Introduction to Maya 2026: Volume 1

Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started in Maya with Eric Keller

Kickstart your journey in Autodesk Maya 2026 with this beginner-friendly workshop from one of our most-watched instructors, Eric Keller. Introduction to Maya 2026: Volume 1 is a comprehensive guide featuring 20 in-depth lessons that walk artists through the Maya interface and navigation, and detail the essential editors required to build professional-looking 3D models and scenes.

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. He shows how to preview Arnold renders directly in the interface, how to preview shading and textures using Viewport 2.0, and how to optimize the workflow using the Display options in the panel menus. Eric also demonstrates the Toolbox options, including Soft Select, Pivot Manipulation, Component vs. Object Mode, and Blue Pencil.

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, where Eric will dive into Maya’s modeling, deformation, and rigging tools. In Volume 3, 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.