Getting Set Up in Maya

Maya's got a funny way of showing that it loves you. Here are the steps you need to take to get it to behave correctly. You should only have to do this once. (Until you have to trash your pref's, then you'll be doing it again. Ah ha ha ha. Ha. ha. ugh.)

1. Set default frame rate and initial animation length. From the menu bar, choose File > New Scene > Options Box. Set to NTSC 30 fps. You'd think this would be under preferences, and it is! It just doesn't act as a default there. Good lord.

2. Create a new Scene. Hit the New button at the bottom of the Options dialogue.

3. Set playback to Real Time (30 fps). Under Maya > Preferences > Settings > Timeline > Playback. Also, go ahead and set Looping to continuous.

4. Set Default in and out tangents to Linear. This is under Maya > Preferences > Settings > Animation. Go ahead and check the Weighted Tangents box here as well. Ha ha, notice there are two categories of "Animation" in the preferences panel. Make sure you're on the right one. Brilliant.

5. Create a new project. File > Project > New.

6. Set up the new project. In the New Project dialogue that pops up do the following:
a) Enter a Name for your project.
b) Hit the "Browse" button next to location and choose a place on your account that makes sense to you. Pay attention when you are doing this; if you don't know where your project is, y'all's in trouble. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO CREATE A NEW FOLDER. Maya will automatically put everything into a new folder with your project name on it.
c) Hit the Use Defaults button at the bottom of the dialogue box.
d) Hit the Accept button at the bottom of the dialogue box
e) If you want to switch between projects later, go to File > Project > Set