function mayaTOD(){

var quote = new Array();

quote[0] = "While drawing a curve, try holding down the ‘x’ key.  It will snap the current curve knot to the grid in your viewport.";
quote[1] = "While drawing a curve, try holding down the ‘c’ key.  This will allow you to draw the current curve knot on a preexisting curve.  This is especially helpful when creating curves for use in modeling operations that require curves to be physically touching, such as birail.";
quote[2] = "When making complex polygon face selections, try the ‘Paint Selection Tool’.  You can use a brush to paint over the faces you want to select without selecting the obscured faces behind them.";
quote[3] = "When using any tool with a brush interface, you can hold the ‘b’ key, left click in the viewport and move left or right to shrink and enlarge your brush.  Very helpful when using Artisan, Paint Selection, Paint Effects, etc.";
quote[4] = "There are a million and one ways to create terrain in Maya.  Try creating a NURBS plane with a relatively high tessellation.  You can start creating variation using the ‘Soft Modification Tool’ which allows you to pull a CV and have CV’s in a defined falloff area affected as well.";
quote[5] = "When examining any property in the Channel Editor, you can click the name of the channel (not the value) and then middle click and drag left or right in the viewport to change the channel value.  You can hold the ‘control’ key to make the changes finer.";
quote[6] = "If you’re particularly enterprising and want to try out MEL scripting, a great way to start is to turn on ‘Echo All Commands’ in the script editor.  You’ll be able to see all the internal commands that Maya runs when you perform GUI actions.  This can be a solid jumping off point for starting a script.";
quote[7] = "Try referencing objects.  If you are using a model in multiple Maya files, you can import it as a reference.  Then, if you make changes to the model externally, it will be updated in all scenes where it’s referenced.";
quote[8] = "Try mapping an image with an alpha channel (leaves, prison bars, a silhouette) to the intensity of a spotlight - you can create some great lighting effects this way.";
quote[9] = "If you want the soft shadowing of a global illumination render without using MentalRay try the giJoe script linked in the resources section.  It creates a sphere of directional lights as a cheap GI standin.";
quote[10] = "You can create your own channels for anything in Maya.  Then, you can link the channel up to other nodes via ‘Set Driven Key’ or an expression.  This can be very helpful for more intuitive rigging controls.  Ask a TA if you want to learn how to do this one.";
quote[11] = "Try mapping a very subtle fractal to a lights intensity - it adds important variation that will enhance the realism in your scene.";
quote[12] = "You can use the box at the top of the Outliner to search for any listed nodes.  Wildcard characters (*) can be very useful here.";
quote[13] = "The ‘g’ key can be your best friend.  It performs the last operation again, and can be particularly useful when doing polygonal modeling involving many subsequent face extrusions.";
quote[14] = "By double-clicking a tool (Translate, Rotate, Scale, etc) in the left panel, you can bring up tool options.  There are some extremely helpful settings available here - check them all out.";
quote[15] = "If the tool manipulator (Translate, Rotate, Scale) is too big or too small, you can make it shrink and grow by pressing the - / + keys respectively.";
quote[16] = "Set your units under Preferences > Preferences > Settings > Working Units.  Centimeters is a good choice.  Now, you can model objects to scale which can be very helpful when a lot of objects will later be grouped and put in a set.";
quote[17] = "Certain modules in Maya grab a huge amount of memory.  If you know you won’t be using Paint Effects or Dynamics, go ahead and keep them from loading by unchecking the boxes in Preferences > Modules > Load on Startup.";
quote[18] = "The ‘insert’ key can be very helpful when drawing curves.  Don’t like that CV you just placed?  Press ‘insert’ to use the transform tool to move it without finishing the curve.  Press ‘insert’ again when finished and continue drawing.";
quote[19] = "Imperfection is extremely important.  Try modulating your colors with noise or a ramp in shaders, randomize CV positions in geometry slightly, and use fractals and layering to break up tiling - the human eye will quickly pick up on repeating patterns.";
quote[20] = "Learn to use the QWERTY keys to select the basic manipulator tools.  Force yourself - hide the tool panel if you have to.  This will save you more time in the long-run than almost any other shortcut.";
quote[21] = "In general, it’s a good rule to avoid ambient lighting - it makes objects lose form.  Try instead grouping directional lights with low intensities and rotating each about the group’s center to form a small sphere of directional light.  You should still have a fill, key, etc.";
quote[22] = "It is highly recommended not to use shadow maps with point lights.  With the default settings, Maya generates six maps per light - you can choose which ones you want in the light settings, but just be aware of what these maps are costing in your render times.";
quote[23] = "Having trouble creating a metal appearance?  Try starting with a Blinn shader and reducing specular rolloff and diffuse, increasing eccentricity, setting UV repeats at 1000 or more, and adding a fractal map to the specular.  Set up a reflection map and blur to match metal aging.  Voila.";
quote[24] = "The sampler info node is COOL - it returns a value based on the geometry surface normal relative to the camera.  Try having it drive transparency for an x-ray like effect, using it to create a double sided shader, to create the Fresnel effect, or to make velvet.";
quote[25] = "If you have a great camera view and you accidentally tumble around and lose it, you can just press the ‘[‘ key to go back.  Conversely, the ‘]’ key will go forward again.";
quote[26] = "If at any time an object or group of object doesn’t seem to be rotating about its center, you might need to move the pivot.  Either press ‘insert’ to manually move it, or use Modify > Center Pivot.";

var qlen = quote.length;

//start date (yyyy,m,d) - m=0=January, m=1=February
var firstDate = new Date(2005,0,1);

//today
var today = new Date();

//difference in days
var dif = Math.floor((today-firstDate)/1000/60/60/24);

//calculate the index of the quote of the day
	while(dif>=qlen){

		//restart the array index if the difference is greater that the array's length
		dif=dif-qlen;

	}

var todayQuote = quote[dif];//the quote of the day
document.write(todayQuote);

}