| Ok, so for my scene in Figure 1, I'm going to use a high-poly model I'm in the process of making (note the temporary head...). At the moment, he's close to 5,000 polys. This model was modeled mostly from a polygonal cube, however, and if we look at the UVs in the UV Texture Editor (Windows > UV Texture Editor), you can see that almost ALL of the mesh is tangled up and compressed into a cube shape (Figure 2). In order to paint a texture accurately, you need to unwrap and untangle all these UVs in order to see how they're all layed out on the model. You can then take these unwrapped UVs into Photoshop or another paint program to accurately create a supercool texture for your model. |   |
| So, how do we unwrap these huge mess of UVs? Well, it's a bit of a tedious process, depending on the complexity of your model. Mine's kinda complex, so it'll take me a bit. :P So, let's concentrate on the torso. First, we'll turn on Backface Culling (Display > Custom Polygon Display > Options). This prevents you from selecting polygon components on both sides of the model. After doing so, in the front view, select the faces that make up the front torso area (Figure 3). |  |
| In the front view, go to Edit Polygons > Texturing > Plannar Mapping > Options. In the options, reset the settings and turn on the Camera setting next to Mapping Direction. This causes the plannar map to project straight on to the model from the camera's perspective. (Figure 4) |  |
| With the plannar map still selected, open the UV Texture Editor. You should see the faces you had selected displayed (Figure 5). Move these to the side. |  |
| Now, you're going to want to untangle these UVs. If we take a close look at the shoulderpad area of the my model, you can see the crossing of the UVs (Figure 6). Move the UVs around to flatten them all out smoothly (Figure 7). |   |
| Continue with the rest of the model (Figure 8... and I'm not even done yet!!!). |  |
| Once you have the entire body nice and untangled, I'll select, for example, one of my character's guns, and in the UV Texture Editor window, go to Polygons > Layout UVs. In the settings, you have different options regarding just how the faces are layed out, but this function will position the faces into the upper right section of the UV Tex Editor grid.(Figure 9) In this location, you will be able to get a snapshot of the UVs. |  |
| Now, go to Polygons > UV Snapshot. A window will open (Figure 10) that will allow you to specify a size, location, color, and file type to save an image of your UV layout. I should point out that I believe this is a Maya 4 option. Once the settings are as you wish, click OK. An image will now be saved to your specified location. Open this image in Photoshop.(Figure 11) NOTE: This tutorial will use Photoshop to create the texture for the model. If Photoshop is unavailable to you, please substitute with the paint program of your choice. |   |
| This image can now be used as a guide to create your texture maps. For Maya, textures generally are best as Targa files (.tga), 32-bit, and make sure you have an Alpha Channel. While the Alpha Channel isn't necessarily required (depending on your situation), in order to see the texture on the model in Maya's viewscreen, the image must have an Alpha Channel associated with it. Remember that wherever the alpha is black, the image will not show, where it is white, it will. After working with your UV Snapshot images in your paint program, simply map the files to their coresponding attribute of your model's materials (Figure 12). |  |
| Once mapped and applied, you are then free to use the UV Texture Editor to manipulate the UVs further to fine tune the texture's placement on the model.(Figure 13) |  |
| Good luck! |
I hope this tutorial has helped you! Any errors, suggesions, comments are welcome. Please contact me!