Maya provides various render node utilities that let you expand the functionality of or obtain information about the way in which some rendering nodes are used.
Maya’s General utilities are used to add detail and create interesting effects for textures.
For a description of each of the general utilities and what you can use them for, see About General Utilities.
To use general utilities, see:
You can expand, enhance, or manipulate colors in applied textures using the Color utilities. For example, you can blend colors, adjust contrast, and convert HSV to RGB.
For a description of each of the color utilities and what you can use them for, see About Color Utilities.
Switch utilities let you apply textures, or parts of textures to different patches that make up one object.
Several objects can share shading characteristics and you can define unique characteristics on an object-by-object basis using Maya’s Switch utilities.
For a description of each of the switch utilities and what you can use them for, see About Switch Utilities.
Image planes are attached to cameras. For information on image planes, see Create, edit, or position an image plane.
For information on the Optical FX Glow utility, see Optical FX Attributes in the Lighting guide.