Duration: 11m 55s

With Maya's Panels menu, artists gain extensive customization options to organize their workspace efficiently. By mastering hotkeys and using features such as tear-off panels and custom layouts, artists can significantly improve their workflow speed and productivity. Eric explains how the ability to create personalized workspaces makes Maya adaptable to a wide range of projects, whether they're focused on modeling, animation, or rendering.

Duration: 8m 33s

Maya's selection tools help artists work efficiently in the 3D modeling and animation workflow. Eric demonstrates how to quickly switch between selection modes, utilize soft selection for organic deformations, and master the hotkey system, which significantly speeds up the modeling process. These selection fundamentals provide the foundation for more advanced modeling techniques.

Duration: 17m 55s

In this lesson, Eric covers essential transformation tools in Maya, focusing on coordinate systems and pivot controls for effective 3D modeling. Artists learn shift-drag techniques for extrusion and duplication, combined with proper pivot and symmetry settings, which form the basics for efficient modeling workflows. These tools become particularly powerful when used in component mode for detailed mesh editing.

Duration: 17m 28s

Maya's Outliner is an organizational tool that becomes more important as scenes grow in complexity. Artists learn that proper naming conventions and understanding the distinction between copying and instancing are crucial parts of maintaining clean, manageable projects and avoiding workflow problems. Mastering these Outliner fundamentals provides the foundation for efficient scene management throughout the Maya workflow.

Duration: 22m 27s

The Attribute Editor is Maya's central hub for accessing and modifying object properties, providing a structured way to work with the complex relationships between different node types. While this overview covers basic navigation and interface elements, Eric emphasizes the benefits of mastering this tool. The ability to customize, filter, and organize the editor's display makes it an important tool for both beginner and advanced artists working on animation, modeling, and scene management tasks.

Duration: 8m 17s

Maya's Channel Box is an essential interface element that provides efficient access to object attributes and keyframe management. Understanding its color-coding system and keyframing methods is crucial to an effective animation workflow. Eric demonstrates how to master the Channel Box, along with its timeline and auto-keyframe features.

Duration: 14m 43s

In this final lesson, Eric explains how to use and navigate display layers in Maya to better organize complex scenes and improve workflow efficiency. Artists learn how layers offer superior control over visibility, selection, and scene organization compared to basic hide/show commands, and how to quickly toggle between different combinations of scene elements.

Duration: 16m 19s