Materials in Maya

I have embarked on a project for school that requires me to produce a presentation on a product we designed. As part of our presentation, I would like to have a revolving 3d model.

I have never used a 3d modelling program before (extensively) so take light on anything I say, and assume I have little idea in what you tell me.

So, the question:
How do I get an object to look like aluminum/steel (as this is what it is made out of). I downloaded and installed the metal presets found here (http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downlo...ders/1827.html) and they show up on my shelf properly. I am using maya 2009, by the way. When I click on the one I want, it seems to modify the material properties of the object, but when I stick a light-source on it, nothing has changed. It is still that gray coloured opaque crap that does not look anything like steel.

If you have a better approach, or a method that you know works, please direct me toward it as this is time sensitive and I will do anything that works.

Sorry for asking you this, but you can never be too sure...um...did you render it? Or are you looking just in the viewport?
I don't know Maya that well, but I'll try to replicate your results and see what's wrong.

Well, I don't know how to render yet either, but the viewport has a low and high render mode. I then add a point light to it and turn off default lighting so the point light illuminates the object. With the custom material scripts, it just looks like the same object without the materials. If I add a native material, it does change. I guess if I can't get these to work, I can use a native one, but none of them look 100% (but I guess 70% is better than 0%).

Thanks for helping.

I attached the maya file if you want to try it out on that. With the spikes, I realized that there is a duplication on one of the front ones, but I haven't had the chance to remove it.

try doing a quick render. f9 might work

Nope, it didn't.

I did figure out how to render, but the object doesn't change it's look.

I was also wondering if there is a way to have objects cast shadows on other objects. Right now it just seems that each face calculates the amount of light it gets and then changes it's lighting that way. Nothing casts a shadow and stuff that should be in shadows are bright.

Dude this is MAYA not MAX.
I'll take a look at your scene when I come back from uni. As for shadows, the light must have an attribute to cast shadows, make sure it's on.

I made sure the shadows was enabled, but it still didn't change anything. Again, I could be doing it wrong as I have been using maya for less than a week. Thanks for your help, btw.