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Super Selection:

The Super selection Context was created to make the marking of edges and verts extremely fast and fun! The actual context tool is the grey button with the picture of the sphere. Click on the icon and you will enter the Super Selection Context. You will see your cursor change to a sideways arrow and any mesh that was selected will automatically highlight into edge mode. You still might need to switch to edge mode if the highlighting does not show the correct component.

CONTEXTS:

A lot of the times I mention contexts to people who use Maya, they tend to not understand what they mean or how they are used within Maya. Let me explain so you have a better understanding of what these custom contexts do and do not do and why.

Above is a picture of the left side toolbar in default Maya. If you do not click any of these icons, I am sure you enter them at some point mostly by hotkeys. Each icon above is a context that Maya has created. The default Maya hotkey for the move tool is "W"... when you hit "W" on your keyboard, you are entering the "Move" context which is highlighted above.. Clicking "Q" enters the default selection Context or the top icon, the arrow.. The "Move" context allows the user to select as well as move both objects or components. The default select tool only allows the user to do selecting. If you want to actually move something, you must exit the context and enter the "Move" context. Maya also has special contexts for splitting edges or extruding faces.

Why am I telling you all of this? Users tend to not understand the principal of switching contexts and the limitations that contexts have. For example, if you are in the splitting edge context, you cannot move an object until you exit the splitting edge context and enter the "Move" context. Hopefully this makes sense.

SUPER SELECTION CONTEXT:

The Super Selection Context is not an object selection tool. As described above in the context section, one must program the context specific to do specific functions. Therefore, if you click on the Super Selection Context Icon and try to drag and select objects, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN! This is very important. Please be aware of what context you are in when trying to perform actions in Maya. If you want to select an object, click "Q" to exit the Super Selection Context and enter Maya's default selection Context.

Super Selection is meant for selection mesh components. In order for anything to happen you must be in a component mode. If you have an object selected before selecting Super Selection, the tool will enter a component mode for you automatically. If not, you must right click over an object, and select "edge", "vert", or "face" to enter a component mode.

HOW TO USE:

If you are not in edge component mode, switch to it first by right clicking over the model and selecting edge. By default, click and drag will perform one of two tasks based off of the radio button. Default is "Drag closest".

DRAG CLOSEST: Left click and drag

By clicking the left mouse button and dragging accross your model, you will perform the drag closest function. This will find the closest edge path from the first selected edge to where you drag. Release the mouse button for the selection to finalize.

If the radio button "Drag Loop" is selected instead of "Drag closest", Super selection will select the closest edge within the edge loop of the first selected edge.

DRAG LOOP: Left click and drag

Notice how the mouse does not need to be on the actual edge to have it select. It will find the closest edge within the loop in screen space to the mouse. This can make it very fast to select parts of edge loops.

SHIFT:

Holding shift down after the first selection will add to your current selection. Otherwise every time you left click the tool will deselect what is currently there and make a new selection.

CTRL:

Holding Ctrl down after the first selection will remove the new selection from the old selection.

FAST CLICK:

By left clicking on an edge fast without moving your mouse, you will select an edge loop. Any drag of the mouse will cause the context to enter the Drag closest or drag loop function.

Notice in the above gif that the selection of the edge loop will stop at any marked edges. This makes it extremely easy to select seam cuts. The best example for this would be when marking an arm on a character. You will mark the top shoulder, the wrist, and then click a single time to get the loop that will end at the shoulder and end at the wrist instead of continuing the loop all around the mesh. Very fast!

SHIFT:

Again, holding shift down after the first selection will add to your current selection. Otherwise every time you left click the tool will deselect what is currently there and make a new selection.

CTRL:

Holding Ctrl down after the first selection will remove the new selection from the old selection.

CLEAR SELECTION OR DESELECTING:

In order to clear the selection, just click outside of the mesh in an open space of the viewport. Do not hold shift or ctrl down. This will deselect any selected components.

MARK EDGES OR SET ANCOR POINTS:

Marking edges or setting ancor points can all be done within the super selection. You do not need to click the buttons on the UI. Marking is done by Middle Clicking once components are selected. However, clicking Middle mouse button will do different things dependent on the component type you are in.

Middle Click:

Edges selected: Super Selection will mark the edges and turn them white by just clicking the Middle mouse button.

In the above example, I have Fast Left clicked to select the edge loop around the neck. After that I clicked the Middle Mouse button once to "Mark" the edges and turn them white.

Verts selected: Super Selection will set the current selected vert to be an acor point

Changing the component mode by right clicking on the mesh and selecting "Vertex", and then selecting a vert by dragging the left Mouse will highlight the vertex. I then clicked the Middle Mouse button once to set that vertex to be an ancor point.

Faces selected: Super Selection will do something special in this instance. Since there might be times it is easier to select faces rather than the border edges around the faces, Super selection will turn the current selected faces into the border edges that surround those faces. This makes it extremely fast to select and mark border edges.

The above example show a couple different things. By first changing the component mode to faces by right clicking over the mesh and selecting "Face", you turn Super Selection into a paint face selection mode. By default it follows similar functionality.

LEFT CLICK AND DRAG: selects faces based off of where the mouse is on the mesh.

SHIFT: holding shift always adds to the selection

CTRL: holding ctrl always removes from the selection.

After the faces are selected in the above example, I clicked the Middle Mouse Button once. What happens is Super Selection will select the border edges of those faces. At this point, Super Selection puts the model into a temporary state of edge component mode. What that means is that you can now select or deselect edges by holding "shift" or "ctrl" to modify the edge selection before doing your marking. After the edges are marked however, it returns you back to face component mode. This is meant to help the user.

After the initial Middle Mouse Button press, you will see the edges turn green. Click the Middle Mouse Button one more time for a total of two times to do the marking of the edges. This is shown in the above gif. Notice that you are back in face mode. If you are sure that the faces and borders are what you want off the bat, clicking Middle Mouse Button twice fast will do the marking and get you back to the next selection extremely fast.

UNMARK EDGES AND ANCOR POINTS:

First Select any edges or verts using Super Selection Context. Then hold down CTRL and MIDDLE MOUSE CLICK to unmark any edges or ancor points that have been set.

In the above examples, edges and ancor points were already marked. First I selected them, and then held down Ctrl and clicked the middle mouse button to unmark the edges.

BORDER SHELL SELECT:

There might be times when you want to select the faces that lie inside the marked edges. Whether its to test if the shell area is enclosed or just for any other random selection purpose, Super Selection makes it easy.

With "Face" component selected, fast Left click a face and Super Selection will select all the faces that lie within the shell.

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