Autodesk 663B1-05A111-1001 User Guide - Page 85

5 Nodes and attributes About Nodes and attributes Nodes Maya is built around nodes. An "object", such as a sphere, is built from several nodes: a creation node that records the options that created the sphere, a transform node that records how the object is moved, rotated, and scaled, and a shape node that stores the positions of the spheres control points. Attributes An attribute is a position associated with a node that can hold a value or a connection to another node. Attributes control how a node works. For example, a transform node has attributes for the amount of rotation in X, Y, and Z. You can set attributes to control practically every aspect of your animation. There are many ways to set attributes in Maya: with the Attribute Editor, the Channel Box, the attribute spread sheet, menu selections, and MEL. Transform Shape node node Input node Shading node Attribute Editor Channel Box Every node is created with certain default attributes. Some attributes (such as Opacity and Color of particle objects) are added dynamically when you need them. You can also add your own attributes to any node to store information. This is often useful for animation expressions and scripts, and can be used to control several normal attributes using one custom attribute. Basics 85