modeling a keyboard

# 1 13-07-2008 , 02:41 PM

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i want to model akeyboard. isn't they any kind of template which will make it easy for me to model the keyboard or i have to do it from scratch.it looks tedious doing all the keys and labelling them

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# 2 13-07-2008 , 03:01 PM

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You're asking if theres a template that will make modelling a keyboard easy? Yeah, I've never heard of such a thing, if you can't google up a freebie model or something, I guess you're going to have to *gasp* model it scratch :p

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# 3 13-07-2008 , 05:06 PM

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i think i realised i was being lazy, i have managed to model the rough sketch, i have attached it u can comment it 4 me. now my big Qn is how can i get to label my kepads.:headbang:

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# 4 13-07-2008 , 06:27 PM

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take a piccy of a keyboard and planar texture where the keys are going to be, should be able to project the textre on to your model fairly simply.

Chris

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# 5 13-07-2008 , 06:34 PM

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can i do that in maya or i have to use photoshop

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# 6 13-07-2008 , 07:46 PM

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can i do that with maya or i need photoshop?

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# 7 13-07-2008 , 08:07 PM

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You can do most of it in Maya but you'll have to use SOME drawing program (for a keyboard, I think even paint will work) to draw the texture.
If you're going to model more then just a keyboard than you should get Photoshop if you don't have it by now.
Plus, I'd suggest you get a texturing tutorial.
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# 8 14-07-2008 , 11:49 AM

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i agree with Benny

texture mapping will save your life
you can make textures in Maya, but like everyone says you should paint a texture (the are just images like jpg, tiff, etc), esp if you dont want to model the letters on the keyboard (afaik Maya doesnt come with a text->pokygon thing like swift3D)

you dont particularly need photoshop, it just so happens that photoshop is the artist's choice over Corel Paintshop Pro, and MS Paint
heck, you could learn the image format and write a program in java or C# to draw you a picture (of course you gotta be pretty damn good at picturing things without knowing what youre doing)

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# 9 14-07-2008 , 03:44 PM

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Originally posted by Chirone

heck, you could learn the image format and write a program in java or C# to draw you a picture (of course you gotta be pretty damn good at picturing things without knowing what youre doing)

Originally Posted by

Lol, you're a programmer Chirone?
Actually, It doesn't have anything to do with C# or Java... It can be any programming language that can deal with images, which is just about any programming language (with the right refs).
I think building such a program won't even be that hard, If you use the UV snapshot user added image

.
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When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

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# 10 14-07-2008 , 03:55 PM

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Originally posted by BennyK
Lol, you're a programmer Chirone?
Actually, It doesn't have anything to do with C# or Java... It can be any programming language that can deal with images, which is just about any programming language (with the right refs).
I think building such a program won't even be that hard, If you use the UV snapshot .
Benny

Originally Posted by

aye, i was just using those as examples.
i imagine it would be a painful process though, if you dont have a painting suite then its probably less painful to stick with MS Paint

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# 11 14-07-2008 , 04:08 PM

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I have MS paint and i am stuck. i have opened my Paint to edit my keybaord in Paint but then i don't know how to draw & Label my keyboard user added image

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# 12 14-07-2008 , 04:19 PM

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what you need to do is to create UVs for your keyboard, edit them, get a UV snapshot, take it into Paint, Label the buttons,delete the borders and apply the image as a texture.
As I said - get a texturing tutorial...(check Maya's help or buy one here)
Benny

When in doubt, delete history and freeze transformations.

My latest snake game
(Requires DirectX9 SDK and Framework)

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# 13 14-07-2008 , 04:22 PM

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there's a free video texture tutorial on simply maya that covers the basic of UV snapshots

but if you dont want to download then look in the Maya tutorial help files like BennyK suggested

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modeling a keyboard

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