Props Best Practices - Michala

When first starting off modelling a prop, it usually works best to begin with a cube and work your way up. This way it's easier to avoid any unnecessary triangles, which in turn makes the modelling and subdividing process easier in the long run.

Before beginning the export process, it is important to:
 * Smooth the mesh (Mesh > Smooth). This will make sure that if the modelling was done with smooth shading turned on, it gets translated into geometry. That way, the model won't look like a blocky version of itself when imported into the engine of choice.
 * Freeze Transformations (Modify > Freeze Transformations). This will make sure that the translate, scale, and rotate values on the model are all at their default. It's important to make sure that the model resides at the origin before doing this, as doing this will cause the translation values to read 0, even if the model is not at the 0 point on the grid.

After all of these steps are completed, it should be safe to export the mesh. This can be done one of two ways.
 * Delete History (Edit > Delete All by Type > History). This will help to make sure that the data doesn't get corrupted upon export or saving the file. Maya is touchy and usually steps need to be taken to ensure that everything works fine upon opening the file again or importing it to the game engine of choice.
 * It's important to note that Delete All by Type > History should only be used when there isn't any deformer history on the mesh that needs to be saved, such as blend shapes, lattices, delta mush, skinning information, etc. Using this option when any of these are present will result in them being deleted as well. If any of these are present, the option Delete All by Type > Non-Deformer History should be used.

If there are multiple meshes in the scene that need to be exported separately: If there is only one mesh that needs to be exported, the above method can still be used, or: At this point, a menu should pop up with the export settings (See image: Export1). If the options for exporting have never been opened before, the dropdown will probably read mayaBinary. This will not work for exporting to a game engine. FBX is what is most commonly used. After this is checked, it's important to further check the settings by clicking on the button that says "'''Edit preset..." '''
 * Select the mesh that needs to be exported, and go to File > Export Selection. It's important to click the options box at this point to make sure that the export settings are correct.
 * Go to File > Export All. The options box still needs to be clicked at this point, however nothing needs to be selected, as this option exports everything within the current scene into the desired file format.

The menu shown in image Export2 should come up upon clicking that button. The user defined settings are usually fine, but it's always good to doublecheck the settings no matter what. If there are no animations on the mesh, the Bake Animations option should be unneeded. If the settings look like they do in the Export2 image, everything should be fine.