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Maya Basics — a Five-Minute Tour

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

If you've just opened Autodesk Maya for the first time, the screen can feel crowded. This Maya basics tour covers the five regions that matter, the navigation gestures, and where the modeling tools live — five minutes, then you're modeling.

Once you've got a mesh, the game-engine side of the workflow starts in Unity. The first two stops there are usually adding an icon to your build and adding a 2D collider to a sprite.

The Maya workspace

The top of the screen is the menu bar and the shelf (icon row with the tools you use most). The big central area is the viewport. On the right you'll see the channel box with the selected object's attributes. The bottom is the timeline and the range slider for animation.

Viewport navigation

The viewport always starts in perspective. Use Alt + left-mouse drag to tumble around the scene, Alt + middle-drag to pan, and Alt + right-drag (or the scroll wheel) to zoom. The view cube in the upper-right corner is the fast way to snap to front, top, side, or any iso angle.

Primitive shapes

Start every scene with a primitive. Open Create → Polygon Primitives and pick cube, sphere, cylinder, or plane. These are the building blocks — most models begin as a primitive that gets subdivided and pushed into shape.

Modeling tools

The modeling toolbox lives in the shelf and under the Mesh and Edit Mesh menus. Extrude, bevel, and the multi-cut tool are the three I reach for first — most low-poly shapes come from extruding faces and beveling sharp edges.

Channel box and attributes

The channel box on the right is where you see and edit translate, rotate, and scale for the selected object. Click any number to scrub it, or type a value directly. If you don't see it, press Ctrl + A to toggle between the channel box and the Attribute Editor — same data, different views.

How to Color in Corel Painter

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

If you're new to Corel Painter, the colour picker is the first thing worth learning to drive properly — every other tool depends on it. This is the short tour I wish I'd had when I started.

For the iPad-side equivalent, see How to Color in Procreate.

Where can I find the colour palette?

To open the colour palette, click on the circle with the colour.

When you click on the circle with your colour, a colour palette will appear. And you can change the colour.

If you click on the small circle next to your set colour, your colour will change to the previous colour.

Are there any other palettes?

If you click on the button with two lines, you will see a more detailed colour-matching palette.

Where can I find the eyedropper?

If you click on the little eyedropper icon in the top right corner of the colour picker, you can pick any colour from your canvas.

How to add colour to my palette?

If you click on the small plus above your set palette, then this colour will be added to the palette.

How can I change my palette or create a new one?

To set a new palette, click on the name of your palette or on the Basic Palette. After that, you will see your palettes.

To create a new palette, click on the plus sign in the upper right corner. You can create a palette from your photos or files.

How can I save, share, rename, open or clear my palette?

To find these functions you need to click on the three dots above your palette.

How to Add a 2D Collider to Sprites in Unity

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Adding collision to sprites is fundamental for 2D game development in Unity — without a collider, a sprite has no physical boundary, so the player walks straight through it. This step-by-step guide is the Inspector flow in five clicks.

Once the collider is in place, the next thing that tends to go sideways is the player sticking to the collider edges. The fix lives in How to Get Rid of Sticky Walls in Unity.

Select Your Sprite

Click on the sprite you want to give a collider. The Inspector panel on the right side displays all available settings for that object.

Add the Collider Component

In the Inspector, find Add Component. Navigate to Physics 2D and select Box Collider 2D — or any other collider that matches your sprite shape.

Adjust the Collider

A green boundary box now appears around your sprite. To refine the boundary, click Edit Collider within the Box Collider 2D component settings. Small adjustment handles appear — drag them to customize the collider's shape and size.

Result

With a collider in place, your object now has a physical boundary. The player (or other physics objects) can't pass through it.

How to Get Rid of Sticky Walls in Unity

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Solution Overview

A common issue in 2D Unity game development: characters unintentionally adhere to wall surfaces during gameplay. Here's the quick fix — a Physics Material 2D with zero friction, dragged onto the player Rigidbody 2D.

Hitting this before you've even given your sprite collision geometry? Start with Adding a 2D Collider to Sprites in Unity, then come back.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Create Physics Material 2D

Right-click on the Assets section (or in any folder) and navigate to Create → 2D → Physics Material 2D.

Step 2: Configure Friction Settings

Name your new material — the example uses slide. In the right panel, find the Friction value and set it to 0.

Step 3: Apply Material to Player

Select your player character and find its Rigidbody 2D component. Locate the Material field and drag your newly created Physics Material 2D into it.

Step 4: Test

And it's done. Your character should no longer stick to walls when you run the game.

How to Add an Icon for a Game in Unity

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Setting a game icon in Unity sounds trivial — and it is, once you know where the upload slots actually live. This is the shortest path to a finished icon, plus the two mini-problems you'll almost certainly run into on the way.

For the next setup chore in a 2D Unity project, see How to Add a 2D Collider to Sprites in Unity.

Main Instructions

To set an icon for your game, navigate to File → Build Settings. A small window will appear. In the lower-left corner, click Player Settings.

Inside the Player Settings window (under the Player section), you'll find several mini icons for uploading your game's icon — one set per platform (computers, mobile devices, etc.). Pick your target platform and click the field below Icon to upload your custom icon.

Mini Problems

Missing platform categories

If you can't locate the iPhone or Android categories for icon upload, you most likely haven't installed the build-support add-ons for those platforms. Open the Unity Hub, go to your Unity version's settings, and add the missing platform modules.

Missing icon selection fields

If you don't see the small clickable icon with a Select option to add your cover image, check the box labeled Override for standalone and enable it. The mini icons you need will appear.

How to Use Brushes in Photoshop

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Brushes are the soul of digital painting in Photoshop — the same artist with a different brush feels like a different artist. This is the short setup tour: where the Brush Panel lives, why Brush Settings matter, and how to install custom .abr brush sets you've downloaded.

For the colour side of the same workflow, see How to Color in Corel Painter or the iPad alternative How to Color in Procreate.

Where can I find a Brush Panel?

To open the Brush Panel, navigate to Window → Brushes. For more advanced customization, press F5 to access the comprehensive Brush Settings Panel.

Why do I need Brush Settings?

The Brush Settings Panel lets you adjust texture, scattering, and noise. Other parameters you can customize:

Size
Angle
Hardness
Opacity
Flow
Smoothing
Scattering
Texture
Noise
Shape
Dynamics
Transfer

How can I download new brushes?

Artists frequently share custom brushes online in .abr format. To install a downloaded brush set, go to Edit → Presets → Preset Manager, click Load, and pick your .abr file.

How to Color in Procreate

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Colour in Procreate is divided across two places — the eyedropper and ColorDrop for picking what you already see, and the four palette modes (Disc, Classic, Value, Palettes) for choosing what you don't. This is the tour.

If you haven't set up your layer stack yet, start with How to Use Layers in Procreate — it's the foundation everything else paints on.

Eyedropper

To choose the colour you need from the picture, you need to press and hold on to the screen. You will have a mini circle indicating which colour you choose.

Colour drop

To fill the background or a certain part of the picture, you need to press and keep on the colour in the upper right corner. After transferring this colour to the part that you want to paint over.

Palettes

Disc

In the disc palette, it is quite easy to select bright and pleasant colours. But there is also a minus — in this mode, it's hard to choose just white because of the circle form of the palette.

Classic

In the classic palette, there is a mini square with the colour you have chosen. To change the colour, move the cursor on the first line with the colour. This is the simplest palette for easy and fast colour selection.

Value

There are six stripes with colour in the Value palette — this gives greater colour control.

Palettes

In this mode, you can create your own colour palette by clicking on the plus sign in the upper right corner. You can also put your palette on the main colour selection screen for ease of use. The palette will be reusable — handy for keeping the same colours across, say, all the frames of one character.

How to Use Layers in Procreate

Leila Mikhaleva (heyleiloo.com) — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

What are layers and why do we need them?

Layers in Procreate let you overlay image elements without changing your completed work. You can edit, recolor, and remove individual elements from the canvas. When you first create your canvas, you have two layers by default — the background and Layer 1.

Once you're comfortable with layers, the next stop is How to Color in Procreate — picking and applying colour is the other half of any layered painting workflow.

Where can I find layers?

Click the icon with two squares in the upper right corner to open the layers panel.

How can I create a new layer?

Click the plus sign in the upper right corner of the layers panel.

How can I hide my layer?

Click the checkmark next to the letter "N" to hide or show your layer.

How can I duplicate, lock or delete the layer?

Swipe left on the layer to access these options.

What is a duplicate?

A duplicate creates an identical copy of your layer.

What is a lock?

With a lock, you block the layer and you can't draw on it.

What is delete?

Delete removes your layer entirely.

How can I lock the layer so it doesn't go beyond the edges of the drawing?

Swipe the layer right to enable alpha lock — useful for coloring tasks where you want to stay within an existing shape.

How can I change the visibility of my layer?

Tap with two fingers and swipe left/right, or click the letter N and adjust the visibility slider.

Where can I find other layer functions?

Select the layer and click on it to access rename, clear, copy, colour, and select.