Catalog / Maya Digital Illustration & 3D Design Cheatsheet
Maya Digital Illustration & 3D Design Cheatsheet
A comprehensive cheat sheet covering essential Maya commands, tools, and workflows for digital illustration and 3D design, helping artists and designers streamline their creative process.
Interface & Navigation
Basic Navigation
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Rotate View |
Alt + Left Mouse Button |
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Pan View |
Alt + Middle Mouse Button |
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Zoom View |
Alt + Right Mouse Button (Drag) or Mouse Wheel |
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Frame Selected |
F Key |
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Frame All |
A Key |
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Perspective View |
Press the Spacebar (Tap) |
Hotkeys
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Move Tool |
W Key |
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Rotate Tool |
E Key |
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Scale Tool |
R Key |
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Show/Hide Manipulators |
T Key |
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Toggle Wireframe/Shaded |
4 (Wireframe) / 5 (Shaded) |
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Show UVs |
6 |
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Show Textures |
7 |
Panels
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Outliner |
Window > Outliner |
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Attribute Editor |
Ctrl + A or Window > Attribute Editor |
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Tool Settings |
Double-click tool icon or Window > Tool Settings |
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Hypershade |
Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade |
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UV Editor |
Window > UV Editor |
Modeling Essentials
Creating Primitives
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Polygon Primitives |
Create > Polygon Primitives (Sphere, Cube, Cylinder, etc.) |
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NURBS Primitives |
Create > NURBS Primitives (Sphere, Cube, Cylinder, etc.) |
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Curves |
Create > Curves (EP Curve Tool, Bezier Curve Tool, etc.) |
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Bevel |
Edit Mesh > Bevel |
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Extrude |
Edit Mesh > Extrude |
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Boolean Operations |
Mesh > Booleans (Union, Difference, Intersection) |
Mesh Editing
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Selecting Components |
Right-click > Vertex/Edge/Face |
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Move Components |
W Key (Move Tool) + Drag |
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Insert Edge Loop |
Mesh Tools > Insert Edge Loop Tool |
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Multi-Cut Tool |
Mesh Tools > Multi-Cut Tool (Ctrl to create edge loop) |
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Merge Vertices |
Edit Mesh > Merge |
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Fill Hole |
Mesh > Fill Hole |
Modifiers
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Smooth Mesh |
Mesh > Smooth |
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Sculpting Tools |
Mesh Tools > Sculpting Tools (Grab, Smooth, Push, Pull, etc.) |
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Duplicate Special |
Edit > Duplicate Special |
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Mirror Geometry |
Mesh > Mirror |
UV Mapping & Texturing
UV Mapping Basics
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Automatic Mapping |
UV > Automatic |
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Planar Mapping |
UV > Planar |
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Cylindrical Mapping |
UV > Cylindrical |
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Spherical Mapping |
UV > Spherical |
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Unfold |
UV > Unfold |
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UV Editor |
Window > UV Editor |
Creating Materials
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Assign New Material |
Right-click object > Assign New Material |
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Lambert |
Common Surface Materials > Lambert |
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Blinn |
Common Surface Materials > Blinn |
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Phong |
Common Surface Materials > Phong |
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AiStandardSurface (Arnold) |
Arnold > Surface > aiStandardSurface |
Applying Textures
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File Texture |
In Attribute Editor, click checkerbox icon next to color attribute > File |
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Layered Texture |
Create > Textures > Layered Texture |
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Projection |
Create > Textures > Projection |
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Bump Mapping |
Add file texture to Bump Mapping attribute in material |
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Normal Mapping |
Add file texture to Normal Camera attribute in material |
Animation Basics
Keyframing
|
Set Key |
S Key (Sets keyframe on selected attributes) |
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Graph Editor |
Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor |
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Timeline Navigation |
Use timeline controls to move between frames |
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Auto Key |
Toggle on the timeline to automatically set keyframes |
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Playblast |
Window > Playblast (Creates a quick preview of your animation) |
Deformers
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Bend Deformer |
Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Bend |
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Twist Deformer |
Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Twist |
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Wave Deformer |
Create Deformers > Nonlinear > Wave |
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Lattice Deformer |
Create Deformers > Lattice |
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Cluster Deformer |
Create Deformers > Cluster |
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Skinning |
Skin > Bind Skin (Attaching meshes to skeletons) |
Lights & Rendering
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Create Lights |
Create > Lights (Ambient Light, Directional Light, Point Light, etc.) |
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Arnold Render View |
Arnold > Open Arnold RenderView |
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Render Settings |
Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings |
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Batch Render |
Rendering > Render > Batch Render |
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Render Sequence |
Rendering > Render > Render Sequence |