Tutorials

I teach 2D and 3D animation, and these short screen recordings are little slices of that — real-time looks at how I work in Autodesk Maya, the same software used across the animation industry. Each one is just a few minutes long and starts from the fundamentals, so if you’ve never opened Maya before, you’re exactly who I made these for. Press play, follow along, and if you want to go further, my animation classes pick up right where these leave off.

Symmetry is everywhere in 3D — characters, props, architecture — and Maya’s Polygon Mirror is the fastest way to get it. In about a minute, I take a modeled cylinder and mirror it across an axis, including the options that control how the two halves join.

Nearly everything you model starts life as a primitive. Here I begin with plain cylinders — rotating, duplicating, and arranging them — then shape a smooth bent form using edge loops and extrusions. It’s the core workflow behind props, pipes, limbs, and almost any rounded shape you’ll ever build.

If Maya’s interface looks intimidating, start here. Beginning with a single cube, I cover the tools you’ll touch every day: the Move tool, the Channel Box, and how to push and pull the points and faces that every 3D model is made of.

Want a guided path from your first cube to a finished, rendered animation? I teach beginner-friendly animation courses in Fort Lauderdale — get in touch and we’ll find the right starting point for you.