To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning:

1. If you have not already done so, download the lesson files from http://www.autodesk.com/maya-tutorials. Copy the Getting Started 2012 Lesson Files zip file to your local drive and unzip the folder.
2. Select File > Set Project and set the GettingStartedMaya2012LessonData\Hair directory as your Maya project.
3. Make sure you understand the basic concepts of modeling NURBS curves, animation, and dynamics. For more information, see Maya Help.
4. Select the Dynamics menu set.

   Unless otherwise noted, the procedures in these lessons assume the Dynamics menu set is selected.

5. Select File > New Scene to create a new scene before you start each lesson. For those scenes that require you to open a file, the Hair scene files are located in the GettingStartedMaya2012LessonData\Hair directory.
6. Select Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences. Click Time Slider under Categories and make sure the Playback Speed is set to Play every frame. Dynamic animation plays more accurately with this setting.

   Also set the playback and animation end times to 10000. This ensures you have lots of time to interact with the playback of the hair simulation.

7. We also provide a completed scene for each of the lessons in this chapter. If you want to see the expected results of the lessons, you can open the scenes located in the GettingStartedMaya2012LessonData\Hair directory. The scene filenames are called hairFinish1.mb and hairFinish2.mb respectively.