First Steps with Maya and Cinema 4D

Navigation

• Maya: Panels and hotbox
• Adjusting the view
• Moving, rotating and scaling objects; 3D widgets; constraining motion to x, y, z
• Pivot [Angelpunkt], coordinate frames [Koordinatensysteme] (world, object)

Main Components of a 3D Scene

• Polygonal objects etc. and how to edit them
• Lights
• Camera
• Materials and their management
• Objects generated from other objects (Cinema 4D: generated object in hierarchy above original object(s); Maya: wiring)
• Deformers (Cinema 4D: object in hierarchy beside or above deformer; Maya: wiring)

Basic Animation

• Time line, playback
• Key frames for translation, rotation, and scaling
• Key frames for parameters
• Graph editor
• Rendering

Network-like Structures

• Geometric hierarchy: parent and child (children objects can move on their own, but follow the frame of their parent object)
• Construction history (Cinema 4D: mixed with geometric hierarchy; Maya: separated from geometric hierarchy)
• Data flow (Cinema 4D: wiring in XPresso; Maya: wiring mixed with construction history)