The Gnomon Workshop – Introduction to Maya 2026 Volume 1

Eric has been working with Maya for over 20 years. His goal with this workshop is to not only help artists understand all the essential parts of Maya that they need to understand before expanding into the more exotic parts, such as Bifrost and XGen, etc., but he also lets artists know which parts can be set aside and not worried about, easing the anxiety that can come with overwhelming interfaces when learning new software as a beginner or junior artist.

This first volume in Eric’s Introduction to Maya series covers key concepts, including working with cameras, geometry, scene lighting, and rendering within Maya’s viewports. He begins by teaching how to set up Maya properly, providing project files to support the learning process. He covers how to use Editors such as Outliner, Attribute Editor, Channel Box, and Display Layers, as well as the options available in the various panel menus.

Along the way, Eric shares valuable tips and workflow tricks to help artists avoid common pitfalls and work efficiently in a professional setting. With 20 lessons to help artists get up and running in Maya, each around 12–15 minutes long, Eric’s workshop is designed so that artists looking to learn or get a refresher on an individual feature or technique can watch lessons independently, while those looking for a complete introduction can follow along in sequence.

To enhance the learning experience, this workshop includes downloadable project files that allow artists to follow along and practice with real-world examples.

The learning will continue in Volume 2 (coming soon), where Eric will dive into Maya’s modeling, deformation, and rigging tools. In Volume 3 (coming soon), Eric will introduce the Maya UV Toolkit, cover lighting, shading, and rendering with Arnold, and also take a look at Maya’s animation interfaces. Eric’s goal with this beginner’s guide to Maya is to equip artists with a solid foundation in Maya to tackle many of the intermediate- to advanced Maya workshops in The Gnomon Workshop library.

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thegnomonworkshop.com/workshops/introduction-to-maya-2026-volume-1