Primitive objects

Maya provides many types of primitive types and shapes such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, and planes.

Primitive objects can be used as a starting point for a wide variety of shapes and forms. The most common workflow when using primitive objects is:

• Set the construction options for the primitive when you initially create it so that it appears in the Maya scene roughly in the size and shape that you require.
• Move, scale, and rotate the primitive object into its final position either by direct manipulation (the move, scale, and rotate tools), or by entering numeric values through an editor.
• Duplicate the primitive objects to create multiple copies of the original or create different variations from your original primitive object.

In this section, you construct the base for the temple using a polygonal cylinder primitive. The octagonal shape is created by modifying the creation options for the cylinder tool before you create the object. If you did not modify the cylinder options you would create a round cylinder.

To create a polygonal cylinder for the base

1. Select the Polygons menu set.
   NoteUnless otherwise indicated, the directions in this lesson for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected the Polygons menu set.

   You should also ensure that the Interactive Creation option for primitives is first turned off by selecting Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation to ensure the check mark does not appear beside the item.

2. From the main menu, select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder >.

   An option window appears.

3. In the Polygon Cylinder Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and then set the following options:
   • Radius: 10
   • Height: 1
   • Axis divisions: 8
   • Height divisions: 1
   • Cap divisions: 1
   • Axis: Y
4. In the Polygon Cylinder Options window, click Create.

   Maya creates a cylinder primitive object that is octagonal in shape and positioned at the center of the Maya workspace. This cylinder is 20 units wide by one unit high, and has eight faceted sides.

   
   Note

   You were instructed to reset the option settings as a precaution in case they had been set differently. This is a good habit to practice when working with tool options to avoid getting a result that was different from what you expected.