Complex UV Layout in Maya
Over the last couple of years UV layout in Maya has changed for the better. In this course we're going to be taking a look at some of those changes as we UV map an entire character
# 16 24-10-2010 , 05:58 PM
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Originally posted by Chirone
you're dog has diabetes? how'd that happen?

good work with the slide

how'd you make the holes in that railing panel thing?

She's an 11 year old black lab, could be from lack of exercise, to bad diet, to just old age.

Thanks the slide was a pain right in the ass!! I won't admit to how much time I spent on it hahahh

The holes were just made with creating the edgeloops necessary and then deleting the faces, then I duplicated it for both sides. I also only did the top and then mirrored the geometry to the bottom.

Originally posted by daverave
That is good work with the slide, its a pitty the revolve tool does not have a offset as that would work..............dave

Yeah that would have made the task so much easier if there was something like that. You'd think there'd be and an easier was to model something like this. It would be a pain for one of those large 20 story tall slides they have at water parks. Good thing this was tiny! haha

# 17 24-10-2010 , 06:17 PM
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here is another angle of the slide, a front on view of it

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I'm looking at my model so far and you know what scares the bejeezus out of me? UV'ing all of it!! I don't know how I'm going to do this at all!! Doing it is probably going to feel like I played with the Hellraiser Box and am stuck in an eternity of torture by cenobites in hell, hahha.


Chirone, here is a close up wireframe of the part I believe you're talking about.
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Looking at it up close makes me realize I can delete some of the loops because they're not needed to maintain the shape. So thanks for asking about that or else I wouldn't have spotted it.


Last edited by Rhetoric Camel; 24-10-2010 at 09:30 PM.
# 18 25-10-2010 , 12:35 AM
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Little bit more done to the park. I think I'm done for the night though.

Reference:
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Render:
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Wireframe:
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# 19 25-10-2010 , 11:46 PM
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Some more time spent on this playground. I think this is all I'm doing for the night.
Added the chain link ladder climbing thingy
Monkey Bars
Platform and double slide which is still being worked on.
Just about done, just have to put the finishing touches on the end here where the double slide is and the playground is done!!

With all of the playground so far, including the bleachers, sandbox, and merry go round:
Verts: 50387
Edges: 100277
Faces: 50308
Tris: 99042
UVs: 72018

Render:
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Wireframe:
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Render:
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Wireframe:
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Yeah UV'ing is scary looking. Too bad there isn't a button I could use to uv it easier.

# 20 26-10-2010 , 02:32 PM
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I have to say I'm pretty impressed with how this is turning out man, great job user added image

UV'ing isn't to bad, just tedious and time consuming, when I first tried it I was scared, but now it's kind of a relief, like a little break from modeling :p

Plus the end result will be totally worth it user added image

# 21 26-10-2010 , 09:54 PM
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Thank you very much acid I appreciate the comment. I actually stepped away from it last night and looked at it just a couple minutes ago and I've impressed myself with this model. I had a ton of measurements that I used to get the proportions right but some of it went off a bit but it's all pretty damn close! haha

I've done uving before, but it's always been a person, or smaller object without so many parts to it, which is pretty easy I think, atleast laying out the uv's. There is just soooo many parts to this it's a bit daunting. My original plan was to lay out uv's as I went along but I got so into the modeling that I never did, and I'm kind of regretting it now hahah.




Questions, comments, crits, suggestions are all welcome!

# 22 14-11-2010 , 11:47 PM
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Here's hoping. Is there any way to select an object and make all normals face in the same direction? I have a few object in this scene with a couple parts of the geometry normals facing the wrong way, and it's going to be a major pain trying to find these specific normals in the geometry and flip them. So I'm hoping for an easy fix. Not expecting, just hoping. Any help would be great, using Maya 2009.

# 23 15-11-2010 , 12:10 AM
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Loving the models so far Mike, and hopefully this'll help your normals problem...

Select all the faces on the object, then select conform from the normals menu. Should set them all in the same direction.

The shortcut is shift, rmb, normals, conform.

Hope that sorts it for you mate!

# 24 15-11-2010 , 12:52 AM
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Thanks Dango glad you like the model so far.
Your suggestion doesn't seem to be doing anything unfortunately. I went to Display>Polygons>Face Normals when I have an object selected. Select all faces of the object tried the shortcut you showed and also tried Normals>Conform and it didn't change my normals.


Edit: It turns out the couple objects were entirely reversed so I just had to reverse the whole objects normals and that seemed to do it. I was under smooth preview (3) and all the normals it was showing was overwhelming. I went down to normal view (1) and it was much easier to identify the problem. Thanks for your help though Dango. I probably wouldn't have noticed this.


Last edited by Rhetoric Camel; 15-11-2010 at 12:54 AM.
# 25 15-11-2010 , 01:42 AM
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Alright I'm pretty sure I'm done modeling the playground area, I have a few picnic tables to model, probably model just one and duplicate it since they're the same picnic tables.
Then once that is done I will begin laying out UV's. I'll probably have everything laid out together according to color, since the whole playground is just red, blue, and yellow. Might have to separate the metals from the plastics so it will be easier to create the bumps of the plastics. Not sure yet

Anyway here are a few renders so far with the basic settings of maya physical sun and sky lighting. Camera is at about the height of 5ft or so.

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# 26 17-11-2010 , 11:30 PM
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looks pretty cool from this distance

you should put a ground plane in there. it looks so weird seeing floating playground items




that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

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# 27 17-11-2010 , 11:58 PM
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I have a ground plane, just forgot to unhide it for the renders, and didn't feel like rerendering all the pictures again.
Thanks for the comment. The final scene probably wont get much closer than these renders. Although I probably wont know exactly until I get to the animation part of it all.

I have all next week off from work so I'll probably get a bit more done, texturing and possibly start modeling me and/or my dog. Always have issues with people drawing or modeling I just can't get it to look as good as I picture, so here's hoping!

# 28 18-11-2010 , 12:11 AM
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you going for an accurate representation of the park? or you going to change it slightly? maybe like slum it up or make it look super new or something




that's a "Ch" pronounced as a "K"

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# 29 18-11-2010 , 11:13 PM
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I was planning on going for a semi accurate representation. Definitely don't want to slum it up, maybe a bit dirty but not slummy. I don't want to go into super fine details but I don't want it to look too cartoonish or childish either. It's hard to describe the way I'm seeing it in my head.

# 30 03-12-2010 , 08:11 PM
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wanted to just make an update so I could have a thumbnail preview on the main page. Still working on UV's. Shouldn't be too hard since it's just a lot of cylinders and cubes, but I'm sure it'll be highly time consuming. Not sure how to tackle the twisty slide UV's though, maybe auto mapping?

edit: moved image to first post


Last edited by Rhetoric Camel; 03-12-2010 at 10:02 PM.
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