Incredibly basic texturing
 

All right, I'm not going to lie. I'm an utter novice when it comes to maya. I'm just beginning to expand beyond anim8or, and I'm utterly clueless. I have textures that I've made, and I need to apply them in Maya so that I can preserve them upon export. so, my issue is this:
How in the name of all that's holy do I load the texture and apply it? I've cycled through a million menus and none of them allow me to load anything. Please make the steps as explicit as possible... I grew up on the simplicity of anim8or...

I apologize for my n00bishness... please help?
Sincerely,
The Embodiment of Newbies.

oki -
1) open hypershade. -> window -> rendering editor -> hypershade

2) on the right side in hypershade under "create nodes" press any shader - a lambert will do it.

3) now doubleclick the lambert shader so the attribute editor is opening.

4) in attr editor clock on the checkerbox beside "color" in the first row. choose file from the "Create Render Node" window. attribute editor is active again -> click the folder icon next to the "Image Name"

5) well done -> you set up your shader

6) MMB drag and drop your lambert shader from hypershade onto the object in viewport or activate your geometry in viewport and rightclick lambertShader until context menu opens - choose "Assign Material to Selection"


press "6" to see your texture in viewport


have fun!