Spatially accurate bump maps

# 1 16-07-2010 , 04:02 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009

Location: Toronto, Canada

Posts: 10

Hi,

This is my first post re my first Maya project, so please forgive any forum faux pas I may commit.

Below is a screen cap that will help illustrate my question.

I want to create a bump map for the engine of the pod racer. The bump map will show rivets, panels, dings etc.

The engine is a NURB that has been textured with a number of layered textures incorporating various ramps and procedural textures.

I converted the NURB engine to a polygon in order to export some kind of visual reference to photoshop to enable me to create the bump map.

I tried to create a UV map, but I am unable to create a meaningful UV map to export to photoshop. I have tried a variety of options that either result in a complete mess or a square grid that gives me no clue as to which part of the engine correlates to which part of the UV grid.

QUESTION 1: What is the best way to create a spatially accurate bump map for this object?

I notice that the colour map is showing up in the UV Texture Editor.

QUESTION 2: Is there anyway to export the colour map that shows up in the UV Texture Editor?

I am using Maya 8.5 and PS CS4.

Cheers

Attached Thumbnails

Click image for larger version

Name: mayapodracerforsimplymaya.jpg
Views: 266
Size: 119.0 KB
ID: 44497

Quote

# 2 16-07-2010 , 04:41 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2007

Location: TN (USA)

Posts: 1,889

I'm waiting for a friend to show up so only have a sec to post.

1. Use the 3d paint tool to mark areas of your object. Then take the bitmap into photoshop to use as a reference.

opps gotta go..

Don't be satisfied with what you can do but rather strive to do the things you can't do!
Exceed Expectations!

Quote

# 3 16-07-2010 , 06:08 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

The pod racer the first thing I did in maya, as you can see you have create a uv texture as you have it in the uv editor, I think you created it when you used the paint tool you were asked to create a texture first to paint on this then grabbed all the ramps and stuff and turn it into a texture, Now if you look in the uv editor there should be the word "texture"click on that should give you the name that it was saved as, should be in the pod directory.......dave

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

Quote

# 4 16-07-2010 , 09:29 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009

Location: Toronto, Canada

Posts: 10

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the rapid response(s).

Perfecto, your idea sounds good, but I still don't know how to export the colour map that appears in the UV texture editor. I can export the UV map with no colour i.e. just the grid.

daverave, yeah, this project if from the Digital Tutors intro to Maya. It's not bad, but somethings are done without much explanation as to how to do them.
I haven't used the paint tool (consciously, anyway). In the UV Texture Editor I looked under Textures and there are a list of items. The checked item reads

nurbstopoly1 / blinn8sg

I thought this was a reference to the object being displayed in the UV editor and the material applied to it. Is there also a saved 2d texture file somewhere? I had a quick look in my project files and couldn't find anything.

Cheers

Tom

Quote

# 5 16-07-2010 , 09:48 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

Sorry Tom Knowles
I thought you had gone that far, now go to rendering in the drop down box in the top left hand corner, then go to texturing, click on the box to the right of the 3d paint tool scroll down to save texture(could be assign), save to were you know were with a good size say 1024 or larger. Pick up in photoshop and adjust, from there just ask again........dave
Edit:you should also get a uv snap shot at the same size as the texture so you know were the bundries are

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

Last edited by daverave; 16-07-2010 at 10:07 PM.

Quote