Maya Basics is a popular series of five free videos, each about ten minutes long. In this series, you learn to navigate in the “wonderful world of Maya.” We create a very simple 3D model, an ice cream cone, and add a material to change its color. Here are some of the activites covered in this beginner’s tutorial:

Set Maya user interface and preferences
Create objects and place them in 3D space
Navigate in 3D with mouse and keyboard shortcuts
Understand nodes and attributes
Adjust attribute values such as Radius
Change the shape of an object with a Deformer

To view the entire video series at any resolution, including 720p HD, go to the YouTube playlist.

You may also download .ZIP packages of the videos in Standard Definition (SD) or High Definition (HD) by clicking the links below.

Supplemental material:

Maya Cheat Sheet  

This document lists the most commonly needed hotkeys, or keyboard shortcuts, for Maya.