Dragon Project - Page 3 - Simply Maya User Community

# 31 15-06-2008 , 05:37 AM

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Ok first off I think you moved to texturing too quickly, i understand that being new to Maya you want to get something complete as quickly as possible but creating a complex object simply doesn't work like that even for the pro's.
You should have taken more time to get your model fleshed out which in some case requires hours of tweeking points.
In my opinion you need to redo the Uv mapping of your creature because you have a lot of texture stretching due to poorly layed out UV's or in some cases here i think not layed out at all.
Don't try to UV the creature as a whole object as it simply will not be possible with something this complex.
Except that you will have joins where textures meet so try to split your model up texturing wise so the joins will be in hidden or less obvious places.
I suggest that you UV the wings as one object, the head as another , the legs seperately and finally the body.
Tips

UV's need to be layed out flat with no overlapping in the 0 - 1 texture area of the UV editor.

Think of the object as origami paper with your edges the folds and you are trying to lay it out flat.

Cut your UV's where YOU want the texture joins and don't be afraid to cut , move and sew when needed.

hope this helps a little regards J.S.

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# 32 15-06-2008 , 06:31 AM

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You need to split the model up.
select the edges at the top of the legs then go down on the correct edge that will allow you to follow around all the toes and come back upto the top of the leg. You will need to do this for each of them. Go around the edges at the base of the neck then go upto the top of the head around the mouth and back down to the base of the kneck. Use this method on the wings, tale and body and then use Roadkill to unwrap it.

If this make no sense if you could let me know of some video capture software and send me the low res I could knock up a video showing what I mean or I could simply do a series of screen grabs showing how I would go about it.

Hope this helps and good luck.

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# 33 15-06-2008 , 06:43 AM

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yeah i have moved to quickly i havent even watched a tutorial yet and started doing without it lol my bad, my friend is getting me a few of MAYA DVD's from the UK so i can't wait at the moment im just trying my self here, Sorry for the bad texturing thu.

and yeah your right as a whole its very confusing

anyways i get what your saying, but i have few questions.

how do i cut objects to working with like the head or the wings, do i cut them as the model or in the UV editor?

and should i texture when the model is half cut or full?

and how do i cut UV's? do i use the CUT UV Edge? i used it but it doesnt cut? any reason y or im just doing it wrong?

but for now im ganna go and tweek my model

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# 34 15-06-2008 , 07:00 AM

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You don't have to cut your model, vertices and UV'S are not the same thing,UV's are co-ordinates so maya can know where in space to place your textures.

Easy way to cut is to select only the faces that you want to UV and map those, this automatically cut those UV's from the rest.A collection od UV's that are joined are called a shell, so to move them around in the UV editors select a UV and click on select shell and that will select everything in that bunch of UV's.
If you want you can select edges either on the model or in the UV texture editors and click on cut UV's to seperate them.they still might look joined because they are still on top of one another but if you move the shell you will see they are indeed cut.
With this knowledge you can guess that there is no right or wrong way to tackle this, you could in fact UV map the entire model in one projection and then spend hours in the UV texture editor cutting and sewing and tweeking until you get what you want. A better alternative however is to map what you want in the first place and spend less time cutting and tweeking because the UV's will be roughly layed out how you wanted, of course you will still have make sure no UV'S overlap with each other so tweeking points is inevitable.

Once you have your UV's mapped and layed out exactly how you want them in the 0-1 space, you can save a UV snapshot in the UV editor (a pic of the UV layout) and then take that snapshot into the 2D image app like Photoshop or simular and create textures to match your UV's .The last step is to use your 2D textures on a material in Maya to create a shader for your model.

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Last edited by jsprogg; 15-06-2008 at 07:05 AM.

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# 35 15-06-2008 , 07:03 AM

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You select along the edges of each area and when you use Roadkill these area will then be uvmapped seperately.

You cannot simply open a file open roadkill and then hit unwrap since it needs to turn the model into a 2d image.
I will attach an example of what I mean.
This is a head without selcting any edges for roadkil to use to layout the file

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# 36 15-06-2008 , 07:05 AM

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Now I select these edges on the head and inside the mouth so roadkill can create a decent uv map.

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# 37 15-06-2008 , 07:08 AM

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Then I hit unwrap with uslm and dont fill holes ticked and here is the result.

If this was a full bodied male I would select the edges at the base of the kneck so the body would be seperated and move onto using this method for the arms, body, legs, hands and feet.

Hope this helps explain what you need to do.

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# 38 15-06-2008 , 07:16 AM

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ok leonlabyk i dont know if this is right but check this out, ( pic)

i selected from the head to the tail then i selected both legs all the way to the toes and i selected the wing and i got this, is it right?

jsprogg said cutting them into parts but im trying to cut them but i dont know why isnt it cutting????

do i cut it in roadkill or maya it self?

kinda confused
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im close to wat you guyz are saying but i dont know why it isnt cutting?

here is a few pic of wats going on

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# 39 15-06-2008 , 07:17 AM

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the head isnt getting cut in UV mode y??

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# 40 15-06-2008 , 07:30 AM

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I have drawn out rougly the where the edges are you need to select in order to get roadkill to create your uv map.

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# 41 15-06-2008 , 07:56 AM

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ok i guess jsprogg was right i need to tweek my model cuz i just relized Many parts that i was blind and i didnt see, vertices's starting going zigzag user added image

, im ganna work on fixing my model

Then im going to to use the roadKill, so leonlabyk thanks for showing me how the edges flow should go but my model is a mess, i can;t get a full circle :angery: .. but dont worry i'll fix it right away and post the UV's right away

So THANK YOU SO MUCH jsprogg and leonlabyk

Cheers and i'll be right back with the UV's

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# 42 15-06-2008 , 09:34 AM

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ive worked on the tweeking and i hope it alright now.

so how is this layout of UV's? does it look right?

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# 43 15-06-2008 , 02:01 PM

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I would say the model definitely looks much better now, though the ankles seem too thin and there isn't enough definition in the chest and shoulder area. You can check out images of dinosaurs (any animal for that matter) and their anatomical makeup gives you an idea of how that animal adapted and how it functions and so, in a way their body tells a story, even fantasy creatures. You can take that into consideration when painting your textures also.

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# 44 15-06-2008 , 09:41 PM

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thanks for the comment, and yeah your right my ankle is thin i'll increase it, and i'll define the chest part, and for images i have looked for many of them already, well talking about the texture part im really bad at it so im working my ass to learning it, but it just seem 2 confusing, so im hoping my texture CD would arrive soon :attn: ..

but anyways here is the dragon which i was following some of his parts

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