Mapping textures to objects?
 

How does one take a 3D model in Maya and make that cool exploded 2D rendering of it so that a texture map can be made? Then my followup question is how hard is it (once the texture map has been made) to put it all back together properly?

You do not actually "explode" the model in order to UV map it. You use the UV Map tools to "project" the UV coordinates across a virtual 2D plane in the UV Texture Editor.

It's tedious with complex, organic objects, but there is no blowing up or putting back together objects.

Hmmm, I thought I saw somewhere (may not have been on simplymaya - or even Maya product for that matter), someone having a layout of a model on a 2D plane of some sort and I thought that the application did that for them. They were then able to attach materials or decals to the model easily. Wasn't even sure if Maya was the product.

Maybe what you saw is automatic warp in Maya

You will have some sort of flatten model in UV space for your model, then you can do move and sew thing to make a better uv map.

As soon as you got your uv layout properly you can do decal texture based on this information.

:)

There's a great UV mapping tutorial by Craig Daughtry in the VIP section of this site. I highly recommend it.

OK, I'll take a look at the tutorial. Thanks!