UV Texture... ?? Snapshot problem.
 

Hi,
I'm having problems understanding what's going on when Maya does a "Snapshot" .....

Ok I understand it up to the snapshot - but then - I select Faces (The only one I can?) But then when I open in :- Maya Texture ed/P/Shop - the "Square/Rect/Whatever" comes out a different shape? a LOT thinner !!! how am i supposed to paint it?


I must be missing something here....?

(See picture)

Now how the 'heck' am I supposed to make a decent (Squarish) Image from that?


I realize i'm doing something dumb, cos Maya ain't that stupid...

I tried 'Planar' and 'Auto' Mapping - none worked any better ?

Extremely confuzed Dogg :(


Regards Scraggy

VERY SORRY
 

Sorry - was too late..

You have to UV map the model, then take a UV snapshot.

Cheers :D but ....
 

Thanks Mike and Merry Christmas,

I have no idea about 'mapping' it which seems wierd so - on SMaya, -

Would that - other tutorial be of use? the one with the Head?

i.e. Would it show me how to "UV MAP" or is there another more suitable for me?

I have some VIP points left :D

Regards Scraggy

The idea behind mapping is to map out a series of 3d co-ordinates into a flat 2d picture. Imagine you have a cube if you flatten that into a 2d pic it would be 6 sided and look like a cross. That is essentially what you need to do here. And it's achieved by using different projections or mappings on the object. In your case I would selec all of the faces that face the same way as the one you have highlighted and then click polygons>>texture>>planar map (make sure you have fit to best plane checked on in the options box) and then look at your UV texture editor and you should see all of the faces you selected appearing in the texture window. Move them outta the way and carry on with the rest of the faces (Using automatic mapping can be helpful here as well) you then need to tweak and move and sew the UVs together to form the final map. Try to think where your seams are going to be (where two parts of the texture meet and may not quite look right).

UV mapping is an art and everyone has their own style and way of doing it, it really does just take practice (Although the CG sup I sit next to at work was telling me how he does it yesterday and it sounded interesting...)

:)

Alan

Shape change after mapping
 

Thanks, yes I have been trying to get this "learnt" for a while now, but still struggling. So in an attempt to simplyfy matters I thought I would just select the one face - Shown in above picture - But when I look at the same face (after mapping) it is a thin upright bar (see pic) in Texture editor ?- Why is it the wrong shape ? ?? That is the part that confuses me.
If I remember rightly I used Planar and Automatic mapping - but results were same. Do I have to "tweak" it back to match the shape on the right?

:D
 

Thanks, guys :)
I am finally getting there - I had not seen the "Planar"/"Auto" - Options - so I think, I may have been using wrong camera angle. - or it was because "Assign Shader to each proj" was on... still not sure what that does yet but I understand mapping now.

Regards Scraggy

Scraggy when you do the UV snapshot you can select resolution.
You should see something like 1024x1024 which I think is a pretty good starting point. Can always downsize the texture later.

Also remember that all your UVs for the model must be placed within the top-right quadrant in the UV editor.

I found DannysUVTools v2.0 to be helpful as well. Downloadable from his website.