Gobos are images mapped to a lights color channel that creates a stencil or blocking effect. Gobos are a quick way of adding shadow effects without have to actually build model to cast the shadows. ...

Maya lights are not like real lights. This is especially true for lights with a negative intensity value. Negative intensity values act like mini-black holes, actually removing light from a scene. ...

Most modelers are used to extruding profile curves along a path curve, but many forget that you can do the same thing with polygonal faces. Try this out, create a curve, select the faces you want to...

This is a work around to the limit of four panels view sets. If you need more than four, you can create tear off panels. In any of the standard viewports, select the camer you want to make into a...

If you've ever had a "senior" moment in which you couldn't remember which menu a tool or option was there is hope for you. Under the help menu there is a "Find Menu" option that allows keyword...

For those curious, this is the shading group for the terrain displacement in the previous post.

Pretty simple network...

If you've used landscape generator such as Bryce or Vue than you'll be familiar with this techinique. These programs use a grayscale image to generate terrain height. You can do a similar thing in...

The "a" and "f" short cuts work in most editors as does the alt + mmb and alt + rmb.

a = frame all
f = frame selected
mmb = middle mouse button
rmb = right mouse button

mirror cut should work on any polygonal object. You can even apply multiple mirror cuts to a single mesh. Mirror cuts act like deforms in that effects are cumulative. Also to "lock in" the effect...

Mirror cutting is a handy features for bending objects along whichever axis you want. A typical use might be to creat something like a picture frame. To use, select an object then select...